“This is a milestone in Australian opera. It should be widely seen both here and overseas… It tells an important story, which has relevance to all Australians, and anywhere where there are minority communities who have suffered at the hands of an oppressive majority. ”
Pecan Summer
the birth of Indigenous opera
Pecan Summer is described by its creator and composer, Deborah Cheetham AO, as “an opera for the 21st century, a contemporary opera for Indigenous Australians, a story for all Australians.
The story of the opera is based on the events of the 1939 Cummeragunja walk-off. On February 4th, 1939, hundreds of Yorta Yorta chose to leave their homes with the few possessions they could carry in protest at harsh conditions and treatment by the mission’s manager. Many opted to start new lives over the border in Victoria, so as to escape the restrictive authority imposed at the Cummeragunja mission, which is located on the banks of the Murray River in New South Wales.
It was a remarkable political action and the first of its kind initiated by Aboriginal people. The Walk-off set in motion a new phase in black-white relations and spurred a more vigorous and organised form of Aboriginal political activism across Australia in the decades to come.
Deborah Cheetham began writing the opera in 2007, when she was awarded a two-year Fellowship from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Board of the Australia Council for the Arts. This fellowship led to the creation of Pecan Summer, which premiered on country in Mooroopna in 2010. The success of Pecan Summer has led to the creation of Short Black Opera Company, a national not-for-profit opera company devoted to the development of Indigenous opera singers. In 2011, Short Black Opera presented a season of Pecan Summer at the Arts Centre, Melbourne and in 2012 the company toured to Perth to present a season at the State Theatre Centre of WA.
In 2017 Short Black Opera presented Pecan Summer in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House. This production won 9 Broadway World Awards.
Murray River Dreaming
Original language and translation
by Yorta Yorta Language custodian Sharon Atkinson
Biami wotja Gomuka guli mama yulila Wahhal-matj nanyirr wayirra mandiga
Da ya nanyaburraya baitun bakorra dangana natja Biami wotja danin dunatpan nha-uk daluk
Gomuka yarwul dungadja daborra Dorra gale dana ina mologa wahhal-matj daluk nanyir
Gowidja gomuka gabai dunatpan Danmanmu ngawitpa Daluk dana
Bunyma dutja ina tongala wahhal-matj dalak bawu
Biame ganya munnara Djirringawan nyina
Gokarra dati wala gabai yamin nonu gulli banmira
Ina mugs Gomuka Dunatpan bunyma
Garrulyenek da gabai womandaman moira
Dati nanyubak daluk baka yama gadrin wuwitj maloga
Ngawitpa wurru Dhungala
The creator send an old woman
down from the mountains with her Yam stick to dig food
She go away, farther there across hard, very dry plain
The Creator sent his giant mythical snake to see her
Old woman walk many road to drag a path with her yam stick
Behind old woman, came the giant snake to dance about her path
making bend in the river with his body
The Creator shouted thunder: lighting struck, rain fell
Water cam rushing down the valley
In the tracks the old woman and the giant snake had made
By and by she came upon the sea, fell asleep
Her dogs ran to kick up the sand hills about the mouth of the river