Black Diggers: The Untold Stories Of WWI Aboriginal Soldiers – Adelaide Festival Review

Her Majesty’s Theatre, Tue Mar 10 The Queensland Theatre Company presents an incredibly fascinating and poignant story for the 2015 Adelaide Festival. Black Diggers reveals a collection of previously untold stories of Aboriginal soldiers in World War I. The narratives are interwoven throughout to give a holistic picture of the experience of Aboriginal soldier’s experience, although each one is captivating enough to stand alone as its own theatre performance. There were glimpses of men signing up to the war and having to be ‘substantially European’ to fight, the experience of mateship and comradery free from overt racism whilst at war, confusion over ceremony for an Aboriginal person who dies overseas and the return to Australia where nothing had changed and the White Australia Policy was still in full force. Writer Tom Wright and director Wesley Enoch have turned this incredible research into a marvellous theatre experience and reclaimed this forgotten chapter of Australia’s war history. The all-male all-Indigenous cast are brilliant and play a multitude of different characters throughout, including men, women, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. Black Diggers is a poignant narrative in the remembrance of those who left to fight and never returned and the treatment of those Aboriginal soldiers who survived. This show needs to be experienced by every Australian, so don’t miss your opportunity and buy your tickets immediately! Bobby Goudie Black Diggers continues at Her Majesty’s Theatre until Sat Mar 14. Book at BASS on 131 241 or bass.net.au. Click HERE to book your tickets.  Image by Branco Gaica