Five First Nations playwrights. Five full-length play readings. All in one day. Plays include Coconut Woman by Maryanne Sam, Flashblaks by Jacob Boehme, Cottagers and Indians by Drew Hayden Taylor,  MiWi 3027 by Glenn Shea, and Swim by Ellen van Neerven. 

Presented in partnership with La Mama and the University of Melbourne (VCA).

SCHEDULE

10.30 – 11.30am
Coconut Woman by Maryanne Sam
Nancy Bruce urgently needs cultural knowledge to clinch the deal of her career. Now she just has to convince the Ailan family, whom she’s never met, to help her.

12 -1pm
Flashblaks by Jacob Boheme
A contemporary urban drama which speaks to epic, and sometimes humorous conversations about modern Aboriginal identity, sexuality and family loyalties, spanning three generations, across two families.

1.30 – 2.30pm
Cottagers and Indians by Drew Hayden Taylor
An Anishnawbe man, Arthur Copper, decides to repopulate the lakes of his home Territory with manoomin, or wild rice – much to the disapproval of a local non-Indigenous cottager, the formidable Maureen Poole. Based on real-life events in Ontario’s Kawartha Lakes region, Cottagers and Indians infuses contemporary conflicts between Indigenous and non-Indigenous sensibilities with Drew Hayden Taylor’s characteristic warmth and humour.

3 – 4pm
MiWi 3027 by Glenn Shea
MiWi 3027 is based on the incredible true story of a lifelong friendship developed between Ngarrindjeri serviceman, Roland Carter, and Jewish German ethnologist Leonhard Adam. Captured while fighting for the Australian Imperial Forces, Roland was incarcerated. After Leonhard, was sent to interrogate him a warm camaraderie sprang up between the two young men, one that was destined to last over forty years. 

4.30 – 5.30pm
Swim by Ellen van Neerven
E is 70 percent water and 30 percent confused. Freestyle, butterfly, breaststroke, blakstroke. Swim is a performance poem on Australian swimming, the sovereignty of water and the strength of culture and family in keeping us safe, told by a young queer Murri ready to hit the fast lane at the local pool.

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