Winyanboga Yurringa

“I always get a delight seeing six Aboriginal women on stage. There’s something so lovely and something so rare and precious about it,” says writer Andrea James as she discusses the remounting of her play, Winyanboga Yurringa, at Belvoir Theatre after its successful debut at Carriageworks in 2016. 

The play was inspired by the 1981 four part mini-series, Women Of The Sun, in which four Aboriginal women from different generations are profiled, the title of the play itself is “women of the sun” in traditional Yorta Yorta language. James was originally asked to create a fifth episode depicting life for an Aboriginal woman in the 1990s, but it evolved into a play that fused the stories and experiences of a contemporary, diverse group of Aboriginal women.  

“So, the play itself is about six aboriginal women who go onto country and they all think they’re going on a camping trip but it ends up being something much, much bigger than that,” explains James. 

One of the women has encouraged the other five – all related – to take time out from all of the things that are distracting them from their country, culture, and kin. 

“So they come out there and they bring all their baggage, they bring all their – electricity of the city, I call it – with them,” says James.

There are tensions as they grapple with issues around identity and cultural inheritance, and argue about the fate of a 15-year-old girl whose mother is in jail and who is exhibiting risky behaviour. Adding intensity is the appearance of a white woman who divulges a startling secret. 

“Towards the end, a kind of ceremony happens that reconnects everybody together, but we go through this entire journey with them […] It’s like the audience gets to sort of witness these women in a really private way on stage,” says James.

“[It’s an] opportunity to really see us in our raw state – and it’s ugly and it’s beautiful.”

May 4-26. Belvoir St Theatre, 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills. $37-$77+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.belvoir.com.au

By Rita Bratovich