MEDIA RELEASE - 9 July 1997

No Biting!

Big Chief Little Wolf: folklore, folkheroes and professional wrestling in Australia


Gouging, kicking, and throwing an opponent over the ring are allowed, but definitely no biting.

There’ll be no holds barred at the National Library next Tuesday when Navajo Indian Big Chief Little Wolf and other stars from the glory days of Australian professional wrestling come out of the ring and into the domain of the public lecture.

In his lecture Big Chief Little Wolf: folklore, folkheroes and professional wrestling in Australia Dr Barry York will draw on aspects of popular culture from the pictorial, oral history and manuscript collections of the National Library.

Dr York says professional wrestling is both theatre and sport, the public imagination captured in the age old battle between good versus evil, the hero versus the villain. ‘There’s always the one that you hate’, he says. ‘This is professional wrestling’s great attractiveness: the violence is not real.’

He will focus on the life of one of the great heroes of Australian wrestling, Navajo Indian Big Chief Little Wolf. The world heavyweight champion first wrestled in Australia in 1937, returning to increasing popularity throughout the 1940s.

Big Chief Little Wolf settled in Australia in the early 1950s. His wrestling antics and extensive work for charity combined to make him an Australian folkhero, so much so that his return to America in 1980, twenty-two years after his last wrestling match, made front page news.

Dr York began his research into Big Chief Little Wolf in 1994. Over 700 letters from the public have since been received, a sure sign that the popularity of wrestling lives on today.

To arrange a great radio interview with Dr York call Annette Healy, Corporate Communications (06) 262 1279.


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