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| home | news l`Sharpen your axe on the hardest stone'The Cherry Pickers Written by Kevin Gilbert Review by Brendan Doyle February 2002 - We laughed, cried, felt uplifted, some felt offended — one blackfella cursed and walked out — but we all felt part of a strong, shared theatrical experience, that will stay in the heart. Kevin Gilbert, Aboriginal activist, poet, artist and playwright, wrote The Cherry Pickers in 1968, just after the referendum that won Aborigines the vote and citizenship. If Gilbert were alive, I'm sure he would be pleased with this production by Wesley Enoch. As you walk into the theatre, you smell gum leaves burning. The all-indigenous cast greet the audience, strumming guitars, telling jokes, fooling around and saying hello to the many blackfellas who have come to see the show. You feel you are here to share a good night out. We were not disappointed. As the lights go down, three old women — Ettie, Subina and Bubba — sit around a camp fire, talking and waiting for the start of the cherry-picking season. It is the time of the year when the men can get paid work and forget for a time their poverty. The women also wait for Johnollo, their strongest old man and hero. He alone gives them hope. He stands up to the white boss and tries to get higher wages for the workers. He knows the old ways and helps the people through hard times. But this year, the women have a bad feeling. The cherry tree, symbolised by a gigantic root system that hovers over the stage, does not bear fruit. Johnollo has been delayed. Their world begins to unravel as they and their men question their ability to survive as a people and a culture. Meanwhile, they drink plonk, share jokes, muck around and try to maintain a communal life in the midst of a life lived without honour and dignity, their land stolen and their culture desecrated. And yet they manage to laugh. The women tell crude jokes and sling off at the men, who can't stand up because of the drink. It was in the middle of this that a black audience member, no doubt finding it all too painful, swore at the actors for portraying women in such a “bad” light and was led from the theatre. Enoch stopped the show and went out to talk to the man. When he returned, he asked the rattled actors to go on. They did, to huge applause. In the second half of the play, the darker side of it all comes to the fore. Tommlo, whose wife Zeena has lost two babies to malnutrition, covers himself in white ochre and pleads with Zeena to join him in a traditional dance to reaffirm that they have not lost all their culture. It's a scene of great pain and beauty. In the program notes, Enoch quotes Gilbert who said that, “You sharpen your axe on the hardest stone”. Enoch adds, “For me, it means we should use the hardships we face to strengthen us, to clarify our arguments, to be reminded why we do what we do, what makes us a people.” Gilbert spent 14 years in prison but managed to becomes a strong voice for his people. Richard Wherrett recently attacked subsidised theatre, including the STC, as having lost its way and being a con. The Cherry Pickers points theatre in the right direction. Ticket prices at $20 and $15 concession are a welcome relief. Source: Green Left A voice for his peopleApril, 2002 - Kevin Gilbert, Aboriginal artist, poet, playwright and activist, died on April 1, in Canberra, after a long battle with emphysema. Kevin's daughter, Kerry Reed-Gilbert, prepared the following tribute to her father, in poetry and prose. Kevin Gilbert was the first Aboriginal playwright and print maker. In 1968 he wrote The Cherry Pickers while serving a life sentence for murder. By the time of his release, he was a well-known artist and writer. The Cherry Pickers was workshopped by the New Theatre in 1971 by an all Aboriginal cast and performed shortly after by the Nindethan Theatre in Fitzroy, Melbourne, again by an Aboriginal cast. Kevin refused further productions in other states in an effort to focus on the fact that no government or private organisation was supporting Aboriginal actors or performers to participate in the arts. During this time it was common for non-Aboriginal people to tint their skins with stage paint and play Aboriginal roles. The Cherry Pickers will be performed next September as part of an Aboriginal co-production for the Australian National Playwrights Conference planned for the International Year of the World's Indigenous people. In 1973 Kevin wrote Because a White Man'll Never Do It. This was seen as the first political work by an Aboriginal. His other works include: Living Black, a collection of Aboriginal oral history; The Blackside, a collection of poetry; Aboriginal sovereignty: justice, the law and the land; and Child's Dreaming, a collection of children's poetry. Kevin's art work is exhibited in galleries throughout Australia and in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. In his fight to obtain equal and human rights for his people, Kevin assisted with the establishment of the Tent Embassy in 1971. Twenty-two years later it was appropriate that a ceremony in his memory was held at the Tent Embassy on April 8. In 1988 Kevin was awarded the Human Rights Award as the editor and poet for Inside Black Australia, an anthology of Aboriginal poetry. Kevin refused this award, believing it would be wrong for him to accept a human rights award when his people were not given human rights in their own country.
And some say “Shame” when we're talkin' up Some call it “Shame” when our kids they die But I reckon the worstest shame is yours The minister for Aboriginal affairs, Robert Tickner, paid tribute to Kevin as “a formidable opponent of politicians and governments who he regarded as failing to respond to Aboriginal allegations. He was nevertheless a gentle and sensitive man.” To Kevin there was no greater fight than the fight for human rights for the original owners of this land. He was renowned for his fight for Aboriginal sovereignty, land rights and treaty. Kevin's work will be remembered. His words and voice will be heard throughout the Aboriginal nations of this land, by both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, and they will carry across the world. Tree I am the tree In a recent interview, Kevin stated his vision of Australia: “I believe if there is to be an Australian culture it cannot be imported, earth-scorched culture. Cultures and the people are developed from the land they occupy. “Culture has to be developed from the heart, from the depths of human integrity, the depths of human passion, the depths of human creativity, and I believe that if there is ever to be a sound, overall culture, it must evolve or be based upon these finest aspects of the human family -- integrity, justice, vision, creativity, life, honour.
I know you're wrong when you claim you're right To the Aboriginal nations, Kevin's message is clear. Their sovereign right is to form the sovereign Aboriginal congress from the grassroots, and for that to be the body which negotiates with the invading power. “As we go into the third century of violation of human rights, we seek a Sovereign Treaty recognising our prior possession of this land, our right to life, our right to recognition as a People, our right to be protected under international covenants governing a treaty and the human rights conventions.” (From Blackside) Kevin Gilbert was a sovereign Wiradjuri man from the Wiradjuri nation. He is survived by his six children, wife and family.
My father is a man
For sixty years message Black rights, justice With his dying breath Stop the tears and the crying
Give justice to the Blackman Source:Green Left Kevin Gilbert ATSIC News MOURNERS PAY TRIBUTE TO AUTHOR, ACTIVIST From throughout Australia they came to honour him. Family friends and those who respected the author, the playwright, the poet, the artist, the activist, the man. Kevin Gilbert dead at the age of 60. More than 300 people gathered at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on the lawns outside old Parliament House in Canberra early April for the memorial service of a man who, as one of those present observed, "spoke the truth of his people, lived the anguish of his people". The location was appropiate because it was there 20 years ago that Kevin Gilbert, as one of the Embassy's organisers, first became prominent as a political activist. Born in the central NSW town of Condobolin in 1993, Kevin Gilbert overcame the death of his parents at an early age, a youth spent in institutions, a limited education and 14 and a half years in prison to devote his life to art and to political activism, the two often coming together. The memorial service centred around a fire on open ground in the middle of the Tent Embassy. As didgeridoos played in the background, several speakers came forward to the fire in turn to add their piece to the story of Kevin Gilbert. Some read poetry, some danced, some brought messages from communities across Australia, while others told of the influence Gilbert had on their lives. And into the flames Kevin Gilbert's family scattered some of his ashes, linking him forever to a site and a cause that he did so much to bring to the attention of Australia. A statement by his family spoke of Kevin Gilbert's continuous work to teach the meaning of sovereignty and Aboriginal people right to a treaty. This teaching will continue through a memorial trust that is to be established to further the work towards a treaty and recognition of Aboriginal rights. In a mark of respect, the Australian flags outside the old Parliament house - long a symbol of everything Kevin Gilbert fought against - were lowered to half mast to honour his passing. Beside them, they flew the Aboriginal flag, marking as much Kevin Gilbert's victory in bringing Aboriginal issues to the attention of the wider Australian community, as marking his death. Source: ATSIC related links :
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