I Am Eora

08-14 Jan ,

Theatre

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Contemporary Indigenous Australia: The Arena Spectacular

First published on 31 Oct 2011. Updated on 15 Jan 2012.

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“Big-budget, large scale performance work dealing with Indigenous Australian history” is not a phrase known to inspire confidence. Painful memories of the tokenistic depictions afforded in the 2000 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony spring to mind, mingled with the awkward reductionism you’ll be familiar with if you were ever unfortunate enough to witness a Schools Spectacular. The forced marriage of the arena spectacular to the telling of black stories is rarely a happy one. But though it might look like one on the surface, I Am Eora, conceived and directed by Wesley Enoch and boasting a cast of over 30 Indigenous actors, singers and dancers, manages to overcome this history to produce something altogether more genuine.

Exploring what it means to be an Aboriginal Australian today through stories of the legendary figures Pemulwuy, Barangaroo and Bennelong, I Am Eora is a 90-minute performance work that blends dance, song, projection, speech and ritual. It’s strongly executed, backed by clean design and crisp sound, but retains heart and soul. There’s little in the way of linear narrative, though, with Enoch preferring to explore ideas through short scenes and music numbers. This is not a poor device in and of itself, but it may account for the few moments where the work as a whole seems to lose drive and purpose. It’s always redeemed, however, by the strength of the performers. Jack Charles’s lyrical speeches focus a crowd of 800 like nothing else, while Nooky’s explosive rap anthem makes them want to get up and hit something together. The voices of the Stiff Gins are pure magic, and State MP for Canterbury Linda Burney’s brief appearance as herself provides a tender reminder of the reality of indigenous affairs in Australia.

If you were raised and educated in Australia, many of the themes and ideas in I Am Eora will feel familiar, even if the stories of Pemulwuy, Barangaroo and Bennelong aren’t. You’ll probably also have your own preferences and ideas about the relative values of what those three figures stand for. For a moment I may have feared capitulation when the piece moved from the incendiary provocations of Pemulwuy, the warrior, and towards the conciliatory spirit of Bennelong, the interpreter. But Enoch’s suggestion is that mediating rather than choosing between these conflicting identities lies at the heart of being an Aboriginal Australian today. Enoch and his team invite everyone in the audience, black and white alike, to conceive of themselves as part of that experience – the experience of the Eora nation. It’s a gentle invitation, but an important one. And if occasionally I Am Eora’s tropes and images feel a little familiar, they’re no less true or important for that.

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Words by Rebecca Saffir