There is a ring of white in the middle of the stage. A man stands inside it, slightly to the side. In the dark we listen to politi­cians and radio hosts dis­cuss Indi­gen­ous Aus­trali­ans. Taken from their fam­il­ies ‘for their own good’, ‘to save them from them­selves’. A lone voice offers an apo­logy.

The sober­ing begin­ning is in con­trast to the rest of the show which is often play­ful and light. Per­former Ian Michael invites us to ‘listen for what sticks out’ and tells us that the ver­batim stor­ies come from four Noongar men.  At one stage he says ‘Trauma goes through gen­er­a­tions’ so I like the fact that it’s dif­fi­cult to tell the indi­vidu­al recol­lec­tions apart some­times. They love their Mums, they feel dis­con­nec­ted from their cul­ture, they’re try­ing to live the best life they can, and their stor­ies are scattered over dec­ades. There are def­in­itely hor­ri­fy­ing stor­ies yet pos­it­ive events are equally cel­eb­rated.

The effects of the Stolen Gen­er­a­tion con­tin­ues to echo in the present. This is a fas­cin­at­ing show that presents a his­tory not often seen on stage.

Con­tent warn­ing for Abori­gin­al and Torres Strait Islanders: the show may con­tain images or voices of dead per­sons.

  • Hart presen­ted by She Said Theatre on at BATS theatre to 24 Feb­ru­ary 2016