Bran Nue Dae

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Bran Nue Dae is a 1990 musical set in Broome, Western Australia, that tells stories and of issues relating to Indigenous Australians.[1] It was written by Jimmy Chi, his band Kuckles and friends and was the first Aboriginal musical. The name is a phonetic representation of ‘Brand New Day’.

The musical was originally directed by Andrew Ross, a prominent theatre director in Western Australia. It premiered at the Octagon Theatre in February–March 1990 as part of the Festival of Perth, and later toured nationally.[2]

A 1991 television documentary Bran Nue Dae tells the story of the creation of the musical.[4][5] The musical was revived for an Australian national tour in 2020.[6]

Bran Nue Daein 1993, Black Swan State Theatre Company. Photograph Jeff Busby

Jimmy Chi

James Ronald Chi (1948 – 26 June 2017) was an Australian composer, musician and playwright. His best known work is the 1990 musical Bran Nue Dae which was adapted for film in 2009. Chi was born in Broome, Western Australia in 1948 to a father of Chinese and Japanese descent and a mother of Scottish, Bardi and Nyulnyul descent.Chi spent most of his later life at home in Broome with his family and friends. He died in Broome Hospital on 26 June 2017.

From 1981 to 1982 Chi was the lead singer of the band Kuckles, before they disbanded.

Chi’s most acclaimed work is Bran Nue Dae, written in collaboration with his band Kuckles, Scrap Metal, the Pigram brothers and friends. Bran Nue Dae, is a partly autobiographical work which took Jimmy many years to write. It celebrates family, forgiveness and reconciliation and was a hit at the Festival of Perth in 1990 where it was performed by the Black Swan Theatre. It went on to tour Australia extensively and it was Australia’s most successful musical play of the early 1990s.

One of the famous verses from a song in the musical sums up Chi’s dry humour and sharp political approach:

There’s nothing I would rather be

Than to be an Aborigine
and watch you take my precious land away.
For nothing gives me greater joy
than to watch you fill each girl and boy

with superficial existential shit.

The musical won the prestigious Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards in 1990. The following year the published script and score won the Special Award in the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards. It brought acclaim for many Aboriginal artists including Ernie Dingo, Josie Ningali Lawford and Leah Purcell. The musical’s success was also instrumental in the formation of the Black Swan Theatre Company.

Chi also wrote the musical Corrugation Road, which was first performed by the Black Swan Theatre at the Fairfax Studio in Melbourne in 1996 before an Australian national tour. Corrugation Road concerns mental health, abuse, sexuality and religion, treated with humor and optimism. Both musicals played a significant role in the development and direction of Indigenous performance.

Chi’s songs have been covered by such artists as the Irish singer Mary Black, and Aboriginal singer Archie Roach. Chi’s music has come to represent the colour of Broome. Broome’s Opera Under the Stars festival has featured Chi’s "Child of Glory", from Bran Nue Dae, at every festival since 1993. His hymns are regularly sung at Aboriginal funerals in Broome.

In 1991, Chi was awarded the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Drama Award for Bran Nue Dae, for the musical about a young Aborigine’s journey to consciousness. In 1997, he was presented with the Australia Council’s Red Ochre Award for the lifetime achievement of an Indigenous artist.

Chi won the Deadly Sounds National Indigenous Music Award for Excellence in Film or Theatre Score in 1998. In 2004 he was acknowledged by the WA Government as a State Living Treasure.

The Movie

The musical has been turned into a feature film directed by Rachel Perkins starring Ernie Dingo, Geoffrey Rush, Jessica Mauboy, Missy Higgins, Deborah Mailman, Magda Szubanski and Dan Sultan.[7][8][9]

The film premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival and won the Audience Award for Best Film. It was theatrically released in Australia on 14 January 2010. It debuted with $2.5 million in its first week, solidifying it as a box office hit. It went on to gross over $7 million, making it one of the most successful Australian films of all time.[10]

References

Australian Government – Culture and Recreation Portal Archived 29 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine Highlights in Australian theatre history
"AusStage – Bran Nue Dae". www.ausstage.edu.au. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
"Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards – 1991 Winners". State Library of Western Australia. Archived from the original on 9 May 2007. Retrieved 11 August 2007.
Australian screen Bran Nue Dae
"Bran Nue Dae". Filmnews. 21 (3). 1 April 1991. p. 12. Retrieved 28 February 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
Bamford, Matt (21 April 2019). "Bran Nue Dae for landmark musical’s 30th anniversary tour". ABC News. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
AdelaideNow Ernie’s Bran Nue Dae
"Rush adds shining light to Broome’s Bran Nue Dae movie project". Archived from the original on 7 December 2008. Retrieved 3 November 2008.
Aaron Hillis, (8 Sep 2010), Aboriginal Musical, Unoriginal Music: Australia’s Hit Bran Nue Dae, The Village Voice accessed 2010-0912
Box Office: Daybreakers adds $468,319, Inside Film

More Information

Chi, Jimmy; Patrick B. Amat; Garry Gower; Michael Manolis; Stephen Pigram (1991). Bran Nue Dae. Currency Press. ISBN 0-86819-293-7.
Material on History of Black Theatre The Future in Black and White. Aboriginality in Recent Australian Drama, by Katharine Brisbane
Makeham, Paul B. (1996) Singing the landscape: Bran Nue Dae. Australasian Drama Studies(28): pp. 117–132.