The sky was painted in a deep amber for the exhibition & the night began with a crescent moon. The fire drums sent soft clouds of smoke across the stage. It was a memorable & magical night for everyone who attended and exceeded any expectations we had for a preview performance of a new work. We look forward to seeing the narrative seeds of this story continue to blossom.

Here is a photo set from the night of the show.

This is the first part of a film about building bush cubbies.

filmed & edited by Brian Cohen

music by Staffan Svahn

featuring Abby, Alana & Bindi’s old TV

Stu Liddell arrived in town, put on his headphones & NTG2 mic & wandered around town with a mob of young people capturing the booming empty water silos & squeals of the towns people.

Here are some of the music tracks that eventuated and became the soundtrack for a spectacular live show under a crescent moon.

Download audio file (ums-3song.mp3)

A preview performance of Under Me Skin by award-winning writer Gayle Kennedy, conceived & developed by Brian Cohen & Tara Prowse in partnership with the remote outback town of Ivanhoe, NSW.

http://documents.scribd.com.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/1nlcver7ikv7opj4bfjp.pdf?t=1249482170

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“I don’t even remember wantin to come home. Just seemed to drift back here one day. Now I’m one a those people just standin still. Best thing bout standin still is I git to see and hear everything that goes on here. It aint ever dull. No way is it ever dull. See people from cities and big towns reckon nothin goes on little places like this. But that aint true. Everything that happens in those places happens right here. We got all the lyin and cheatin, and stealin and broken hearts. We also got the good times, the new born babies, the music and the laughter. We got the livin and the dyin too. Time don’t stand still out here. Things is always movin and changin. It’s just ya can’t always see it happenin. But I do. I do all the time!”

Developmental showing of this play will take place in Ivanhoe on 22 August 2009. Come by for a cuppa round the fire drum.

There’s so much to say on this topic and bedtime is calling. We’ll get this post started as there’s bound to be a lot more to add as these weeks go on. Most of the kids here have built bush cubbies. They are scattered around the edges of town & beyond, made from thrown aways like old car seats, beads, toys, chicken wire, doors, beds, kitchen appliances, etc. We’ve been lucky enough to get toured around to some of them.

The week before last we made a test film of exploring bush cubbies with Candice and the McKenzie kids. The footage & stills came back so incredible that we took a step back and started to think about what we could do. Most of the elders and adults in town also used to build bush cubbies. So we decided to gather a trailer load of bits & take a whole mob of grown ups & young people out bush to build one together.

There were no shortage of people willing to come, and if they couldn’t they wanted a johnny cake to be brought back to them later. At 11am we had mums, grannies, one grandpa & a heap of kids ready to get stuck into it. I even saw a couple of young people who I’d barely met before cos they’re usually on the PS3.

We hiked out with the car towing the trailer full of goodies, found the cluster of trees we’d scoped out earlier & got to work. All day everyone chatted & sang songs, played & worked together. We read stories from Gayle’s book & took heaps of pictures. The footage we got of the day was golden and will be cut together for the exhibition at the end of August. The day couldn’t have happened without the help of Kiaya who was the only young person to be found the day before. She helped organise the whole thing.

Here are some still from the day. Unfortunately, I could only include photos from young people we have releases from. But there are some truly stunning pictures to follow.

About a week ago Mack, Daniel & I were scroungin’ round the tip looking for stuff to throw in the trailer to make a bush-cubby-to-end-all-bush-cubbies. After scoring much of what you’d expect they suggested we go to the other tip. What other tip? The one at the end of the dirt track across the road where people go who don’t want to pay to dump stuff. So we went round this spaghetti trail seeing much of the same, only it had a few special items.

World meet Phyllis. She was feeling a little sorry for herself after loosing a foot in a canine-related accident and needed a pick me up. I’m not sure Mack & Daniel were convinced when I placed her on my dash. But I was in love. Given that we’re on stage 12 water restrictions in the middle of the desert it kinda makes sense why someone would’ve tossed her. Who can afford a fancy checkered bikini, slip slap slop, water feature Granny? (Note the hose-in, hose-out)

The next day we packed the family into the Pajero (which means wanker by the way, in fact out here there’s lots of us!) and head out into the dirt. Phyllis wanted to take in a picture show. Pyper suggested Hannah Montana and so we head off towards Wilcannia, Broken Hill, Silverton, Menindee and many back bush roads in between. Much fun was had by all and Phyliss was a laugh a minute. As of tonight she sits in our shop window on the Ivanhoe main street, holding court.

Good news! we are very excited to announce we will be working with Gayle Kennedy as the writer on the show! Gayle is a talented writer who was born in Ivanhoe and moved to Sydney when she was a teenager. She recently won the prestigious David Uniapon award for Indigenous writers and has written short stories, poetry and prose. She is a member of the Wongaiibon clan of the Ngiyaampaa speaking Nation of South West NSW. She has stories published in newspapers, magazines and broadcast on radio, and was the Indigenous issues writer for Streetwise Comics. She is in demand at literary events and workshops and has spoken in Australia and internationally on the issues of culture and disability.

Her book Me, Antman & Fleabag is full of wonderful characters and deliciously black humour and contains many characters from her family and small town life in Ivanhoe. We are very excited to be working with her on the Ivanhoe project and hope to travel to Sydney sometime before August to meet with her. We think her style will meld really well with the storyline that the young people have been working on and definitely add some great funny moments!

Watch this space for excerpts/updates as the work progresses.

http://www.uqp.uq.edu.au/book_details.php?id=9780702236174

Here is a photo set by a local photographer by the name of Adrian Forbes.

Adrian was one of the first adults to approach us with an open & warm smile, wanting to connect & make friends.

Adrian will be working on the show control elements of the production alongside Stu Liddell, who arrives mid-August.

Check out his photos, they’re amazing. If you’d like to know more, or want prints contact him via info@trax.org

A lot of people have been writing wondering where exactly is Ivanhoe? Here is a map you can search live.

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