Written and directed by Andrea James, The Black Woman Of Gippsland is based on an unverified story from the 1840s about a white woman who was said to have washed up on a Gunaikurnai beach following a shipwreck off the coast.
Was she cared for by members of the Gunaikurnai mob or held there against her will? Not one but two expedition parties were sent over from Melbourne to ‘rescue’ the so-called damsel in distress and the consequences were tragic: this colonial-era myth was used to justify brutal massacres across Gunaikurnai Country, also causing what’s believed to be among the first Black deaths in custody.
Based on real events and set on this Yorta Yorta/Gunaikurnai playwright’s grandmother’s Country, The Black Woman Of Gippsland searches for truth and seeks reckoning while documenting history.
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The play’s lead character Jacinta – a self-described “Blakademic”, performed convincingly by Chenoa Deemal – has chosen the mysterious shipwrecked white woman as the subject of her PhD thesis. She immediately uncovers plot holes and is determined to reveal, and document, the truth. But this will prove near-impossible given that her university fails to recognise tens of thousands of years of Indigenous oral history as source material.
James’s cousin, Gunnai Kurni choreographer Brent Watkins, choreographs and also dances throughout, bringing the past to life with cultural authority on stage like we’re glimpsing Jacinta’s imagination. Watkins is injured at present – not that we could tell based on his dancing this evening – so Phillip Egan was called in at the 11th hour to perform one of the dance sequences. The quality of movement and choreography sometimes echoes Rhian Hinkley’s spectral video projections – to great effect.
The Black Woman Of Gippsland also revives, and preserves, stories through song: Sound Designer & Composer James Henry consulted with Gunnai Lore man Uncle Wayne Thorpe to transform written colonial records from 1904 into songs that will be passed down through Gunaikurnai community. The sublime vocals of Ursula Yovich, who also plays the staunch Auntie Rochelle, add emotional heft.
James has said she wrote this play “not just because [she] wanted to debunk a deathly myth, but to hold Melbourne (on Kulin Nations Country) to account”.
Generational trauma, the burden of challenging stereotypes and being the first in your direct family to pursue tertiary education, dismantling what is accepted as truth – The Black Woman Of Gippsland urges non-Indigenous Australians to acknowledge facts.
Melbourne Theatre Company’s The Black Woman Of Gippsland plays at Southbank Theatre until 31 May.
