__NOTOC__ Ilbijerri Theatre Company, formerly Ilbijerri Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Theatre Cooperative and also known simply as Ilbijerri, styled ILBIJERRI, is an Australian theatre company based in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

that creates theatre creatively controlled by

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

artists.

History

Ilbijerri was founded in 1990 as Ilbijerri Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Theatre Cooperative by a group of

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

artists galvanised to tell Indigenous stories from an Indigenous perspective. Ilbijerri, pronounced ''il BIDGE er ree'', is a

Woiwurrung language The Woiwurrung, also spelt Woi Wurrung, Woiwurrong, Woiworung, Wuywurung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin alliance. The Woiwurrung people's territory in Central Victoria extended from north of ...

word meaning "coming together for

ceremony A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''. Church and civil (secular) ...

Notable productions

* ''

Stolen Stolen may refer to: * ''Stolen'' (2009 Australian film), a 2009 Australian film * ''Stolen'' (2009 American film), a 2009 American film * ''Stolen: The Baby Kahu Story'' (2010 film), a film based on the real life kidnapping of baby Kahu Durie ...

'' by Jane Harrison, commissioned in 1992 and first performed in a 1998 co-production with

Playbox Theatre The Playbox Theatre was a theatre located at 53-55 Exhibition Street in Melbourne, Australia, from 1927 to 1984. It became the home of the Playbox Theatre Company, previously Hoopla! and later Malthouse Theatre. History The theatre seating ...

* ''Jack Charles v The Crown'', about the life of

Jack Charles Jack Charles (5 September 1943 – 13 September 2022), also known as Uncle Jack Charles, was an Australian stage and screen actor and activist, known for his advocacy for Aboriginal people. He was involved in establishing the first Indigenous t ...

, which premiered in 2010 at the

Melbourne Festival Melbourne International Arts Festival, formerly Spoleto Festival Melbourne – Festival of the Three Worlds, then Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, becoming commonly known as Melbourne Festival, was a major international arts festi ...

. Charles was nominated for a

Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Play The Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Play is an award presented by Live Performance Australia (LPA) (the trade name for the Australian Entertainment Industry Association (AEIA)), an employers' organisation which serves as the peak body i ...

for his performance in the play in 2012, and the play was also nominated for Best Direction of a Play. The show toured across Australia and internationally, and in 2014, Ilbijerri was joint winner of a Drover Award from APACA, and Ilbijerri Theatre, toured by

Performing Lines Performing Lines is an Australian performing arts producer and presenter. It was established in 1990 as a successor to the Australian Content department of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust, it was established by actress Wendy Blacklock ...

, won the

Helpmann Award for Best Regional Touring Production __NOTOC__ The Helpmann Award for Best Regional Touring Production is an award, presented by Live Performance Australia at the annual Helpmann Awards since 2007. The award recognises excellence in a production which has toured in the last three ...

. and in the same year * ''Beautiful One Day'', a theatrical documentary about events on Palm Island (co-produced with Belvoir and version 1.0), which also played at London's

Southbank Centre Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames (between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge). It comprises three main performance venues (the Royal Festival Hall including the Nat ...

as part of the 2015 Origins Festival of First Nations *''Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country'', is a

verbatim theatre Documentary theatre is theatre that uses pre-existing documentary material (such as newspapers, government reports, interviews, journals, and correspondences) as source material for stories about real events and people, frequently without altering ...

work based on historical events at

Coranderrk Coranderrk was an Aboriginal reserve run by the Victorian government between 1863 and 1924, located around north-east of Melbourne. The residents were mainly of the Woiwurrung, Bunurong and Taungurong peoples, and the first inhabitants chose ...

, a former

Aboriginal reserve An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th c ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Giordano Nanni The Juice Media (TJM) is an Australian company that produces contemporary, human rights political and social satire. They are known for their Internet series Honest Government Ads and Juice Rap News. TJM has been at the centre of a number of so ...

and

Yorta Yorta The Yorta Yorta, also known as Jotijota, are an Aboriginal Australian people who have traditionally inhabited the area surrounding the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day north-eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales ...

Kurnai The Gunaikurnai or Gunai/Kurnai ( ) people, also referred to as the Gunnai or Kurnai, are an Aboriginal Australian nation of south-east Australia. They are the Traditional Custodians of most of present-day Gippsland and much of the southern slop ...

playwright

Andrea James Andrea Jean James (born January 16, 1967) is an American transgender rights activist, film producer, and blogger. Education James grew up in Franklin, Indiana,Bartner, Amy (June 3, 2016)"Transgender activist amid Hollywood's transition" ''In ...

wrote the play, and it was co-produced with La Mama Theatre, in collaboration with the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

. It was performed at the Playhouse at

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...

in June/July 2012. * ''Coranderrk'', a recreation of the 1881 Coranderrk inquiry, was co-produced with

Belvoir Theatre Belvoir is an Australian theatre company based at the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney, Australia, originally known as Company B. Since 2016 and its artistic director is Eamon Flack. The theatre contains a 330-seat Upstairs Theatre and a 80-seat D ...

in 2017. Ilbijerri has given

tanderrum A tanderrum is an Aboriginal Australian ceremony enacted by the nations of the Kulin people and other Aboriginal Victorian nations allowing safe passage and temporary access and use of land and resources by foreign people. It was a diplomatic rite ...

performances to open recent

s. It also creates and tours works for educational and community audiences.

References

External links

* {{authority control Theatre companies in Australia Indigenous Australian theatre 1990 establishments in Australia Theatre in Melbourne

History

Notable productions

See also

References

External links