WARUMPI BAND STAGE SHOW DIRECTOR SAYS BAND A GOOD EXAMPLE FOR AUSTRALIA

Co-directors of Big Name, No Blankets’, Rachael Maza and Anyupa Butcher. Credit: James Henry, Ilbijerri Theatre Company.

The co-director of an upcoming theatre show about the Warumpi Band has said the group offers a good example of how Indigenous and non-Indigenous people can move forward together post-referendum.

Yidinji, Meriam and Dutch woman and Ilbijerri Theatre Company artistic director Rachael Maza is co-directing the musical ‘Big Name, No Blankets’, which will debut in Sydney in January.

She says the Warumpi Band, which had Indigenous and non-Indigenous members, and sang about Indigenous issues in language, set a good example for Australia.

“If we’re going to go forward as a country, that’s how you do it: You look at them! Look at how they did it,” she said.

“And it should be easy! This referendum, was so messed up and disgusting how it got politicised.”

Listen to Rachael Maza talk about ‘Big Name, No Blankets’ and the referendum with Marion Cheedy: