Jimmy Little AO (1937–2012), singer, actor and advocate, was a Yorta Yorta man raised at the Cummerangunja Mission near the Murray River, New South Wales. Australia's first Aboriginal pop star, Little made his recording debut in 1956. After a national number one hit, 'Royal Telephone', which sold over 75,000 copies, he became a household name and was named Pop Star of the Year in 1964. His profile continued to grow through TV appearances, radio airplay and regular tours around Australia. In the 1980s, Little began working at the Eora Centre in Redfern, becoming a role model and mentor for Indigenous youth. In a characteristically low-key resurgence, he won an ARIA Award for Best Adult Contemporary Album in 1999 for Messenger. The same year, he was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and was named Best Male Artist at the Deadly Awards. He founded the Jimmy Little Foundation in 2006 to improve renal health in Indigenous communities. Little won a Golden Guitar award at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in 2011.
From 2004 to 2005, the National Portrait Gallery held an exhibition of photographer John Elliott's work, Thousand Mile Stare. As Elliott noted of this photograph of Little: 'He was sort of strumming his guitar, looking off into the distance there, lost in a moment. That's the shot we used and it's a beautiful one.'
Gift of the artist 2005
© John Elliott
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