Tracey Rigney – April 4 2021

Photo: Michelle Grace Hunde

Tracey is a playwright, screenwriter, actor and director. She is of the Wotjobaluk and Ngarrindjeri peoples. Tracey’s first play was staged when she was 21 and her first film premiered when she was 25. Her other plays include How Blak R U?, Hidden and Slow Awakening. As an actor, Tracey has appeared in Jacklyn Wilkinson’s theatre piece A Redgum. A Rock. A Duck. and in Jenny Lowdon Kendall’s short film Dancing in the Dust. She has written and directed the short films Endangered, Man Real, Abalone and Dodger’s Heart, directed Steven Oliver’s online drama series, A Chance Affair, written two episodes of the TV series The Warriors, and is currently working on Cook 2020: Our Right of Reply and a screen adaptation of Tony Birch’s novel, The White Girl. Tracey holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts Degree from the University of Melbourne, majoring in Creative Writing. She has worked as co-ordinator of the Indigenous Program for the Carclew Youth Arts in Adelaide, with Wimmera Uniting Care and Goolum Goolum Aboriginal Cooperative, and currently produces and makes short films and communications for the Wimmera Catchment Management Authority.

Belonging (published in Blak Inside)
Currency Press, 2002; ISBN 9780868196626
Full length; 3 female, 1 male (doubling required)
Belonging follows the taunts and temptations of 13-year-old Cindy, and her personal struggle to remain true to her culture and herself. On the edge of womanhood and not sure where she belongs in her river town, she has friends, and she has Pop, a solid, calm old man. Her cousin Janice is tough, seemingly hard, and comes to town looking to party. Only 14, Janice does any kind of drug, looking for any kind of fun, hurt and reeling, throwing her body hard at a world that hurts her. She risks great pain to help her feel she can’t be hurt again and she drags Cindy along. Cindy’s internal battle is played out simply at the level of what happens to who, but the threads are long and knotted and the story compelling.

Elders – Directed by Tony Briggs
Typecast Pty Ltd, 2019
Cast: Uncle Wayne Atkinson, Uncle Rod Briggs, Muraany Andy-Harrison
Part of a series of short films together with Shed by Chantelle Murray, Between Two Lines by Jack Steele and Ties That Bind by Michael Hudson
Two Elders feel that their grandson is old enough to start learning vitally important lessons that will equip him with the necessary tools to maintain the future survival of his culture. His classroom is the expansive country of his ancestors. But is he ready for the challenge that is placed before him, and will he know what to do when the time comes?