La Mama
at Coranderrk
21 February 2016
coranderrk.com
minutesofevidence.com.au
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| The sun setting at Coranderrk at Coranderrk |
Coranderrk: We Will Show The Country was developed by La Mama and Ilbijerri and first seen at La Mama in 2010. It's a verbatim-theatre collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous organisations and artists about the 1881 Victorian Parliamentary Coranderrk Inquiry into the management of the Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve, near Healsville in the Yarra Valley.
The production has toured – I saw it in 2011 – and on Sunday 21 February, it was presented for the first time on country at Coranderrk.
This isn't a show that needs another review – there are plenty.
It was an honour to be there among descendants and families and to hear the voices of the past come to life at the same place they were spoken 135 years ago.
From the Welcome to Country that didn't need a smoking ceremony because everyone who was there had stomped away any bad spirits to looking at photos and realising they were taken at the house I could see from where I was sitting, this production continues to ensure that that Coranderrk's story won't be lost and now belongs to everyone who sees it.
