Cooked

I was very happy to start National Reconciliation Week with a wickedly witty show by some of our emerging young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander performers – a dynamic cast all trained in dance and movement, performing arts in theatre and film, music and poetry. I really hope we see them on stage again soon: Nic Currie-Inns, Lenesha Duncan, Ethan Enoch, Elijah Manis and Misteria Towler. Wow! All these young artists have a powerful stage presence and they worked together well as an ensemble. This talented group presented Cooked, a piece developed with Digi Youth Arts – a group dedicated to sharing the stories of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – and The Good Room – a Queensland-based collective who use anonymous real recordings and comments from ordinary people to create theatre.

An hour-long show in three equal parts, the first section used the five performers as presenters, conveying survey responses about Australia – everything from food to cultural identity – as well as their own answers to submitted questions. The emerging theme is ‘remix’ – we need to take our knowledge of Australian history and our perceptions of cultural identity and press ‘refresh’. The simple set of packing boxes (including one labelled Statue of Captain Cook) is a constant reminder to unpack your preconceptions. This part works really well as an introduction to the foundation themes, and the group show great comic timing, but you know that these talented young people are capable of more than merely reading a script from a clipboard.  

Part 2 explores identity through dance, music and multimedia – expressing the performers’ connection to the land, culture and Dreamtime. It’s a great showcase of their abilities in dance and movement. This builds the momentum into Part 3 which starts with a new rap to the tune of Gil Scott-Heron’s ‘The revolution will not be televised’. You can’t beat this song for engaging people power and the group do a great job, remixing the themes with their own personal lyrics that explain why 26 January is a problem. While it may run analogue to the digi component of this collaboration, I reckon this group would rock live as well as working with recorded backing tracks.

This show leaves you where you want to be for Reconciliation Week – on a high, and full of hope. A fun remix of some cheesy tunes gets everyone clapping and cheering and leaves the group with a standing ovation. Their medley focused on the ‘sovereignty never ceded’ and ‘always was, always will be’ themes, and included swapping out lyrics to Backstreet Boys’ ‘Backstreet’s back’ to ‘Blak Street’s Back’ and The Spice Girls’ ‘Spice up your life’ with my new favourite lyric ever: instead of ‘slam it to the left’ it was ‘Aunties to the front’ – a perfectly cheeky ending to an energising show.

Cooked is part of QPAC’s Clancestry – A Celebration of Country, the annual event that has made a welcome comeback after an absence due to the pandemic. In tandem, you can learn more about First Nations artists in the Storytellers mural in the QPAC tunnel, featuring local legends like Roxanne McDonald, and until July, the Tony Gould Gallery showcases a collection of Jo-Anne Driessens’ photographs in the Stories From Here exhibition.

Beth Keehn

Photographer: Tai Bobongie