This presentation analyses the challenges and processes of cocreating pieces of musical theatre inspired by and responding to storylines from Gumbaynggirr country, mid-north coast, New South Wales. The central question posed by the presenter’s research project interrogates how to write for musical theatre within a respectful intercultural model of co-created theatre with Gumbaynggirr People on Gumbaynggirr Country. The primary objective of the research project is to write through decolonising perspective for cocreated theatre that destabilises normative Indigenous-Settler power relationships. Destabilisation shifts the audience gaze toward a view of Country where shared history is acknowledged alongside foregrounded Indigenous knowledges and experiences. Presenting the Gumbaynggirr Creation stories on stage, with the Creation Ancestors and other historical and contemporary figures embodied by the young performers, powerfully foregrounds Gumbaynggirr cosmology as real and multi-dimensional, with The Dreaming symbolised in the sets as in a constant state of regeneration. Performances create relationship with a responsive Country.
Madge Hair is a teacher, playwright and director who works at Coffs Harbour High School, NSW. She is currently completing a PhD in Creative Industries with Queensland University of Technology. Madge’s previous research in Indigenous Theatre took her to Broome, Western Australia, and resulted in a thesis (M.A. (Hons)) titled ‘Jimmy Chi: Hybridity and Healing’. Stephen ‘Baamba’ Albert, Stephen Pigram and the late Jimmy Chi remain her friends and mentors. For the past five years Madge has worked with professional colleagues, Gumbaynggirr cultural advisers and a group of talented young performers and technicians to create Garlambirla Youth Theatre (GYT), Garlambirla (which translates as red oak or casuarina) being the Gumbaynggirr name for Coffs Harbour. GYT’s creative project is to translate the cross-cultural histories of Coffs Harbour, including Gumbaynggirr Creation Stories, into musical theatre, which is then performed for the community.
