Bettie Fisher

Bettie Fisher (1939? – 1976) was an Aboriginal singer, theatre administrator and activist.

She was described by Bob Maza, a theatre director which whom she worked closely (so, therefore, his description of her is likely to be accurate), as ‘a loudmouthed woman, rough, arrogant, independent of men and has this animosity for whites.

But she needs support rather than attack. She's got a raw sort of courage. You've got to give her her due: she's a real boots-and-all campaigner'.

Bettie (sometimes spelt Betty) was born either in Berry or at the Roseby Park Aboriginal Mission at Greenwell Point around 1939. In the mid-1940s her family moved to Newcastle where she attended Cardiff Public School – until she was expelled at age 12.

She became a jazz and blues singer, joining Jimmy Little and his younger brother, Freddy Little, in the first all-Black show to do the club rounds in NSW and Queensland. In December 1962 she appeared on Brian Henderson’s ‘Bandstand’ singing two jazz standards, ‘Up a Lazy River’ and ‘Basin Street Blues’. She was also a guest on Graeme Bell’s ‘Trad Jazz’ program at about the same time.

In 1974 Bettie became the administrator of a newly-established Black Theatre Arts and Cultural Centre in Redfern, Sydney. This centre ran drama classes and held workshops for inner-city Aboriginals in modern dancing, tribal dancing, writing for theatre, fashion design and modelling, karate and photography. It also became an informal meeting place for Redfern Aboriginals who previously had few places to gather apart from local hotels where they often encountered prejudice from Whites and aggression from police.

Roberta Flack and the British-Ghanian-Carribean Afro rock band Osibisa were among a number of Black artists invited by Bettie to perform at the centre.

Bettie was passionately committed to Black rights.

In 1971 she became a member of the executive committee of the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs which had been established to provide assistance to Aboriginal people living in Sydney.

She also negotiated with the NSW Department of Education to introduce ‘Aboriginality’ to schools, hoping Aboriginal performers and painters would visit schools to demonstrate the richness of their culture.

In April 1976 she also took part in the opening of the ‘Aboriginal Embassy’ in Canberra.

Bettie Fisher died a month later in Sydney.