AustLit

'This is a proud milestone in Australian theatre history; a contemporary Indigenous performance text from the highly acclaimed Kooemba Jdarra. Appropriating western forms whilst using traditional storytelling, it gives emotional insight into Murri life. This one-woman show follows the journey of an Aboriginal ‘Everywoman’ as she tells poignant and humorous stories of grief and reconciliation. A powerful, demanding and culturally profound text, The 7 Stages of Grieving is a celebration of Indigenous survival, an invitation to grieve publicly, a time to exorcize pain. It has a universal theme told through the personal experiences of one incredible character.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Playlab).

'On the white frontier in mid-nineteenth century Australia, a lone, bloodied woman arrives at a traveller's rest in the midst of a violent desert storm with a shocking story to tell. Aborigines have allegedly murdered her husband and stolen her infant child. But an Aboriginal woman has a different story to tell. What would cause a missionary's wife to lie? What chance does the word of an Aboriginal woman have against hers? A chilling mystery that draws together the lives of four extraordinary women and their men, all struggling to survive in a hostile and misunderstood landscape. (1 act, 4 male, 4 female).' (Publication summary)

Contains six plays.

Enuff by John Harding is a frightening and funny play about an Australian future where black patience has run out. A violent uprising is planned for Reconciliation Day – will retribution or forgiveness prevail?

I Don't wanna Play House by Tammy Anderson is the moving story of her childhood. A truly remarkable account of the triumph of the human spirit.

Belonging by Tracey Rigney recounts the taunts and temptations of a school girl, and her personal struggle to remain true to her culture, and herself.

Casting Doubts by Maryanne Sam is a funny, and at times heart-wrenching, play about an actors' casting agency with more colour charts than a paint shop, and the problems that Indigenous actors face.

Crowfire by Jadah Milroy is the story of a young, urban Indigenous Australian woman, and a man from a desert community lured into the city. The moving story of a search for identity and the need for reconciliation.

Conservations with the Dead by Richard J Frankland is a poetic and savage play that takes you into the aching sorrow of deaths in custody.