Nindethana Theatre was Australia's first Aboriginal theatre company, founded in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

in 1971, with its last performance in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

in 1974.

Establishment and aims

The

theatre company Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

was formed after the

Australia Council for the Arts Creative Australia, formerly known as the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announ ...

asked Jack Charles to form a group of Aboriginal actors. The initial cohort consisted of seven young people from Aboriginal hostels in Melbourne, four of whom had never acted before. Nindethana was established by Charles and

Bob Maza Robert Lewis Maza (25 November 1939 – 14 May 2000), known as Bob Maza, was an Aboriginal Australian actor, playwright and activist. Early life and education Robert Lewis Maza was born on Palm Island in North Queensland on 25 November 1939, ...

at the Pram Factory in Melbourne in 1971,PDF
/ref> with help from New Zealand-born playwright, theatre director, and actor John Smythe and others. Its stated objective was "the performance, encouragement and promotion of Aboriginal drama, music, art, literature, film production and other such cultural activities in the community". It was the first Aboriginal theatre group in the country.

Productions

The first production planned was ''Rocket Range'', by Jim Crawford, but that did not get staged due to production difficulties and lack of trained staff. Their earliest production was '' The Cherry Pickers'', in August 1971, written by Kevin Gilbert and recognised as the first Aboriginal play. In 1972, the theatre staged a performance called ''Jack Charles is up and fighting'' (1972), In November 1972, '' Brumby Innes: A Play in Three Acts'', by

Katharine Susannah Prichard Katharine Susannah Prichard (4 December 18832 October 1969) was an Australian author and co-founding member of the Communist Party of Australia. Early life Prichard was born in Levuka, Fiji in 1883 to Australian parents. She spent her childhood ...

, was staged, in a production that was so successful that a grant was given to film it. It was filmed at Channel 0 in Melbourne (later part of

Network 10 Network 10 (commonly known as the 10 Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's UK & Australia division and is one of the five national free-to-a ...

), airing in June 1973, which led to other acting opportunities for some of the cast members. A

sound recording Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, Mechanical system, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of ...

produced by the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

in 1993, is held at

Fryer Library The University of Queensland Library (UQ Library, founded in 1910) provides library access to students of the University of Queensland in Brisbane. It developed from a small provincial university library into a major research library.East, John ...

at the

University of Queensland Library The University of Queensland Library (UQ Library, founded in 1910) provides library access to students of the University of Queensland in Brisbane. It developed from a small provincial Academic library, university library into a major Library#R ...

. In 1973 the theatre company was awarded a fellowship by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board to visit Adelaide,

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

, to perform at the

Adelaide Festival of Arts The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

, as well as

Horsham Horsham () is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

, Murray Bridge and

Yalata Yalata ( ), in the isolated far west of South Australia, is both an Indigenous Protected Area and, within that, a township of the same name where an Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal community lives. The township is west of Ceduna, South Aus ...

Aboriginal settlements. They performed ''Mission and Urban Identity'' at Nindethana in Melbourne in 1973 and then in Adelaide in 1974.

References

External links

*{{cite web , title=Nindethana Theatre , website=

AusStage AusStage: The Australian Live Performance Database is an online database which records information about live performances in Australia, providing records of productions from the first recorded performance in Australia (1789, by convicts) up unt ...

, url=https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/organisation/8651
Nindethana Theatre
at

Trove Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text documen ...

Poster of ''Brumby Innes''
held at

State Library Victoria State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in th ...

Indigenous Australian theatre 1971 establishments in Australia 1974 disestablishments in Australia

Establishment and aims

Productions

See also

References

Further reading

External links