Actor Jimi Bani is deep into preparation for two very serious roles. One is the role of a lifetime. The other he has been preparing for his whole life. He is rehearsing for the role of Othello in Queensland Theatre’s upcoming production and he is in talks with his uncles as part of a years-long process to become the ninth chief of the Wagadagam tribe, on Mabuiag Island in the Torres Strait.
“My father was the eighth chief and his father was the seventh,” the 40-year-old actor says. “It is passed from eldest son to eldest son and so I will eventually pass it to my son Dmitri. That’s the cultural bloodline responsibility that we have in our family.”
Bani is a true leading man, an authority figure in his community with an Australia-wide profile built on two decades of work in film, television and theatre. Othello brings those two worlds together: in this production, co-adapted by director Jason Klarwein and Bani, Shakespeare’s Moorish military commander is reimagined as a Torres Strait Islander man serving in the Australian army in 1942, when the Japanese bombed Horn Island and were approaching Kokoda.
“We’ve set it in a time where there is a lot of racial politics and gender politics on top of all the things that were happening in the war,” Bani says. “Everything in the play felt so connected to what was happening on the islands. It blew my mind.”
Performed in Torres Strait languages Kala Lagaw Ya and Yumplatok (Creole), as well as Shakespeare’s English, the staging highlights the wartime service of the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion, in which more than 800 Torres Strait Islanders served. Among them were Bani’s great-grandfather, the late Ephraim Bani Sr, and Bani’s grandfather, the late Solomon Gela.
Formed in 1941, the battalion provided labour and surveillance across Australia’s northernmost tip as the threat of Japanese encroachment loomed. They later saw action in what was then Dutch New Guinea: a skirmish with a Japanese patrol that cost the life of one battalion soldier and left others wounded.
In reality, all officers and senior non-commissioned officers in the unit were white Australians. In this adaptation, Bani’s Othello has risen to the rank of captain. Three of Bani’s brothers are also in the show: Richard Bani plays Montano, while Gabriel Bani and Conwell Bani play soldiers and perform cultural songs and dances.
“Conwell and Gabriel are holders of our songs and dances,” Bani says. “They are doing their cultural responsibilities in the show. No one else can do it, but them.” Bani admits his own dancing isn’t all that: “Look, it’s alright … I just have to keep my mouth shut being the eldest. I have to trust the process and listen to the younger brothers.”
His high, melodic laugh – one that regularly punctuates this interview – rings out.
“Othello is truly a dream role,” he adds. “No gammin! This is WOW, it’s proper.”
Bani, who lives in Cairns, came to national attention playing the title role in the 2012 ABC telemovie Mabo. His stage work has ranged from roles in Belvoir productions of Peter Pan and The Sapphires, to playing George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with the State Theatre Company of South Australia.
He also brought his own life and family to the stage in My Name is Jimi in 2018, a warm and wonderfully funny evocation of life on Mabuiag Island told in stories, dance and using tiny dioramas and 8mm film footage shot by his grandfather Ephraim, a linguist who dedicated his life to keeping Kala Lagaw Ya alive.
Bani’s earliest theatrical experiences were community-based. “Sometimes we re-enacted Good Friday and the sacrifice of Christ and I would get to play one of the soldiers,” he chuckles.
Acting allowed for moments of free expression that weren’t always entirely open to a future chief. “Growing up, it was a lot of pressure, I won’t lie,” he says. “You always have eyes on you. I was a little bit of a rebel but always in the back of my mind was that people were watching my actions and that I had to become a leader.”
As a child, Bani played basketball and volleyball and found “I could be a leader there, on the court.” He left home, on Waiben (Thursday Island), when he was a teenager to pursue a career in state level basketball in Cairns. He returned when he saw a call for auditions for RAN (Remote Area Nurse), the TV series starring Susie Porter that was filmed in Torres Strait. They were looking for Torres Strait Islander actors, no experience necessary.
“I was like, oh man, I better try out,” Bani says. “I asked the coach for time off and got one of the semi-lead roles.”
With RAN under his belt, Bani auditioned for Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (Waapa). He was accepted and spent the next three years bamboozled.
“I struggled,” he admits. “I was a boy straight off the island and English was my third language. I didn’t understand half the things the other students were saying. It just wasn’t my space.”
He wanted to quit. He felt a long way from home and, as a new father in Perth with his partner, Idelia, life was hard. “I was really struggling. But the lecturers were amazing, they believed in me. They always told me, ‘You’ve got something to share, you’ve got this unique spirit. All you have to do is just graduate and you’ll be fine.’ That was the best advice. They got me ready for the industry, I could tackle anything.”
Bani’s first role, just months out of drama school, was the Aboriginal leader Jandamarra for Black Swan Theatre Company in the Perth festival. “I was like, whoah, I’m playing a big, big warrior, right from the get-go,” he says. But first he had to follow cultural protocols: he travelled to Bunuba country in the Kimberleys to meet Jandamarra’s family and ask permission to play the role.
“We went to Fitzroy Crossing and we went to all the rivers and did all the cultural consultations,” Bani says. “It was amazing coming out of drama school and finding out the spirits were saying yes, it was my responsibility to be the vessel and the tool of Jandamarra, to bring him to life and off the page. I found my purpose as an actor.”
That same year, director Wayne Blair cast him as Tybalt and the Friar in Romeo and Juliet for Sydney Theatre Company, and Wesley Enoch cast him in Yibiyung at Belvoir. Both men became mentors. “Wayne said ‘you do you, man, just bring yourself to the character’ and I’ve always done that,” Bani says.
Around this time, Idelia gave birth to twins; a girl, Laquita, and a boy, Peja. Now they were a family of five. Bani was in demand, “but I also had responsibilities as a father and to also sit with my own dad and talk culture and make sure I was in in the loop with everything”.
Laquita and Peja are nearly 15 now. “They are independent and responsible,” Bani says. “Idelia and I can focus on ourselves now and what we want to do. For the last 10 years I’ve really dedicated my time to making sure my son Dmitri, who is now 20, gets the proper knowledge and culture and he now shares that family responsibility.”
Othello is a big challenge, but Bani is up for it – and more.
“I’m in a space where I have a platform to tell stories and develop stories. I do a bit of writing. I’m attacking everything,” he says. “I said to my agent ‘Let’s do everything, everything … let’s go for it.’”
Othello is a Queensland Theatre production and runs at the Bille Brown Theatre as part of Brisbane festival from 10 September to 1 October
