Bran Nue Dae

Director: Rachel Perkins
Cast: Rocky McKenzie, Geoffrey Rush, Ernie Dingo, Magda Szubanski, Deborah Mailman and Jessica Mauboy
Releasing in cinemas: 14 January 2010
Rated: PG

Local stories

Directed by Rachel Perkins (Radiance), the story is set in the summer of 1969. Willie, a young Aboriginal man (Rocky McKenzie), wants nothing more than to hang out with his mates in Broome and spend time with Rosie (Idol runner-up Jessica Maubuy). His mother has other ideas. She wants him to become a priest and sends him off to the Catholic mission in Perth. After being punished by Father Benedictus (Geoffrey Rush), Willie runs away. He’s befriended by an old rascal called Uncle Tadpole (Dingo) and together they con a couple of hippies (Missy Higgins and Tom Budge) into taking them the 2,500km back to Broome – with Father Bendictus hot on their tail.

Bran Nue Dae started off life as a musical in 1990. Over the years there has been efforts to develop it into a telemovie and then a feature film. Independent producer Robyn Kershaw (Looking for Alibrandi) became involved with the feature film in 2006, when she became attached as a producer alongside Graeme Isaac. Her reason for doing so has been simple. “I want to bring Bran Nue Dae to the attention of as many people as possible,” she says. “It is a story filled with so much life and promise and hope.” Gaynor Flynn recently spoke to Kershaw about the feature film.

When did you first know about Bran Nue Dae?

My first encounter with it was in 1987 when I was working in theatre and I travelled the north west of WA and through the North territory and I got to meet Jimmy Chi, the author and he played all the songs and told me the story of the work. So I very dutifully went back to the West Australian Theatre Company and told my boss at the time that there’s this incredible piece of work up in the north. I said it’s an amazing musical and it fits in terms of being part of the core work that the WA Theatre Company was involved at that time because they were doing all of Jack Davis’ work with Andrew Ross and had a very substantial core group of indigenous actors.

So Duncan programmed it and Andrew Ross developed it and then it moved into the world premier in 1990. And by then I’d moved on to Belvoir in Sydney and was running Belvoir Street and got to see it when it came to Canberra and I just remember being totally blown away by it because it was so much more than what I remembered back in 1987. It was this total explosion of vitality and joy and celebration and things I’d been living with and been accustomed to, having worked with all those actors for so long, but not ever having seen it on stage because all of the work prior to that had been Jack Davis’ work which was much darker and more about social realism. And this was the social realism from the Broome perspective. So it was a very, very different experience because it does have an incredible vitality, which comes from that very deep cultural heritage which is quite diverse and not like any other part of Australia.

What makes Broome so different?

This is a place where you do meet people who identify as Aboriginal, Japanese and Chinese all in the one person. And in Jimmy’s case I think he identifies with Aboriginal, Japanese, Chinese and Scottish. So he is a living embodiment of so many people who have come from that region. And his experience was one that was a shared experience. So while he worked with his band, the Kuckles on making all those songs and worked on the story, in fact that experience of being taken away to Clontarf and Christianised and educated was one shared by many of our Indigenous artists. So it was a real epiphany I think for many people I think to see this amazing celebration on stage. So it’s been an incredibly satisfying experience to be involved with.

How groundbreaking was it when it debuted in 1990?

Very. There hadn’t been an Aboriginal musical and seeing a company of Aboriginal actors, singers, dancers on stage and seeing a band and there were only three roles played by white people and just having that experience of watching those performers on stage who were incredibly accomplished was incredible. Ernie (Dingo) had been in State of Shock at Belvoir in 1987 and he’d been in all of Jack’s (Davis) plays, The Dreamers, No Sugar so he had incredible grounding in the work of contemporary Indigenous writing during that period. But then to have this huge colourful vibrant vital flamboyant amazing celebration of life being expressed by these Indigenous performers who we’d traditionally seen play in Jack’s work as drunks and so on, took everyone by surprise.

I read in the press notes that it evolved out of the political protests of the 1980’s but Jimmy Chi decided to use humour and music to touch on a number of serious issues. It reminded me of Mel Brooks in that regard.

Yeah Mel Brooks does it beautifully. And Jimmy’s been able to achieve that with Bran Nue Dae. He just has a real gift I think because the way he sees the world is very particular and he’s been able to transpose that into this incredible beautiful piece of work. So while there is an amazing political song in the film like Listen to the News and it’s a very powerful moment in the film but it’s not something you feel weighted down. I thing I think you feel most profoundly when you’re watching Bran Nue Dae is oh my gosh these people are just like me. I am actually watching people who have dreams like I have. Who have fights with their families who want to be at home like the rest of do, with our loved ones. It sort of busts open all sorts of stereotypes in an unusual way and I think it catches audiences by surprise.

Gaynor Flynn