EARTH MOTHER

EVEN ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S MOST ADMIRED ACTORS CAN FALL PREY TO THE JUDGMENT OF OTHERS. NONI HAZLEHURST SHARES WHY NOW, MORE THAN EVER, WE NEED TO SHOW COMPASSION TO ONE ANOTHER

THIS IS ONE OF THE GREAT THINGS ABOUT THE ARTS — THAT YOU’RE NOT ALONE

You’d be hard- pressed to find anyone that grew up on a diet of Australian TV who doesn’t recognise Noni Hazlehurst.

The actor, writer, presenter and broadcaster, based on Tamborine Mountain in the Gold Coast hinterland, appeared in popular period TV

drama The Sullivans in the ’70s, co-presented Channel 7’s lifestyle

program Better Homes and Gardens in the ’90s and early 2000s, and more recently played straight-talking matriarch Elizabeth

Bligh in Australian melodrama A Place To

Call Home.

She was awarded an Order of Australia badge for her services to children and the performing arts in 1996, and inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame in 2016, accompanied by a rousing acceptance speech calling out sexism, racism and negativity in the media.

But perhaps the role that had the most impact on Millennials and the parents who watched alongside them was her two-decade long stint as a presenter on ABC children’s program Play School.

Noni’s kind temperament, welcoming smile and comforting nature made her a natural fit for many motherly or care-giving character roles in the future — and yet it was this talent for portraying the complexities and joys of parenthood that weighed heavy during her struggles as a new mum.

“I think a lot of mothers feel the pressure of judgment, and the shock of parenting is profound, especially if you have a child that doesn’t sleep,” Noni says.

“My first one didn’t sleep through the night until he was two.

“I thought I should be able to make my child sleep through the night.

“In retrospect I should have gone to one of those sleep centres, but I was scared that people would say ‘Noni from Play School should be able to make her child sleep’.

“I didn’t realise that all those mothers would be so stonkered that they wouldn’t have cared less whether I could make my child sleep or not.”

Revealing the backstories of characters typically judged on face value are Noni’s favourite parts to play.

In A Place To Call Home, Elizabeth’s story arc begins as the abrasive and stubborn head of the Bligh family.

“Everyone thought, ‘Oh she’s such an old bitch’ and I would say, ‘No, she’s not, she is who she is because of her environment and circumstances and society at the time’.

“She came to realise presenting a facade was in fact alienating to her family. The most important thing in life was love and for people to be able to look each other in the eye and relate as human beings.

“Another interesting one I loved was a character I played in (ABC-TV drama)

Redfern Now, a mother who has disowned her gay son who had a relationship with another man and they had a child by surrogate.

“She’d never met her grandchild until her son was knocked down in a car accident and was in hospital about to have his life support switched off. She realised too late that her attitude, which had been determined by her environment and society, had been detrimental to her relationship with her son.

“I look for characters that make people think differently about homeless people or gay people or anyone you might make judgments about that are irrational.

“The reality of parenting and life in general is that sometimes you f*** it, and sometimes you make mistakes, and you do things that you regret.

“And this is one of the great things about the arts — that you’re not alone, you see characters in front of you who have made wrong choices, having to face the consequences of their stupidity, and the arts can be very unifying.”

In Noni’s latest stage role, Mother, she steps into the shoes of homeless woman Christy, left to suffer the consequences of a violent childhood in a detached society.

She says the play, regarded as one of Noni’s best performances yet, divulges the shocking statistic that women aged 55-plus are the fastest growing cohort of homeless people in Australia.

“There are increasing stories about homeless women, particularly older women, being the most likely people to be homeless, and not necessarily because they have low socio-economic status in society,” Noni says.

“They can be women who were high achievers. Just a couple of things go wrong, and they find themselves in that situation.

“I think that a lot of what’s wrong with society now is that we do make judgments based on nothing more than appearance about people.

“That was one of the themes Daniel (Keene, writer) and Matt (Scholten, director) and I discussed about the play for me, about the danger of judgment.

“She is invisible to people who walk past her in the street. Whether they’re refugees or homeless people, young people who might appear to be no-hopers, we look at them but we don’t see them as people.”

What about Noni’s experience — as one of the most recognisable faces in Australia, does she ever wish she could be invisible?

“No, people are very nice to me,” she laughs. “I’m a fourth-generation performer. I was always told when they stop wanting to say hello, you need to worry.

“I’m very happy to get feedback from people who stop me in the street. It’s very nice to be told that they appreciate what you do. I think that’s lovely.

“But I can be invisible — I do notice that when I go out without make-up on and my usual baggy self, I’m a lot more invisible than when I have a full face of make-up and my hair done.”

Noni has lived on Tamborine Mountain for 20 years and is passionate about the community. The town centre and greater Tamborine range attracts tourists all year with its charming rural township and vast national park, home to lush rainforest, wildlife, waterfalls and hiking trails.

“I have taken part in some community activities, trying to protect what it is that makes the mountain special,” Noni says.

“Tourists come here because it is unique and it is incredibly special; to have such a treasure so close to urban centres is something that should be protected.

“We don’t need more shops than we have — 20 minutes down the road there’s more shops than you can poke a stick at.

“Judith Wright, our great poet, lived here for many years, and is responsible for the protection of a good part of this mountain.

“Had it not been for her, it probably would be a lot more developed than it is now.

“I think it’s really important that we appreciate what we’ve got, whether it’s Tamborine Mountain or nature in general.”

A staunch environmentalist, Noni has always preferred life close to nature.

“I find cities now inhuman. I’ve had my share of city life and, at 66, I find it every difficult to live in cities full time,” she says.

“I have to work in cities obviously, and when I did A Place to Call Home for six years I had to spend five or six months in Sydney every year.

“To be able to come back to this semirural environment surrounded by nature is a much more sympathetic way for me to live, and I think most people really appreciate it when they do get exposed to nature — it does have a soothing effect on the soul, which cities don’t have.”

She says her passion for the natural world was inspired by nature itself.

“It’s about what nature and the environment give to me,” she says.

“We’ve all had it really brought home to us (after the bushfire crisis) with the loss of our wildlife, our plants, the damage that has been done to our environment.

“It’s really sad but it takes something that extreme for people to get it.

“The evidence for climate change is so overwhelming. If you don’t believe in the science then you shouldn’t go to doctors, and you shouldn’t drive a car or get in the plane because you don’t trust the science to give you those advantages.

“Nature speaks for itself, and the environment speaks for itself, but hopefully more people are listening and watching and seeing it.”

A Place To Call Home co-star Conrad Coleby referred to Noni as “Australia’s earth mother”, a fitting mantle.

“I look around the world at women who are leading countries and they seem to be making a better go of it than many of the men, and I think it’s because of their compassion and their ability to be vulnerable and not hide their vulnerability,” Noni says.

“I think for me the expression ‘earth mother’ is someone who understands, who feels the pain and the grief that other people and creatures feel and identities with them.

“I’ve always wanted to reach out a helping hand to people to open up and be vulnerable, whether that’s as a person or mother or actor. I think that’s a really valuable and precious goal to have, to say I understand how you feel and I’m there for you.

“I wish more people were able to say that to other people.” Noni Hazlehurst stars in Mother, performing at HOTA on the Gold Coast on February 27 to 29 and Brisbane’s QPAC on March 4 to 14.