Deborah Cheetham Fraillon
Deborah Joy Cheetham Fraillon , is an Aboriginal Australian soprano, actor, composer and playwright. In February 2023, she was appointed a professor at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Early life and education Cheetham is a member of the Stolen Generations; she was taken from her mother when she was three weeks old and was raised by a white baptist family. Jimmy Little was her uncle. She attended Penshurst Girls High School (now Georges River College (Penshurst Girls Campus) Cheetham graduated from the NSW Conservatorium of Music with a Bachelor of Music Education Degree. Career In 1997, Cheetham wrote the autobiographical play White Baptist Abba Fan which tells of her experiences of coming to terms with her homosexuality and racial identity while trying to reunite with her Aboriginal family. White Baptist Abba Fan has toured internationally. As a soprano, Cheetham has performed in France, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. She sang at the opening ceremonies of the 2000 Summer Olympics and the 2003 Rugby World Cup. In October 2010, Cheetham's opera Pecan Summer, based on the 1939 Cummeragunja walk-off, opened in Mooroopna, Victoria. She wrote, composed and performed in the production by the Short Black Opera Company. Cheetham