Deborah Mailman becomes first Indigenous inductee to Logies Hall of Fame

Deborah Mailman to become first Indigenous person inducted into Logie Awards Hall of Fame Deborah Mailman is set to become the first Indigenous person to be inducted into the Logie Awards Hall of Fame. "This means everything," Mailman, a Bidjara and Maori actor, tells ABC Radio National's Awaye! "For me and for our mob, this isn't just recognition for me. "It's recognition for everyone who's gone before me, who changed things for someone like me to be doing the work that I'm doing." On Sunday Mailman will become the sixth woman to join the list in just over 40 years, following recent inductees Rebecca Gibney (2024) and Magda Szubanski (2025). "Times are changing, thankfully, but it's 2026," Mailman says. "To be the first [Indigenous person] — it's long overdue. Not just for me, but for anyone in this industry." Mailman sees the milestone as a reflection of how Australian TV has changed in the last 10 to 20 years. "Where the most exciting storytelling is coming from is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sector," she says. "It's just getting stronger and stronger … look at the skill that's there, that has been nurtured over a long time, to get to the point where we have so many of our mob doing incredible work." Mailman picked up her most recent Logie in 2024, taking out best lead actress in a drama for playing renegade politician Alex Irving in ABC TV's Total Control. It was her sixth, following industry and publicly voted wins for shows including Mabo, Redfern Now and Mystery Road. Speaking to ABC Arts at the Logies that year, she described how it felt to win the award for the show's final season in the year of the failed Voice to Parliament referendum. "Over the four or so years [of making Total Control], we had a new prime minister, throw a pandemic in the middle of it, and then the country voted no," she said. "To be part of this production that kept us [Indigenous peoples] in that focus, that kept our narrative strong, that meant everything to me. That meant everything to all of us who are part of it." A foot in the door Mailman's first Logie came in 2002 for her first small-screen role as the optimistic and generous Kelly Lewis in share house drama The Secret Life of Us, an award she won again in 2004. She started her acting career on the stage, which saw her co-write and star in the seminal play The 7 Stages of Grieving in 1994, before she played Nona in director Rachel Perkins's film Radiance in 1998, landing her an AFI Award (now AACTA) for best lead actress. Three years later she scored her breakthrough TV gig with The Secret Life of Us. Mailman looks back fondly at making the show, which catapulted its cast, including Gold Logie winner Samuel Johnson and 2026 Logie nominee Claudia Karvan, into the mainstream. "That experience really gave me my training in front of a camera," Mailman says. "It introduced me to the art of filmmaking." She especially loved how relatable the storylines felt, not just to her and the rest of the cast, but to the audience. "It was such a big new adventure for me and I just loved every moment of it," Mailman says. There, at that apartment building in St Kilda, Mailman met lifelong friends and collaborators. "It was my first real foot into the [screen] industry," she says. "To be supported in the way that I have been, right from the get-go, has been really important." Telling First Nations stories After The Secret Life of Us, Mailman featured as Lorraine in Redfern Now (earning another Logie), as a guest star of sketch series Black Comedy, and in movies including the musicals Bran Nue Dae and The Sapphires. More recently she's played Kerry in Mystery Road, Aunty Linda in Indigenous superhero series Cleverman, and a nun in Warwick Thornton's award-winning The New Boy. Roles like these are just a handful of the Indigenous-led projects Mailman has taken on throughout her career. "That's where a lot of my work has gravitated towards: working with my own mob and telling stories that matter to me and my family and many communities around the country," she says. She sees it as a kind of correction after First Nations stories were excluded from Australian screens for many years. "Our voices weren't there," Mailman says. "Now to be part of that canon of storytelling that shows the breadth and diversity and dynamic of who we are as people and our culture and what our stories are means everything to me." Mailman is proud to follow in the footsteps of other Indigenous trailblazers on both screen and stage, including Justine Saunders (The Fringe Dwellers), Kylie Belling (Until the End of the World) and National Black Theatre founders Bob Maza and Gary Foley. "They were instrumental in providing opportunities that are there for me now," she says. Mailman also admires other Indigenous community leaders and activists who are not from the performing arts world. "They're the people I have to thank because they fought the hard fight," she says. Mailman feels privileged to potentially inspire the next generation of First Nations actors and creatives, alongside her peers and collaborators Perkins and Leah Purcell (The Drover's Wife). "A whole bunch of us grew up professionally together," Mailman says. "I'm part of that community and I'm proud of that. "I'm really proud I'm still doing what I'm doing and that I've been part of this group of artists who've led by example." Celebrating Blak excellence Mailman joins the Logies Hall of Fame in a year dominated by Indigenous stories and storytellers. Half of the nominees for most popular new talent are First Nations actors: 10-year-old Eloise Hart (Mystery Road: Origin, Goolagong), Lila McGuire (Goolagong) and Tamala (Ghosts Australia). The same is true for best lead actor in a drama, with Hunter Page-Lochard (Reckless), Mark Coles Smith (Mystery Road: Origin), and Rob Collins (RFDS); and best supporting actor, with Clarence Ryan (Mystery Road: Origin) against Thomas Weatherall, nominated twice (Heartbreak High; The Narrow Road to the Deep North). Meanwhile, Goolagong is up for best miniseries, Mystery Road: Origin for best drama program, and Miranda Tapsell's Top End Bub for best scripted comedy. For Mailman, being recognised in the same year as so many Indigenous nominees makes being inducted into the Hall of Fame this year even more special. "That speaks volumes to me," she says. "It's so exciting to have that many of our actors be acknowledged in this way, which demonstrates absolutely their excellence in their craft." It also means being inducted in front of close friends such as Collins. "There's going to be mob in the room!" Mailman says. "It's going to be a real joy to have that energy, to know that everyone else is being celebrated along with me. "It's just a big warm hug." [Image text:] THEICONIC GOT YOU LOOKING NSW GOVERNMENT feel new sydne TY LOGIE AWARDS WEEK LOGIE AWARDS TV WEEK KIIS THEICO GOTYOULOG feel newsydney