Music / Tjaabi – Flood Country, sung by Patrick Churnside. At The Vault, Fyshwick, May 24. Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD

This is the latest cross-cultural production from Big-hART, who for 30 years have been producing theatre and music shows. 

These often come out of disadvantaged First Nations communities, such as Songs of Freedom, heard here last year and, like this show, from the Roebourne district in the Pilbara in WA.

Tjaabi are, from what I gathered from this production, the popular songs (as distinct from the secret, sacred music) of the Pilbara. These days this vast area is thought of mostly as a huge open-cut iron ore mine, but it has been the home of several Aboriginal nations for millenia.

Patrick Churnside is of the Ngarluma nation from the area around Roebourne and the one in a line of tjaabi singers and composers extending back to at least his grandfather. 

The songs are short, with distinctively Aboriginal melodic lines and rhythmic patterns and sung with great power by Churnside. One of the intentions of this production is to revitalise the tjaabi song tradition in the Pilbara, as well as sharing the music and stories with a wider public. 

This show is not simply a presentation of this fascinating song tradition, but a one-man theatre work, part autobiographical, part social commentary, part history woven around the songs. 

Churnside is on stage for an hour with a few minimal props, a backdrop with projected animated images and musician Aaron Hopper off to the side providing gentle accompaniment to the songs on guitar with a few electronic effects.

This production was described by the show co-writer and director Scott Rankin as a “practice tour”, performing in small venues around the country and often where there are First Nations communities as a form of cultural exchange. The intention is that it will return in a year or so for a full theatrical tour. 

This is a powerful piece of theatre which worked well with the minimal staging available in The Vault, with an intimacy and connection in a less formal venue. Churnside is an engaging performer, holding the audience throughout. 

The Vault is little more than a large concrete box in the parking lot behind Capital Brewing out near the Jerrabomberra wetlands, but an interesting addition to less structured performance spaces in Canberra. Good ramen at The Canteen nearby as well.