Oh My God I’m Blak!

Oh My God I’m Blak! is directed by Maryanne Sam and co-devised with Patricia Cornelius and Irine Vela. An enchanting story reflects on vivid family memories set against the struggles of cultural identity. In a one-woman show Miela Anich portrays Mary, who yearns to head back to  her roots after her nomadic and traumatic childhood.

Mary sings popular songs from back in the heyday when her young mother would turn on the radio and sing along with the tunes. The show begins with a sweet rendition of “The Girl from Ipanema” (Gilberto,1962); a song reflecting her mother’s youthful years living on a small Torres Strait Island with a reputation as a beautiful heart breaker who sadly fell in love with the wrong man who abused and beat her. She finally gained the courage to leave him, travelled down South with her two daughters, leaving island life behind to seek a safer place to raise them.

Mary and her sister were in transit as orphans for most of their growing years when their mother died and together alone again when their nan passed. They attended Catholic school and learnt to pray to God. But the young Mary felt lost and bewildered, only feeling alive when she dreamt of her time as a child living with her extended family on the island, eating fish and celebrating their wholesome traditions.

Later as a teenager she joins the Indigenous freedom movement and finds solace and comfort but still yearns for her birthplace. She finally gets her life together and her sister by now is married with children. Life moves on and Mary finds her own peaceful resolution, has her  own family and reconnects  with her beloved  Island.

Anich belts out songs with zesty energy; songs that are interwoven into the narrative providing colourful and poignant moments. Anich’s rumbunctious talent is delightfully entertaining and together with Gary Watling who sits to the side of the centre stage  with guitar and ukelele - together they offer cheerful showmanship.

A fitting end to this story has Anich singing Christine Anu’s “My Island Home”.

Flora Georgiou

Photographer: Darren Gill