Coranderrk is about what might have been. This special production pays tribute to the resilience and adaptability of a people who rose to the challenge despite the odds, appropriating the power of the written word to make their own voices ring loud and clear.
At a Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry in 1881, the men and women of the Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve went head-to-head with the Aboriginal Protection Board. Their goal was both simple and revolutionary: to be allowed to continue the brilliant experiment in self-determination they had pioneered for themselves on the scrap of country left to them.
Coranderrk recreates the Inquiry. This is both great theatre and great history. It revives the voices of all those, black and white, who fought for a better pact between the country’s oldest and newest inhabitants.
Coranderrk is a collaboration between leading Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists, researchers, education experts and community members. The production aims to encourage a shared understanding of the past between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.
FAC Theatre. Saturday 20 May, 7.30pm.
Bookings: 03 9784 1060 or thefac.com.au