The 7 Stages of Grieving by Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman continues to ask vital and stirring questions of the way we tell stories and how we remember the past. Told by a single compelling narrator, the play weaves together cultural knowledge, memories, and personal experiences to share a powerful story of Aboriginal Australia. On its premiere in 1995, this play was a radical act of Aboriginal theatre-making. Last year Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company presented a brand-new production of this classic of Australian theatre in its WA premiere in Subiaco – also the first time it has been presented by an Aboriginal Theatre Company. This year Yirra Yaakin are remounting the show in Kalamunda before taking it on tour around WA.
A collection of vignettes that examines the timelessness of the Dreaming, the horrors of invasion, the trials of reconciliation and police brutality, as well as the importance of kinship, speaking truth to power and the joy of telling your story your way.
A woman stands alone on stage. Over one gripping hour, she traces seven phases of Aboriginal history – Dreaming, Invasion, Genocide, Protection, Assimilation, Self-Determination, and Reconciliation. Mailman and Enoch’s script is a potent expression of resilience and survival, as well as humour, joy and strength. This production is an engaging, moving and ultimately empowering recognition of the loss of identity and Country and the will to fight back.
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