Facing Up for NAIDOC Week

A COLLABORATION between Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers and actors that shines a spotlight on former Australian Prime Ministers and their attitudes towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People will be performed at the Eureka Centre during NAIDOC week.

As part of the unique performance, titled Facing Up, non-Indigenous actor Marty Van de Wouw will recite the words of 30 former Australian Prime Ministers, while Indigenous actors and musicians, Trudy Edgeley and Zerene Jaadwa, respond.

Writer and director Lynden Nicholls said audiences should expect to be “shocked” to hear some of the treatment of First Nations people from 1900.

“When we performed it along the Prime Ministers Avenue with the same script – we got to the end, nobody talked, nobody spoke,” she said.

“They took a while to clap even, because they were all just stunned and looking at each other. So that’s what they can expect.

“So there’s all those opinions and statements and policies that were propounded by Prime Ministers, and then there is the parallel line during the performance where you hear what indigenous people were doing, and how they mobilized themselves to actually object to what was going on.

“There’s petitions to the King and to the United Nations, the Tent Embassy, the Freedom Ride, and all sorts of all sorts of things.”

“So you’ll hear them juxtaposed together.”

Nicholls said while the material may seem confronting, it’s important for audiences to be exposed to this kind of historical theatre.

“With so many issues being unresolved, I think our nation can’t really move forward properly until there’s a resolution to the situation about that was offered in the statements.”

“I’d like the audience to take away a curiosity about shared history, and for people to have the incentive to go out and find out more for themselves.”

Facing Up will be performed at the Eureka Centre on Sunday, 4 July from 2pm-3.30pm, followed by a Q and A session, with an extra show on Thursday, 8 July at 5.30pm. For more info visit bit.ly/2SFOIXf.