Nanna and Pop are horrified to learn about climate change from their granddaughter. Should they get their hearing aids adjusted or did she just talk about cows farting?
Here is our mini Q&A!
Q: If you were a sound effect, what would you sound like?
A: I would be the sound of waves on a beach.
Q: Why did you write about this topic?
A: To help my mob connect with the issue of climate change. We think about our home, our family, our spiritual world. I wanted us to think outside of this world and the link between climate change and the ongoing colonisation of our world. While we are not included in these conversations it remains white knowledge and white power, and once we know about these things we have the power.
Q: What inspires your writing?
A: I have to tell stories, my family are story tellers. If i had been left with my family on my Country I would have been my role to pass on knowledge, that was stolen from me when I was stolen from my mother, from my family and from my people. Instinctively, I am doing what I was always meant to do. I always have told stories, as a little girl I told stories, it is in my genetic memory, my people are story tellers, we tell our past and from that we tell our futures.
Q: How does climate change affect your community?
A: My people have always been effected by the changing climate we have stories about this, like the one in my play. But this is climate catastrophe this is angry, white fellas have accellerated climate change. Everything that we had done to look after the Country over the last 60,000 years can be destroyed in the matter of decades, how dare they, we nurtured this place because we understand how fragile it was before it was taken away.
Q: What is your favourite place in nature?
A: Being inside myself, being me, no matter where I am — on the beach, alone, with family, with my children — to be in me is the most important and precious place in nature.
Darwin Community Arts is a community association dedicated to grassroots arts development in the Darwin Region of the Northern Territory of Australia that started in the 1970s. Here is what they say about their vision:
'There is no art on a dead planet. “Never underestimate the power of a million amateurs with keys to the factory.” - Chris Anderson.'
Soulpepper is Canada's leading artist-driven theatre company and is based in Tkatonro/Toronto. We'll let them introduce themselves in their own words:
'We believe that stories can connect us, that they are vital to our understanding, compassion and knowledge, and that they can motivate us toward social change.'
Sunny's inventive and award-winning theatre works have been presented in over 60 cities across the world and translated into 4 languages. His wide range of audiences have spanned international arts festivals goers, queers in underground warehouses, seniors in regional theatres and young people in drop-in centres.
Our Impact Producer, Chaprece Henry, unpacks the climate themes
in this episode in our Discussion Guide
Written by MARIE MUNKARA
Directed by RACHAEL CHISHOLM
Starring:
MARIE MUNKARA as Nanna
PETE HAYES as Pop
RACHAEL CHISHOLM as Daughter
NYASHA OGDEN as Granddaughter
Sound design, music, audio mixing and recording engineer MATTHEW CUNLIFFE
Episode Produced by DARWIN COMMUNITY ARTS with support from SUNNY DRAKE PRODUCTIONS
Episode Producers ANNA WEEKES and TANIA LIEMAN
Darwin Community Arts would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we made this podcast episode, the Larrakia people and we pay our respects to their elders, past present and emerging. We extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people everywhere and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.
Find the transcript here.
Learn about how to navigate climate discussions with your friends, by checking out these resources below:
All of these resources and more are available on the David Suzuki Foundation website. For more resources, check-out our Take Action page.
