Declan Furber Gillick – July 4 2021

NAIDOC Week – 4-11 July 2021

This year’s theme is “Heal our country. Heal our nation.”

Declan is a multi-award-winning Arrernte artist from Mparntwe with Aboriginal and Irish-Anglo ancestry. He holds a Masters of Writing for Performance from the Victorian College of the Arts and while studying Law and Philosophy he worked as a Cultural Competency Educator, Aboriginal Legal Support Officer and Outdoor Educator. Declan has been a Next Stage writer-in-residence with Melbourne Theatre Company. His other work includes The Great Emu War, written as part of his Masters degree, Scar Trees, a theatre-as-education play commissioned by Ilbijerri Theatre Company, The Unspeakable War, an international collaborative spoken word show with poet and performance artist Arielle Cottingham, and Frankie Bedlam and The Wellness Cult, a soundscape and storytelling collaboration with Aboriginal Jaadwa musician/producer James Howard. Declan has had prose, poetry and essays published by Affirm Press, Southerly, Centre for Indigenous Story, University of Queensland Press, Red Room Poetry and Magabala Books.

Jacky
Premier Southbank Theatre 2021; 1 female, 3 male
A hard-hitting and disarmingly funny play about family, love, sex and culture, and the personal and political cost of navigating it all in contemporary Australia. Jacky is a blackfella with a bright future in the big city. He skilfully negotiates the gig economy, earning his keep as a cultural dancer and sex worker. Glenn is a white middle-aged record dealer, finalising a divorce and indulging a fantasy which leads him straight to Jacky. When Jacky’s brother Keith rolls into town, and Glenn’s ex-wife Linda suddenly needs an Aboriginal dancer, can Jacky keep up with demand? A whip-smart, moving and eye-opening new play that tackles big ideas as it takes the temperature of the nation.

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Bighouse Dreaming
Premier Theatre Republic 2019; 0 female; 3 male
The simmering, mediocre hypocrisy of a prison guard accused of harassment who sneers in disgust at a young Indigenous boy. The exasperated desperation of a recent law graduate trying to stop the system from destroying his young charge. And the young man himself: Christopher Wallace, AKA. C-War. A young Indigenous boy, on the cusp of adulthood, striving to extricate himself from a systemic set of societal rhythms seemingly designed to leave him crippled and invisible within Australia’s larger context. Bighouse Dreaming is funny, accessible and, when C-War shows his skills as a rapper, impressively musical. A stark reminder that, while non-Indigenous allies can (and do) walk away from fighting white supremacy, Indigenous people have no choice but to live and fight under it. – Based on MJ O’Neill review