Tuesday, 10 June
10.00pm

Over the next two weeks Artists At Work joins the Black Swan Theatre Company and Bunuba Films as they prepare to bring the epic theatre production Jandamarra to the stage for the first time as part of the 2008 Perth International Arts Festival.

Inspired by true events, this is the story of one of Australia's great Indigenous heroes - Jandamarra. For Jandamarra's people, the Bunuba of the central Kimberley, it is a vibrant legend that they are determined to share with Australians and the wider world.

Jandamarra was a young Indigenous warrior in his mid-twenties when he was hunted down and shot in North Western Australia in 1897. In his short life he was renowned as the leader of the most successful Indigenous resistance campaign against the police and an ever encroaching white settlement.

Artists At Work: Jandamarra traces the rehearsal and production period of the play through until opening night. It also follows the writer, Steve Hawke, as he visits the spectacular Kimberley country where Jandamarra's story unfolded.

Part 1 of Artists At Work: Jandamarra, follows Jandamarra's production period from the first read-through of the play's script and the set-design briefing, to the first full-rehearsal run. On location in the Kimberley, the writer Steve Hawke takes us to the Lilimooloora Station ruins where Jandamarra, then a police tracker, changed sides in defence of his captive kinsmen and killed Constable Richardson. Hawke also guides us through Windjana Gorge where Jandamarra led an ambush against a large police force.

Artscape: Artists At Work: Jandamarra Pt 1 will be repeated on ABC2 – Sunday, June 15 at 7:00pm