‘Othello is truly a dream role – no gammin!’ Jimi Bani takes on the role of a lifetime

‘I was a little bit of a rebel but always in the back of my mind was that people were watching my actions’: Jimi Bani, who is playing Othello in a new production by Queensland Theatre. Photograph: Dan Peled for The Guardian Australia

Actor Jimi Bani is deep into preparation for two very serious roles. One is the role of a lifetime. The other he has been preparing for his whole life. He is rehearsing for the role of Othello in Queensland Theatre’s upcoming production and he is in talks with his uncles as part of a years-long process to become the ninth chief of the Wagadagam tribe, on Mabuiag Island in the Torres Strait.

“My father was the eighth chief and his father was the seventh,” the 40-year-old actor says. “It is passed from eldest son to eldest son and so I will eventually pass it to my son Dmitri. That’s the cultural bloodline responsibility that we have in our family.”