Namatjira

by Scott Rankin – created with the Namatjira family

Review by Karen Wighton, October 2011

This original new play tells the story of the lifetime of Albert Namatjira, (1902 – 1959) Australia’s most famous Indigenous watercolour artist, but whose story is hardly known. Scott Rankin’s critically acclaimed theatrical work is storytelling at its absolute best. It is a tribute to a ‘great man we adored – used, abused and then abandoned’, a Western Aranda man born in 1902 as Elea, later baptised as Albert, and Australia’s first successful Indigenous artist.

Namatjira, created with cultural and family consultants through a fascinating, complex workshop process, was first co-produced by Belvoir and Big hART, the award winning arts and social change company. It premiered at Belvoir St Theatre in September 2010 under the co-direction of Scott Rankin and Wayne Blair. The season at Company B sold out and due to its huge critical success, Namatjira embarked on a 9 week tour in 2011. Grandchildren and descendants of Namatjira performed as artists throughout the Belvoir season and members of his family toured as part of the cast. It was the winner of Best New Australian Work: Sydney Theatre Awards, January 2011.

Albert Namatjira’s watercolour landscapes were his way of looking at his country, a ‘strange, new magic way of seeing’. He honoured his traditions, but learned to paint for the white people with the money. He learned to ‘walk both ways’. Through commercial appropriation, however, his paintings were copied onto cheap prints, tea towels and biscuit tins. Scott Rankin's play reclaims Namatjira’s tale from empty domestic recognition, reinforcing the importance of unwrapping the story to understand the person, so well executed in the dramatic form used here. It exposes the inconsistencies – the absurd heights of fame, yet denial of his dignity and rights.

This play tells the story with great humour and with love, of how, driven by poverty, Namatjira used the gift of his art and succeeded not just in supporting his family, but in helping to create great political change. Namatjira was the first Indigenous person to become an Australian citizen. The play also deals with his close friendship with ‘whitefella landscape artist’, Rex Battarbee, who introduced him to watercolour and how the subsequent success affected him. It reveals the irony of his lonely death, now 51 years hence. It generously shares the gifts and story of an iconic indigenous man. It is a portrait, a beautiful, sad, funny, tragic drama which raises issues pertinent today - of survival, respect for one another and vision for some other, more generous Australia

Namatjira’s art is incorporated into the story, through an onstage portrait artist, and in the staging of the Belvoir season and tour, two Namatjira family artists drew a large landscape in chalk across the back of the stage. So his art lives on through his kin and through this play. This is a meeting of the worlds of storytelling, tradition, theatre and art, and audiences have the chance to look, listen, learn and laugh. John McCallum in his review (The Australian, October 2010), called the play "half celebration and half lament... a terrific mixture of narration, dance, mime and voice that is extraordinarily theatrical, articulate and expressive."

The play was written for two male performers, who play all of the more than two dozen characters: Albert and his father, mother and wife; Rex Battarbee; a German Pastor; Wilmot, the old blackfella; as well as many other minor roles: army personnel, mission men, humbuggers and kids, tourists, whitefellas, prominent artists and socialites, government members, family, reporters, a magistrate, a gallery owner and of course, a young Queen Elizabeth II. The division of roles could be shared by a greater number of players, as needed in performance.

The touring performance of Namatjira – and accompanying touring watercolour exhibitions - was the centrepiece of a larger, creative, community development; The Namatjira project is a celebration of this man’s life and legacy. For more about this lengthy process of research and collaboration, visit www.namatjira.bighart.org. This is a welcomed new Australian play and in its dramatising and exploration, authentic resources on this website will be invaluable. It’s an extraordinary story, well told.

To read an extract of the play click on this PDF.

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