30.04.25
Welcome to the Brewarrina version of the Griffin e-news!
This time final week, I used to be organising within the Brewarrina Community Hall for the screening of the filmed model of Blaque Showgirls by Nakkiah Lui as a part of Baiame’s Ngunnhu Festival. Griffin was thrilled to be included on this yr’s pageant which celebrated its tenth Anniversary.
Moogahlin Performing Arts are the driving power behind the pageant, a social impression mission that brings collectively and celebrates artists, meals, tradition and group. It takes place on the banks of the Ba-wun River, which this yr was swollen with flood water, however the days had been huge and sunny with the endlessness of the outback.
Brewarrina is legendary for its historic fish traps (Ngunnhu) and one of many nice inter-tribal assembly locations in Eastern Australia. For the Festival’s Opening Ceremony & Corroboree this yr, dance teams from so far as Queensland in addition to native teams carried out in opposition to the brilliant evening sky, sharing their expertise and pleasure and pleasure. It was magic and a privilege to be there.
To be sincere, I had forgotten how typically nipples are referenced in Blaque Showgirls. Context is every part and it was a bit of surreal watching the movie and seeing the SBW Stables Theatre transported to a group corridor in outback NSW. I’d additionally forgotten what number of razor-sharp one-liners there are on this play and it was warming to see one Aunty chuckling away up the again of the corridor. Alongside the laughs, Nakkiah’s writing packs a political punch, commenting on white and Blak Australia and the numerous injustices nonetheless current on this nation. As one buddy mentioned to me whereas I used to be in Bre, as a white Australian, step one is exhibiting up.
The screening of Blaque Showgirls is feasible due to our companions at Australian Theatre Live who filmed six Griffin productions by means of 2022 and 2023 funded by means of the Office for the Arts. Now that the SBW Stables is being demolished, these time capsules really feel ever extra treasured. You can catch a few of them by means of ATL’s on-line streaming service right here.
While I used to be in Bre, Griffin HQ was preparing for our subsequent two productions. This week now we have a desk learn for Koreaboo by the multi-talented Michelle Lim Davidson as she makes ultimate tweaks the script for this heart-warming, Ok-pop bopping new work directed by Jessica Arthur. Also, this week, we’re testing the waters for the complete monty in Naturism by Ang Collins, guided by our Intimacy Director Chloë Dallimore. All will probably be revealed in the end!
Before I log off, I wish to share my private spotlight of the Baiame’s Ngunnhu Festival. No, it wasn’t the style parade I bought roped into by Wiradjuri dressmaker Su Lousick (Dandaloo Su), or the moorish fish feed on the final day, and even the numerous unbelievable dancers and singers that impressed the socks off everybody over the 4 days of the pageant. It was seeing a younger child I met after I first went to Brewarrina in 2014, Thomas French. Back then he was curious and cheeky and needed any job we’d give him whereas we had been filming a documentary. Now he’s tall and powerful and has a job with the native fireplace brigade and is taking care of his Nan and Aunty. He is every part this nation wants proper now, and I left Bre with my coronary heart full.
Finally, an enormous shout out to the unbelievable workforce at Moogahlin for working so arduous to ship the pageant, particularly Lily Shearer, Natano Fa’anana, Leroy Parson, Megan Kelly, Aroha Pehi, Stephen Wilson Barker, Rhanda Mansour and Griffin’s man on the bottom, Sam Gray.
Love,
JC
Julieanne Campbell
Executive Director & Co-CEO