Best Of: Leah Purcell – Blak Women, Blak Stories, Blak Strength - Black Magic Woman with Mundanara Bayles

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Black Magic Woman Podcast with Mandanara Bailey.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm going to kick this podcast off by paying my
respects and acknowledging the Kabcab peoples whose land where this
vodcast right is being recorded from here on.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
The beautiful Sunshine Coast.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'd also like to acknowledge their elders past and present,
and acknowledged that this always was and always will be
Aboriginal land we have never seen in our sovereignty as
First Nations peoples living in this country now known as Australia,
and as always acknowledging country is continuing an ancient diplomatic

(00:51):
tradition that dates back tens of thousands of years in
this country. So for non Indigenous Australians that are watching
or listening, see the knowledgement of country as an opportunity
or even as an invitation for you to participate in
the oldest living, continuous culture in world history. So, in

(01:11):
saying that, I would now like to introduce my guest
today and art. You have been part of my life
from Afar now in Sydney, but even as a young girl,
I still remember seeing you on stage at Woodford Festival
singing run Reader Ruby and Rosie in my head a

(01:34):
Daisy Run, Daisy Run, And that's the first time. And
I might have been about eleven years of age, that's
not that old, but it was quite a long time ago.
So I remember he was a singer on stage. And
then I was introduced to you more as a young
teenager through my mother and my grandmother, the late Marien Watson, as.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Well as my dad.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
But it was actually the women in my life it were,
I would say, more connected to you and you or
had something to do with you. And it was my
mum and my grandmother that I remember yarning about you
and talking about how deadly it was. So it's an
absolute honor and a privilege to have you as my
guest today on the Black Magic Woman Podcast.

Speaker 4 (02:19):
Thank you for having me, and as another Murray Woman.
I also want to acknowledge the country that you sit
on and the country that I sit on and rest
and create, and that is the categal wangle down here
in Sydney.

Speaker 5 (02:33):
And I'm as you've.

Speaker 4 (02:35):
Said, my name is Leah Purcell and I'm a goal
gungu walka walk murray woman, and thank you for having
me on Black Magic Woman podcast.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
Oh Let's create the magic. I was just going to say.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Aunt with all of my guests, I always ask them
to introduce themselves and I think it's an amazing way
for you to talk about or share with us what
you want to share. And at the end, I'm going
to wrap up with your buyer, which is a couple
of pages long.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
But can you our listeners.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
You did already say a bit about your people, your mom,
but for people, especially those that are not familiar with
Queensland or Murray people and Murray Country, we've got listeners
now all around the world.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Can you share with us you.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Know who your people are, where you grew up. And
just a little bit more about to South yep.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
So my bloodline to country in the Nations that I
just ran off there is up in Goa, which is
oh CoA up in Winton, so that's near Longridge. That's
central North and then you come down that center line
to my grandmother's country, which is my mother's mother and
that's Gungay so that's out near Mitchell and Roma and

(03:42):
then Woker Walker is my spiritual place of birth. We've
got historical connection to that country for over one hundred
years because that's where my grandmother. She was stolen from
Mitchell and placed in Sherburg in nineteen ten, and my
grandfather came to Sherburg to live with his mother's sister

(04:02):
and they met and married and they had seven daughters
out there on Sherberg. They lived in Broadway Street, fourth house,
on the right up from the roundabout. And when my
mother was fifteen, my grandfather got a job with some
white people in the township of Mergen and they left
the settlement and they were living out on properties. So

(04:23):
I grew up in town. I'm the youngest of seven
brothers and sisters, five girls, two boys, and my dad
is a white fall but he wasn't present in my life,
so it was just me and my mom. He had
a little bit more to do with the older ones,
but he was married to a white woman and had

(04:43):
children with her, but he had six.

Speaker 5 (04:46):
To my mom.

Speaker 4 (04:47):
So my mom's my hero, my mother, my father. You know,
she gave a lot of time to her mother, looked
after her. She was bed ridden for twenty seven years
with arthur Rotis and Parkinson's disease. Then she looked after
her grand father and unfortunately not long after well, when
I turned eight in I turned eighting in August. I
had my daughter in September. My mother passed away in October.

(05:11):
So unfortunately, you know, when her life was just beginning,
it was taken from her. But her death had set
me free, So I reckon, that's the greatest gift she
could give me to get me out of the situation.
Being the youngest, you know, you've got that responsibility to
stay there. But I was in an abusive relationship and
I had to I had to get out.

Speaker 5 (05:32):
And I'll often.

Speaker 4 (05:32):
Say that her gift to me was her passing. So
I couldn't go on in life without busting myself to
do right by that woman, you know. So and my
and my grandmother because she was from that that generation
where they had no voice, you know, on her papers

(05:52):
when they moved to brand but they were all considered subhuman,
like what is that?

Speaker 5 (05:58):
You know?

Speaker 4 (05:58):
So I do what I do for my mother and
my grandmother because they went through the hard times. And
yes there's hard times today, but we're living in a
world where we can make a change and make a difference.
And that's just my motto. So I'm out there having
a crack.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
I absolutely connected with.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
It's interesting because I've never ever heard you speak about
I've heard you speak about your mother, but I haven't.
I didn't know that you passed when you were eighteen.
And my mother passed in August, two months after my
eighteenth birthday. She was on holidays back in Redfern because
we live in Brisbane, then on holidays back in Redfern,

(06:39):
and had a heart attack on the block at the
age of forty five. And I talk about it every
single day because I'm delivering training and we talk about
closing the gap and statistics around life expectancy. I share
with people my own lived experience and our family history.
So straight away when you said August eighteen, I just
started to think, hold a minute, there's something here that

(06:59):
I can with instantly. And when you said it set
you free, you know, with your mum passing. With my
mom passing, it felt like we had to grow up
a little bit more quicker now to help my dad,
who had our grandmother living with us, but also to
help my older sisters raise their children. But when I

(07:21):
look back at that now, I feel like it was
an honor, you know, for dad to see me as
the most capable at the age of eighteen to step
up and look after four younger children. And now when
I look back at those young children and them growing
up and them raising their children, just how as black
fellows that we drop everything to make sure that our

(07:42):
family and our children like that we can keep them
and look after them. So thank you for sharing that
with us. And what about your husband?

Speaker 4 (07:52):
And you've got a daughter, yes, yes, well my daughter
she's thirty three and I've got two wonderful grandsons from her,
they're fourteen and eleven. And you know, as family, we
all lived together in the one house, so you know this.
We need a new house, so, you know, but we're
family and we wouldn't want it any other way. My
partner and husband and poor fella, you know, been with

(08:15):
me for thirty years.

Speaker 5 (08:17):
Baine Stewart.

Speaker 4 (08:18):
He's a new knuckle nug grounpul man from Stradbroke Island.
So his mob, his mother's from over there, and his
dad is was he always says it a coal miner
from Cesnoch All that the white side of his family
up that way. And I think we me and main
sort of, you know, we we we sort of is
it the ying and the yang of each other, you know,

(08:40):
It's funny because he grew up with his white dad
more with because his mom moved away to Melbourne.

Speaker 5 (08:45):
And I grew up with my black mom and had
not much to do with my white dad.

Speaker 4 (08:49):
So when we got together, we kind of it was.
I loved sitting down unto his dad because I go, oh,
this is what it looks like. They have a white dad,
you know. And then and then you know, his mom
and I'd talk about my family, you know, and then
his mum come up and lived with us, so you know,
once again just opening that door to to family and
and you know that's in important that we're all together

(09:12):
and supporting one another. But Bain, back in his early days,
was into martial arts and he ran the first indigenous
martial arts center in Queensland at west End there and
worked over at dunder Lee at the at the you know,
the boys, what do you call it those days?

Speaker 2 (09:29):
It wasn't the youth service, the hostile kind of.

Speaker 5 (09:33):
Thing hostel yep.

Speaker 4 (09:35):
So and then boys would come and train with him
and work in the gym. So you know, we were
always fostering. You know, everyone would call him uncle or
Auntie Leer and you know, we had our hands there
and a few of them raising them up, or they'd
go gone, I'll send you to Uncle Bain, you know,
and they'd come and stay with us. But yeah, so

(09:55):
he had a big, big connection with them, all them
young fellows there, and and then we sort of picked up,
and of course I was interested in performing. And one
day there we were sort of about three months into
our relationship and typical black fall away.

Speaker 5 (10:10):
So we met by a blind.

Speaker 4 (10:12):
Date because my cousin worked for his cousin and I
went to get a job off his cousin and she said,
you don't want to be a secretary.

Speaker 5 (10:18):
You want to be an actor.

Speaker 4 (10:19):
And I said, well yeah, and she said he yeah,
any good? And I said, oh I think so. And
she said, well, I'm not going to squash your dream.
She said, I can get you a good man.

Speaker 5 (10:27):
I said, oh no, I'm right, I'm right. I just
finished with a long relationship. I'm good.

Speaker 4 (10:31):
But we eventually picked up, and then three months into
our relationship, I was over at this place and I was,
you know, you get comfortable, and I'm there singing in
the shower and he come and he said, you you've
got a good voice. And I said, I'm not going
all I'm already sleaving with you.

Speaker 3 (10:50):
So you making mom trying to kids up.

Speaker 4 (10:53):
Yeah, and he said, no, I'm serious, you're you know
you're talented.

Speaker 5 (10:57):
And then he went for a jog. And this is true.

Speaker 4 (11:00):
Who was cruising up around Musgrave Park. They're coming past
Jaggar Arts And in the in the gutter was a
yellow piece of paper but it was flipped over and
he stopped for some reason and picked it up. And
there was a Murray music workshop and there was Uncle Hedley,
Gary Cooch and then my relations you know, there was
Uncle Oh all their names were good out of my head.

(11:23):
Uncle Angus Rabbit was there, Uncle Robin o' chin. You know,
legends in our in our community for music, you know.
And I said, I know, well their mom, that's my
family gone. They run a monk, you know.

Speaker 5 (11:36):
And I said, and then Bade said no, no, no,
you should go. And I went.

Speaker 4 (11:40):
And it was the best thing that I could have done,
because of course I was uncles and you felt, you
felt empowered, and you didn't feel silly to ask questions.

Speaker 5 (11:50):
You know, you didn't feel dumb.

Speaker 4 (11:51):
You know, if there was might have been Miglou marlbarrand
you know, and I would drive them crazy because I
just wouldn't move from the Mike dagalia, can you give
us a we want to go for smokeo and a
cup of tea, you know, And I'd say, you can go.

Speaker 5 (12:04):
I'm just waiting, and you know, through that he here, Yeah,
I'm just waiting.

Speaker 4 (12:10):
Gone, you can go, And I said, and through that
that that that got I had the experience of working
with the band we made the little cassette of sharing
the load. I wrote my first song and you know,
and and and being back up and helping. So having
that Murray start, you know, into my career made me

(12:30):
feel strong and if I can finish with on that
little note there, then your grandmother Anney Maureen wrote through
Murray Eyes about stories about Musgrove Park Uni. Kathy Fisher
directed it and it was the first sort of theater
where it was majority black flow cast and there's only
two white fellows. I'm pretty sure.

Speaker 5 (12:51):
That was in it.

Speaker 4 (12:52):
And it was our production. And we did it at
Jugger Arts there on the lawn. And once again having
that Murray start, you know, working with on a cassie
g Kathy, she worked me hard, made to go back
three times I said, yeah, an't we related?

Speaker 5 (13:05):
Come on now, and you know, she said, you want.

Speaker 4 (13:08):
To be in this industry, you work hard, and I'm
grateful for that. She taught us how to dance, you know,
before we'd go for lunch, she'd make us. We wouldn't
even holes mate there in Jaggar before we got that
step right, you know. So but it was really I
think it was really important, and I felt privileged to
have that Murray start in my industry because I wasn't

(13:31):
afraid to ask questions I might have if I was
just thrown into white fellow mainstream, you know.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
And I was just going to say in terms of
you know, that groundedness and being grounded in culture and
around people like Grand who was just amazing with her knowledge,
her wisdom, her life experience.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
You know, she's been around the world.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
I don't know how many how many stamps that she
had in her passport, you know, I didn't even know
what a passport was back in them days. But Grand
she was never home, always gone. But in terms of
the storytelling, Gran was an amazing storyteller and she was
known all around the world. And I'll always remember in
terms of Murray Ey's I didn't know about Murray Eyes

(14:14):
or through Murray Eyes. But I'm now going straight to this,
the Drover's Wife, the legend of Molly Johnson. I can't
help it because when I watched the movie, you said,
there's a bit of a poem.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
There about.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
Black is like the color of my skin. Well, Gran
wrote a poem black is, And I remember as a
little girl in Redfern, we had T shirts. Graan used
to make us T shirts green printed, and she'd had
black ears, the color of my skin. She used to
have different things, but red, yellow, black, she used to have.

(14:50):
I remember, like, you know, New York, London, Paris, Redfern,
like all these different T shirts growing up, And you know,
I just I reckon that was her way way of
making sure that we knew who we were and we
knew where.

Speaker 3 (15:03):
We came from.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
And I just thought of that when I watched the
film a couple of weeks ago. There was a poem
there is that a poem that you wrote.

Speaker 4 (15:12):
No, that's that's the song that I that sung in.
Sorry that that the character mumbles with the she hums it.
I'm trying not to give too much away, but she
hums it. So the little voice the mother hums it.
But that's an actual Irish lament, So that one was

(15:35):
and I was inspired by Nina Simone does a version.
But the poem you're talking about from your grandmother. Uncle
Henley Johnson put music to that, and back in the
day I used to but I didn't realize Arnie Maureen
had written that. I've actually only on my music books
here I should read to see if he put her
name on it.

Speaker 5 (15:55):
But he put music to.

Speaker 4 (15:56):
It, and and well I was going to break out,
but I got that other song in my head and
I used to sing that with my back is the
color of my true love's hair, black is the color
of my skin. Yeah, so yeah, so that would be
that might be your grandmother's pole.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
There you go. That straightaway resonated with me. And I've
already basically said about The Drover's Wife, and it is
actually in cinemas now. I do want to talk about
the film because I'm and I'm so excited every time
us blackfellows see a movie at the cinema, right, we
get really excited for our mob because most of the

(16:35):
films will never make it into the cinema. And I
would say, you know, maybe it's too much or too
full on, but I would probably put it down to finances,
resources and budget. So there's the book there, the Drover's.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
Wife, the Legend of Malla Johnson.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
And now there's the film that roadshow Village is backed.
You star in it, you wrote it, produced it, directed it.
Uncle Bain, tell us a little bit about how this
film came to ban because I know that there's as
a whole story behind it.

Speaker 5 (17:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (17:08):
Yeah, And I got some little show and tells here
for you too. So when I was a little a Yes,
when I was little, my mom would tell me I
was a mongrel sleeper.

Speaker 5 (17:18):
I was terrible sleeper, and I slept with her.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
And I'd always say, Mum, tell me that story about
that little girl and that and a sorry little boy
and his mother. And what I was referring to was
this is Henry Lawson's short story and it's fifteen short stories,
and The Drover's Wife was one of them.

Speaker 5 (17:36):
So my mum would read it to me.

Speaker 4 (17:38):
And I know that I was five years old because
on this page I wrote Dick, Dora, Nip and fluff,
and that was from your Grade one readers. So that
was a great record of that and this is the
this is the article, that's the picture from the drover's

(17:58):
wife that's out of the book. And the reason I
reckon I connected to this story. I was five years
old and I started to use my imagination and I
put myself in that story that I was that little boy.
I was my mother's protector. As I said before. You know,
there was no man around, so I was her protector,

(18:19):
and then she was the mother, she was the father, and.

Speaker 5 (18:21):
The drover's wife was left alone.

Speaker 4 (18:24):
So her husband would go driving and leave her alone
and she'd have to fight off you know, rogue swagmen,
men rocking up at her place. You know, the beasts,
wild animals, wild dogs, and in this case in this
story was a snake. And I think, and you know,
we lived on the last street in Mergen. We had

(18:46):
a combustion stove, so we had a wood eat. My
mother taught me to split a log for firewood. She
taught me to stack a wood heap, and she would say,
don't stack it hole or a snake would get under.
And so those things like recalled me back to that story,
and then I carried that story with me for forty
seven years. This little book was the one thing that
I went back into that house to grab when my

(19:07):
mother died. That's the one thing I took. And at
that time, I wasn't going, oh, one day, I'm going
to make a movie. I was in a violent relationship.
I had my daughter on my hip, I had three
bags in the car, and I had that book, and
I was just worried about where I was going to
get a feed into bed that night and the next day.
So you know, jumped down to two thousand and six
and I was doing the film ginderbyne up in Ginderbine

(19:29):
with the director Ray Lawrence. And I went out on
country and on my days off and fell in love
with the landscape. And I said, we don't utilize it
enough in our film and television. So anyway, me and
Bain went out to Mount Kosiosco and you take it
all in And then I just had this urge and
I yelled out, I'm coming back and I think I'm

(19:50):
going to do something, and I think it's going to
be the Drover's.

Speaker 5 (19:53):
Wife and I'm going to be in it. Then it
didn it, you.

Speaker 4 (19:55):
Know, echoed around the mountains, and then you know, cut
to two thous nineteen and I'm on the opposite range
calling action and cut. So you've got to be careful
what you put out there, because dreams, you know, wishes,
become crue. And I guess, but where it all actually
started was I was a frustrated director in a writer's

(20:17):
workshop and all these writers were you know, they had
money thrown at them and actors and drama turks and directors,
and they were still churning out that same twelve pages.

Speaker 5 (20:28):
And I said, Leah, don't take it out on them.
Go home and write your own. You might have that
urge to write again. So I did.

Speaker 4 (20:35):
I pulled that little book off the shelf, that red
folder was s thicken out, and I said, well, maybe
it's time for you.

Speaker 5 (20:40):
Sat it beside my computer.

Speaker 4 (20:42):
I didn't reread it because I wanted to use the
recall of what my mother told me and what I remembered.

Speaker 5 (20:48):
And I sat down and wrote in.

Speaker 4 (20:49):
Seven days the first draft, or I call it a
I call it a spew. It's just everything just comes.

Speaker 5 (20:54):
Out, ideas and away.

Speaker 4 (20:55):
I went five days for Act one, two days for
Act two, and then I handed it in for the
Bell Knaves Fellowship at Belvoir Street Theater in Sydney, and
and I only had to do fifteen pages. And this
is true. I got a little late. Don't forget to
hand in your scripts for the bell Nave things. And

(21:16):
I said, oh, final notice. And I said I never
got the first one because I didn't think. I thought
you had to be a new writer. But it was
it for anyone if you were as moll. As long
as you were mob you know, aboriginal torst rate holity,
you could apply for it.

Speaker 5 (21:29):
So this was True's god.

Speaker 4 (21:31):
This was three point thirty and I rung Bayne and
he said what do you want?

Speaker 5 (21:35):
I said, what are you doing? He said, no, what
do you want?

Speaker 4 (21:38):
And I said, well, at five o'clock is the deadline
for the bell Knaves Fellowship. You've got two hours to
do an application and even oh true, And I said,
well I've got the fifteen pages, you do the application.

Speaker 5 (21:49):
So away you went, and one minute to five he
pressed that send.

Speaker 4 (21:53):
Button and said it's gone. And then you know, my
only note back was what happens next? So we won
that fellowship and allowed me to write with some finance
to help, because my acting gigs are how we pay
the rent and buy the bread and milk and give
money out to mob and so to sit down with
a bit of finance and the script editors. It allowed

(22:15):
me to come up.

Speaker 5 (22:15):
With the drover's wife the play.

Speaker 4 (22:17):
And this play went on to win major awards like
a one Book of the Year, which is unheard of.

Speaker 5 (22:24):
A player had never won it.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
And also we sold out in four days. We only
did thirty three shows. We've only done one season of
it there. But within that time Bain amazingly got all
the people that finance film in Sydney to come along
and see the show and they loved it. They had
had a first draft placed in and then he sort

(22:47):
of looked across at them, you know, it was our
fifth Encrese standing over as it was crazy and the.

Speaker 5 (22:53):
Boy said, what are you done?

Speaker 4 (22:54):
I don't know, just take the bow, you know. I said,
I was just bored and I wanted to write something.
They said, Leah, we'd love you to, you know, continue
on and develop the film out of that. So that's
kind of how it all sort of worked together. And
you know, and it opened in Australia nationally, it's going
to open in the UK and America is not too

(23:19):
far behind. We've got a meeting with the distributors over
there next week to work out when that's coming out.
So it's like pinch me moment, you know, I've just come.
I was a little girl from a single it's happening, yeah,
you know, but my mother.

Speaker 5 (23:32):
Was on a single parent pension. We didn't have anything.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
I've got most of my new clothes out of a
plastic bag from families, you know.

Speaker 5 (23:39):
And we did it tough. When we came to Sydney.
You know, Bain was working doors.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
And you know, I was doing what you have to
do and here we are a film you know, nationally
big name, but no it's still no blankets.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
Is a famous CD title.

Speaker 5 (23:56):
There were yeah, blank lea. You know.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
In terms of I would say the incredible success that
you've had over you know, what is it, thirty years
at least. You've been writing, acting, singing very long time.
A lot of people don't realize it, or maybe in
the arts they dude that. You know, success doesn't usually
happen overnight. It's a long, hard slog, but I just

(24:25):
want to say this, and I'm going to be very
straight up now. I would say that if he was
a wide Australian woman that people would know who you
are and you probably would have rose to fame on
a whole other level if he was a wide Australian woman,
and I really do that's my own opinion. But as

(24:45):
a black woman and someone who's not afraid of telling
the truth and telling it how it is, that it's
kind of taken a lot longer for you to kind
of be.

Speaker 3 (24:57):
Even recognized. And you know, I was very honor to.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
Be part of your Australian Film Walk of Fame, the
gold Star there outside the Ritz Cinema in Randwick. And
it was that moment where you were being acknowledged from
your industry that just in my own opinion, I was
thinking it was lung overdue.

Speaker 5 (25:19):
Yeah, no, thank you, No, you are absolutely spot on,
I think.

Speaker 4 (25:24):
And it was because yes, on fair skin, but my
tongue and my soul is black and with that black tongue,
i'd speak be a truth teller from way back and
they were confused as to.

Speaker 5 (25:36):
Where to put me.

Speaker 4 (25:38):
And you know I got because I got my first
role in police rescue and that wasn't any any race.

Speaker 5 (25:44):
She was just a character.

Speaker 4 (25:46):
But then I got vocal through all the movements that
we did, like we had the you know, there was
a big movement for native title when that started. Because
I did a lot of stuff with Annie Lowadjoor, Donna Hue,
Noel Pearce and Aiden Ridgeway. There was all us mob
and I'd just do the singing. I'd sing that song,
Run Daisy Run, and we went around. So I was

(26:09):
and in those days, no cameras, no Facebook, no social media,
so no one sort of knew.

Speaker 5 (26:14):
That we were on the ground trying to.

Speaker 4 (26:17):
Reassure Australia that their hills hoists weren't going to be taken.
So because of my activism, yeah, the industry wasn't quite
sure where to put me. And that's why I started
advocating my own roles or when people like back in
the ninety six on Fallen Angels, that was an Indigenous role.
And I was doing consultancy work on there and wasn't getting.

Speaker 5 (26:38):
Paid for it or acknowledged for it.

Speaker 4 (26:40):
But I said, you follows don't know this woman, you know.
So I was adding to the script and helping with
the other mob that would come in.

Speaker 5 (26:48):
Good on them for having a go and crack.

Speaker 4 (26:51):
But then I became that's when I realized that I
could be doing this and I could be writing the
best roles for me and for other mobs.

Speaker 5 (26:59):
So yeah, you know, I think you're right.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
A few people else have said, or if you're an
America Leah, you know, the industry is fickle, you know,
it's small. We still have that thing in Australia, the
tall poppy syndrome.

Speaker 5 (27:13):
And I've got that from both.

Speaker 4 (27:14):
Sides, black and white, you know, of you know, the
old crabs in the bucket pulling you down just in case,
you know where people says, oh, you want to do everything,
and I go, yeah, well why not if you've got
the skill and you've got the talent.

Speaker 5 (27:26):
Then would you tell.

Speaker 4 (27:27):
Jonathan Thurston to play half a game because he's too deadly?
Would you tell Kathy Freeman to not run so fast
because you're too good?

Speaker 5 (27:34):
Sis?

Speaker 4 (27:34):
You know? So why can't we be as deadly as
we need to be? And because I know that I've
done a lot for my community. You know, I've done
a lot for young people around this country and they
appreciate it, and they know because they call me mama,
you know, and.

Speaker 5 (27:52):
I'm so I never ever have done anything selfish, you know,
It's all for me.

Speaker 4 (27:58):
Where I've given back done at tenfold and all those
young people that I've worked with, known like Akpa was
a great example of nearly over two hundred children, young
people come through there and we had the biggest success
of you know, the outcomes of mob going into avenues

(28:18):
within the industry, which I'm very very proud of. Or
if they didn't go into the industry, they had that
confidence to to to get work and go forward and
you know, or even just to just to be in
someone's space at a time where they might have needed
someone to give them a hug or give them a
pep up or you know, show them that there is

(28:40):
a life out there if you work hard to make it,
go for it. And me and may have worked extremely hard.
You know, We've jumped through windows, we went through backdoors.
We've tackled people on the street to tell them an idea,
you know, and people go, oh, they.

Speaker 5 (28:56):
Can talk them too, but you know that's the industry.

Speaker 4 (28:58):
You've got to sell your idea. You got to back yourself.
And if you don't back yourself, then who does If
we didn't believe, if he didn't believe, of course, yeah,
we wouldn't be here, you know, And I've always said
to people, you've got to be proactive. My mother used
to say to me, well, you make me while Leah,
You've always got a plan.

Speaker 5 (29:16):
I always had a plan when I was a kid.
If one thing didn't work, Lea always had a plan
for another.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
You always one step, one step ahead, a couple of
steps ahead. And I was going to say, so, really,
when I look at you and Uncle Bain, it really
is a team effort, right, our partnership to be able
to get the film, you know, to be open now
in cinemas across Australia. So Uncle Bain, so you starring

(29:42):
it as Molly, Yeah, and you produce it and directed
and Uncle Bain was also directing you.

Speaker 5 (29:51):
No producer so he was the lead producer.

Speaker 3 (29:54):
So yeah, he was the lead producer.

Speaker 5 (29:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (29:58):
So he he's I get the ideas and he goes
and sells them. So he worked. We did a co
production with Bunya Productions because this is our first time
so we're inexperienced in that. But Bain was at the
forefront when we had to sit down and have all
those conversations with philanthropic people that wanted to invest or.

(30:21):
You know, he was leading that charge of talking up
who I was talking up the story.

Speaker 5 (30:28):
And he's a great talker and he's a great believer
in it.

Speaker 4 (30:31):
So he's talked and he's still and he's exhausted right now,
you know, because he's got he's talking to America, he's
talking to the UK because we're yet to come out
over there. You know, he's trying to get as much
promotion out of the film so that people support it

(30:51):
and go see it in cinemas because we've got to
pay back all the money to others before we even
see a cent of it, you know what I.

Speaker 5 (30:59):
Mean, Big name, no blanket. Still and he'd just working.

Speaker 4 (31:03):
And you know, he's such a good business man as well,
in the sense of he knows when to push, he
knows when.

Speaker 5 (31:08):
To step back.

Speaker 4 (31:10):
He's brilliant in how he puts everything together. And packaging
he's packaging. The biggest compliment that followed Gott was when
we were in America and someone said, this is the
best packaging I've ever received. And they were a very
well known person in a in you know, in my
I don't know if it was Warner Brothers or one

(31:30):
of them.

Speaker 5 (31:30):
You know, they went, wow, this is amazing.

Speaker 4 (31:32):
So that was real validation for him and what he does,
you know, and he's a virgo, so.

Speaker 5 (31:37):
He's very precise.

Speaker 4 (31:39):
And then one other, one other of our investors you know,
who passed away now bless him, and he was a
really he was a great mentor. That was Neil bal Knaves,
a great mentor for Bain and Baane could pick the
phone up and ask questions and Neil was there to
answer everything.

Speaker 5 (31:56):
And Neil said some amazing things.

Speaker 4 (31:57):
He said, Baine, you you're spot on in how you
do business in this industry, and you.

Speaker 5 (32:02):
Too will go a long way, you know.

Speaker 4 (32:04):
And he, you know, we basically fell into it. Well,
he did managing me by mistake, because I couldn't get
an agent, and I had a book deal, I had
a play. I just finished Police Rescue Fallen Angels, but
their quota for indigenous people was full and they didn't
want anyone else. So he had to step in and

(32:24):
start managing me. You know, he's and he used to
manage boxes and he said them boxes and fighters kick boxes,
they were easy compared to Yulia.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
Well, it would be it would be hard gear. I
could not even imagine. And I just like in terms
of the film and you know philanthropy. I was on
a workshop yesterday where the deadly brother there in Wa
or Nungar country named Reese. A big shout out to him,
my brother who did a session court acknowledge this for

(32:56):
a lot of the executives from Philanthropy Australia and I've
just taken a position on Philanthropy Australia's RAP Advisory Group,
which is pretty deadly and just doing that session and
listen to another brother talk about his country and doing
that kind of cultural awareness cultural education piece which I

(33:18):
do at Black Card. So I was there for two reasons.
Philanthropy Australian invited me in. Second reason is that I
wanted to meet the brother, heard of the brother and
for my own self development and cultural development professional development.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
But I spoke about it at the end really.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
Quickly thought I'd get a word in and I said
to everybody, I said, The Drover's Wife is out tomorrow
in cinemas around the country.

Speaker 3 (33:42):
Go out and see it.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
I said, big shout out to the philanthropic sector for
making this film possible. There's many players that made this
film possible. I heard art with a live Q and
a in Sydney the big premiere, and you mentioned Beal Naves,
and I just want to let the sector know. The
people sitting in that zoom session, I wanted them to

(34:04):
know that, you know the fact that philanthropic funding goes
to about five percent of Indigenous charities across the country,
only five percent of that money, and I really wanted
to highlight to them right then and there. You know,
first of all, kind of pat on the back, deadly
that philanthropy and philanthropic funding has contrib contributed towards this film,

(34:29):
but the need for their money to be invested into
our communities not just you know, you know there's suicide prevention,
there's unemployment, there's you know, incarceration rates, there's domestic violence.

Speaker 3 (34:44):
There are a whole lot.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
Of services and organizations in our communities that need philanthropic funding.
But I'd never thought about philanthropic funding for the arts.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
And this is really important.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
That this money they look not look look beyond our
community organizations that need that funding, but also to make
sure that they don't leave the arts behind. And there's
a lot of money that's invested in non indigenous kind
of communities and film and the arts. But if we're
really going to when we think about the history in

(35:22):
this country, if we're going to get to a place
of reconciliation. In terms of moving forward, it's not a
term that I like to use. How do we move forward?
What I always talk about it is how do we
acknowledge how did we get to the place that we're into,
How did Aboriginal people arrive here? Or why are Aboriginal

(35:43):
people in the position that we're in today. Why are
we dying at the rates that we're dying. You know,
my mom at forty five, her sister at thirty. I
know when will Kenya. The life expectancy for an abitional
man is thirty nine, and that's an abitual community.

Speaker 3 (35:57):
In New South Wales.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
Why were the most macerated people on the planet. Why
are our children still being removed at such high rates
from our families and our community? So there's all of these,
you know, kind of competing issues, I would say, or
challenges in our community. But the arts and theater, and
I only know recently because I've joined the board with

(36:20):
the Queens and Theater Company, how important the arts is
as a vehicle as a mechanism for all Australians to
hear stories, especially the Drover's wife, the legend of Molly Johnson,
and to connect with it and hopefully, you know, to
start having conversations that need to be had, especially around

(36:43):
domestic violence, which is a huge issue in this country.
I don't want to give too much away from the film,
but I want to say that I hope I hope
people go out and see it because it's a film
that needs to be seen and needs to be watched,
and we need to start having these conversations, especially if
your organization has a reconciliation action plan, if you've got

(37:04):
a wrap and you've got deliverables in that wrap for
your people to educate themselves or to be exposed or
immersed in aviational culture. This is a film that's going
to start those conversations. And the theme this year for
Reconciliation Week it's be Brave, Start Change something like that,
and the NATOC theme is get up, Stand Up, Show Up.

(37:26):
So I just think that this film is coming out
it's such a good time, especially when I think about
NATOC Week and n RW Week for a lot of
the corporates that might be watching this podcast. If you're
thinking about something that you can do with your people's well,
reach out to black Card and hopefully we can put
on a private screening or go out and buy a
couple of hundred tickets and give those tickets to your

(37:47):
employees or gift it to your clients or even the
indigenous businesses that you're working with and hopefully are continuing
to work with into the future. And in terms of
Umbara Productions, I know that you've got a joint venture
with Taxi Films, So do you want to share a
little bit about that with us?

Speaker 4 (38:08):
Yeah, well hopefully in the future near future. Well, we're
actually right now. We are working on a few Queensland projects.
So it was an opportunity to come home and connect
in and have a base there, but also work with
mob and their stories. So there was through the screen Queensland.

(38:31):
There was the first draft first Nations Initiative for scripting,
and I think there was about six. There was quite
a few and we have to narrow it down to
six and three out of the six have been constantly
coming back to me and asking for advice. So I
said to them they have to be proactive in what

(38:54):
they do and hopefully, if not with us, or at
least with someone that we can steer them in the
right direction to get their work made. So that's exciting
and hopefully we'll have a few more initiative initiatives.

Speaker 5 (39:11):
To come as we we just had to get through
the Drover's Wife.

Speaker 4 (39:17):
Launch day and once we're out around the world we
can then you know, focus in and hone in and
but you know, it was interesting. I've sort of now
that Molly Johnson is riding on a horse out there
in the public in Australia.

Speaker 5 (39:31):
It's been interesting.

Speaker 4 (39:31):
Because my head's been going, oh, what's your next one, Leah,
And I think I've got a story and it is
Queensland Base, but that's a lot safe for now.

Speaker 5 (39:39):
But you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (39:40):
So it's about coming home, it's about helping to employ
you know, not what what the big thing we need
in our industry is. I know a lot of mob
want to be in front of the camera or director
or writer, but we really need technicians. We need sound,
we need you know, camera, we need wardrobe, we need makeup.

Speaker 5 (40:01):
You know.

Speaker 4 (40:01):
That's and we get lots of phone calls from people
going we'd love to have an indigenous attachment to the
technical side of things working in electrics working in props,
you know, so I'd encourage and what we will do
is look at initiatives like that where we encourage that
side of things as well, because they're great jobs. You

(40:24):
get to be on set, they're great opportunities. You know.
It's hard work, you know, are you going to start
in the at the bottom of the ruck and work
your way out?

Speaker 5 (40:33):
But I think that's good.

Speaker 4 (40:35):
My aunt always said, well, that's that's your initiation now
in life.

Speaker 5 (40:39):
You know, we don't have ceremony.

Speaker 4 (40:40):
Anymore, but getting work and working your way up through
up the ladder is part of your process of growth.

Speaker 5 (40:47):
You take the good with the bad.

Speaker 4 (40:50):
So when she said, because I was there crying to
her about something and she said, well, look at it
as initiation, Lea.

Speaker 5 (40:55):
You're wearing your scars on the inside now, you know,
And that's life. You are to take the good with
the bad.

Speaker 4 (41:00):
So that's what we hope to do with Umbara and
Taxi in Queensland, and we are working very closely with
three projects that hopefully see the day day of what
is it light of day soon in some sort of form.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
I've heard I've heard there's a Netflix series coming. Well,
I'm not meant to give that one away.

Speaker 5 (41:19):
Now, no, no, you can.

Speaker 4 (41:20):
But whether it's with Netflix, we're not sure. But what
it is was we hope give a screamer or a
broadcaster on board. But it's sort of the next stage
of the Drover's Wife, the Legend of Molly Johnson. And
it's going to be a premium a limited TV series,
so that means it's sort of like a one season,
but look, I've got stories to cover three seasons if

(41:42):
people love it that much. But it's a limited TV series,
so it's eight episodes and where it's set is in
twenty twenty.

Speaker 5 (41:53):
And when you go see the.

Speaker 4 (41:54):
Film, there's a little girl in the film and that's
Molly's daughter, Delphi, and in the TV series it's Delphi's
great great great great granddaughter who was in twenty twenty.
An incident happens and she's got to go back up
into the snowy mountains and while she's up there, her
family's history presents itself and she learns about history and

(42:14):
connecting all the dots and whilst she's up there, it's
about her finding her voice and placing yourself. So the
tagline is her Name's Molly in twenty twenty. She's got
to go back through eight generations of strong black women
to find her voice, to find herself.

Speaker 5 (42:35):
So I'm very excited.

Speaker 4 (42:37):
I've got the outlines and I've got to hand it
in on the thirty first of May.

Speaker 5 (42:45):
And that's just and what it is. It's a pitch document.

Speaker 4 (42:48):
So once we have that pitch document, then we can
go and pitch the idea to all the streamers and
broadcasters and you know, we might do a copro production
as well. So that's when Main steps up up and
he takes so it's like I make the Coolerman. Well,
we've got our Coolerman, and I'm putting in whatever I need,
you know, then gum leaves and a bit of EMU

(43:09):
feathers and a bit of you know, Lily Pilly or something,
you know, and then I hand it over to him
and then he takes it out and sells the products
and get people to believe in the work, and then
we get.

Speaker 5 (43:22):
That Bungo and then we can employ mob.

Speaker 4 (43:24):
You know, this is the great thing because majority of
it there's a lead Indigenous First Nations.

Speaker 5 (43:30):
There's a lead is the female.

Speaker 4 (43:32):
Then there's a First Nations support lead role and then
there's a whole big family and community.

Speaker 5 (43:38):
So that's what's exciting too.

Speaker 4 (43:40):
We get to employ mob and hopefully there's technicians there
to come on and work in that aspect of behind
the scenes as well.

Speaker 5 (43:49):
It would be awesome.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
I think it's so good that you mentioned it because
the whole world has gone through a skill shortage, staff
shortage right at the moment, So we need to start
thinking about especially I know AKPA. I don't think it's
being funded anymore or it's fallen down. I'm not too sure,
but I did hear a conversation. So if our own
you know, Aboriginal performing arts, you know schools are not

(44:14):
existing anymore, not operating animal, where do our mob go?
So these are really important conversations for people in the
arts to start thinking about Light Queens an theater company.

Speaker 3 (44:24):
How are you growing the talent? You know, this younger generation.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
When you look at the fact that we're three percent
of the population and half of our population are children,
Like fifty percent of our population are under the age
of twenty five arts and there are a lot of
young people that are going to be coming through the
ranks soon. And there's so many young people at university.
I think it's the most university enrollments so qut Griffith

(44:48):
University UQ, I know, probably in Sydney as well than
ever before. So how do we make sure that that
pipeline of talent. You know, not everyone's going to be
on stage, and not everyone wants to be in front
of the camera, but there's so many other positions, like
you said, behind the camera for our mobs. So hopefully
people watching this now start to think, all right, there's

(45:09):
a skill shortage, and there's going to be opportunities to
work with people like you aren't, which is going to
be amazing. And there's probably not many you know, black
film productions in the country, you know, probably just a
few or maybe even a handful. So we need to
make sure that our mob, who are when you think
about it, you know, the oldest storytellers on the planet.

(45:31):
We're going to make sure that we're you know, making
sure that those opportunities or pathways are available, because not
always will our mob succeed in those white fellow organizations
or these big film production companies. You know, our mob
might not feel comfortable or you know, in those environments.
So we need to make sure that our mob are

(45:53):
working in organizations or companies where they are feeling you know,
that sense of you know, connected it and that they belong.

Speaker 5 (46:02):
Yeah, no, exactly.

Speaker 4 (46:03):
And you know it's like this young this next generation,
they blow me away, you know, of mob. They're so
they're just so deadly. You know, they're they're they're they're smart,
they're savvy. You know, they got it going on. And
I think you know, to know that there's been the
biggest enrollment since the universities around the country is just

(46:25):
is music. Our ancestors would be dancing because this is
what they.

Speaker 5 (46:28):
Want, you know, to achieve.

Speaker 4 (46:31):
You know, we've got to be hungry to achieve because
all of us will bring our mob with us. See
that's the thing with us mob. We just when we
achieve everyone, it's everyone's success. So we need to be
encouraging on many levels, you know, not just the footballers,
not just the actors. We need the people at the grassroots,

(46:52):
you know, of organizations. We need to make sure that
you know, organizations as yourself is on the board of
Queensland Theater. Is that what you're on yep, yeah, yeah,
you know, and to have a black representative in there,
to be pushing the agenda of how do we employ
how do we make this place feel safe for mob

(47:13):
to come and to like me, ask those dumb questions
where we're all frightened to be shame, you know, but
have another black face there where we can go, Hey,
which way you know, and I swear by.

Speaker 5 (47:26):
It, you know, to make that so it is it.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Is, and I can Yeah, it's an awesome time.

Speaker 5 (47:33):
It's an awesome time.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
I'm just going to have to capitalize, of course, I
was just gonna say.

Speaker 4 (47:38):
There.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
They are the conversations that we are having at a
broad level, you know. They are the conversations about how
do we grow our workforce and also make sure that
there's budget there to employ our mob, not just in
the admintal trainee roles, but in all roles across you know,
the film film, it's film here, I'm English, across film

(48:00):
and the theater and the arts more broadly. And it's
really deadly to know that we've got, you know, a
deadly quantumooker woman who's basically the Minister for the Arts,
Leanne Enoch. So having someone like her at the forefront,
when when you think about policy and government funding, to

(48:21):
have someone like her making sure that there is a
policy and there is funding available. Then we've got to
know that in terms of in terms of we can't fail,
we can't not do what's been mandated from the top down.
So it's really good to have her support and her
she's always making sure. She'll bring me every now and

(48:43):
again and asks me how's everything going. And I'm the
first one to tell her, yeah, no, these mob right,
we're going to take a bit more longer to get
there in terms of building relationships and getting out because
Queensland is a really big state. And also, you know
we're in this unique position, isn't because we've got both
indigenous cultures, So we've got to make sure that the

(49:04):
stories are being collected and told by both Aboriginal and
torsha under mob. And I really wanted to say big
shout out because I've been studying this week doing my
Masters of Business in Indigenous Business Leadership with the Monash
University Mob and Katrina Muhammad. She was at Mohammed now

(49:25):
Katrina Johnson, a deadly sister that's flown over from the
United States to be in class in Melbourne. I'm not
on campus this week. I've been at home with my babies.
But Katerina, when I said to assists, I know we've
got an assignment you tomorrow, but I need to go
and do this recording with annie Leah. She said, Oh,
make sure you tell her that we're all very proud

(49:47):
of her and how deadly she is. So big shout
out and big loves from the monash Uni moob who's
supporting you. But also in terms of just our community.
You know, you've an absolute inspiration. And you know, I
hate using the word role model because sometimes role model,
you know, there's a lot of pressure and responsibility that

(50:09):
comes with the word role model. But just in terms
of you being able to contribute what you have, not
just to our community, but to this country as a whole,
I just wanted to say thank you, and I know
I've got to wrap up the yard, but I want
to say, if there was one thing that you could
leave our listeners right with, what would it be. If

(50:30):
it's something to do with the film, or if you
want to target young people or you want to target
mainstream Australians or prepare them for the film, I'm going
to leave that one with you.

Speaker 4 (50:41):
Well, well, there's a couple of things I always like
to give to the young people. Have a dream, doesn't
matter how outrageous it is. Because when I told people
when I was a nine year old girl that I
wanted to act like Doris Day, Eliza men Ellien, Barbus Streisan,
people laughed. You know, and have a dream, because I
think a lot of young people don't. You know, So

(51:02):
keep dreaming because you know you might get all the
way there, or you might get halfway, but as long
as you get somewhere in life. And I tell people,
you have to be proactive. Don't rely on anyone else.
Family included, love them, but you have to be in
charge of your destiny. In regards to the film, I

(51:23):
hope all Australians and people around the world get behind
The Drover's Wife, The Legend of Molly Johnson. I worked
hard on it, and Baine worked hard on Everyone worked
hard on it. I think it's a special film in
the sense that I want to bring about debate and
conversation in our country. I want us to look back
on our past as blackfellows and find the power in

(51:47):
where we've come from. Yes, there's a lot of pain
and there's a lot of trauma, but we have survived,
we continue to survive.

Speaker 5 (51:55):
There's a reason for that.

Speaker 4 (51:56):
And I hope that that nonindigenous Indigenous people will will
It'll make them just consider and I hope that they
have conversations and talk about the issues that are raised
and maybe bring about a bit awareness an awareness. But
at the end of the day, I also hope that
they think that they spend their money wisely. And it's

(52:19):
a good drama as well, you know. It is a
content warning to all the indigenous mile about there, But
everyone who knows my work should know that I'm not
afraid to tell the truth. And it'll drive us and
we'll be all crying, but it's also releasing, you know
as well. And yeah, and I just want to say
to you and your sisters, your mother and father will

(52:40):
be so proud of what you all have done as well,
you know. And and it's just great to see black
magic women out there all over, you know, in various
positions in the world.

Speaker 5 (52:52):
Some of them are the best mothers. And that's the
hardest job in.

Speaker 4 (52:55):
The world to people sitting on boards to CEOs and
companies run and minister of the arts, you know what
I mean. But as long as we back one another,
support one another, even if sometimes we disagree with one another,
that's okay, but let's not pull each other down.

Speaker 5 (53:11):
Just keep the praise and rise up.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
What an amazing way to actually wrap up our yarn.
I just want to say, I know that this film
is going to be a huge success because I am
making sure personally that every single person that has done
Black Card training, every single corporate, every single partner and
relationship that I built over the last nine years of

(53:35):
running our business, they are hearing about the drover's wife
every single day in every single workshop and every single
yard I'm having even in meetings like with the Philanthropy
Australia before they all got off the zoom, I'd just
hold a minute, just one more thing. I really want
people to go out and watch the film, but I
really want people to start having these conversations because it's

(53:58):
exhausting for us black fellows to be doing the heavy lifting.

Speaker 5 (54:02):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
We make up three percent the population and we need
the ninety seven percent of the population to support us
in doing some of the heavy lifting when it comes
to the history of this country. So Art, thank you
so much. And I know you're a busy woman, so
just an hour of your time. I just want to
say thank you. It's not just an hour. I know
that there's a lot that's been because of you in

(54:24):
terms of these screenings and flying here, zooming here, talking
to these people, but to make time for this podcast,
I am very very thankful, So thank you, thank you.
How amazing and inspirational is aunt Leah Purcell Am? And
I'm going to just now share a little bit about
art because as black fellows, you know, like, not only

(54:46):
don't we have enough time to talk about all the
things that we've achieved, but it's also part of our
culture that you're brought up to be humble, not to
bignature of.

Speaker 3 (54:56):
So I'm going to do some big noting now for
aunt so Art.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
He is a multi award winning director, actor, writer, producer
and showrunner. She has written and directed Landmark Film, TV
and theatrical works such as Box, The Pony, You would
have seen her in redfer Now, Clever Man, The Secret Daughter,
My Life Is Murder, The Twelve and The Drover's Wife.

(55:20):
She is an actor Helpman, The Deadly's Australian Directors Guild, Orgie, AFI,
Matilda and LOGI award winning and nominated Artist for her
outstanding work on iconic feature film, TV and theaters such
as Lantana, Ginderbyne and The Proposition Police Rescue, which she

(55:41):
mentioned Janet King and she plays Reader in Wentworth, as
well as Boxer Pony, The Story of the Miracles at
Cookie's Table and of course The Drover's Wife. Her writing
has been recognized with the New South Wales Premiers Literary Awards,
are Queensland Premier's Literary Award and the Victorian Prize for Literature.

(56:03):
In twenty seventeen, she received the Sydney UNESCO City of
Film Award, and in twenty twenty one was made a
Member of the Order Australia for significant service to the
performing arts, to First Nations, youth and culture, and to women.
Most recently, she was a twenty twenty one winner of

(56:23):
the Asia Pacific Screen Awards Jury Grand Prize for her
multifaceted role in her directorial debut, rider, producer and lead
actor of the feature film The Drover's Wife, The Legend
of Molly Johnson. Currently, Aunt is starring opposite Sigourney Weaver
in Amazon Originals The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, produced

(56:46):
by Brunner Papandrea and made up stories and in development
on the premium limited series based on The Drover's Wife
The Legend of Molly Johnson novel and film. I know
that there's a lot there, and I'm sure there is
much more to talk about, But like we talked about
in our yarn, The Drover's Wife, The Legend of Molly

(57:08):
Johnson is now in cinemas across this country, and soon
we'll be in the United States and across the UK.
Go out and watch it or buy the book, have conversations,
and hopefully, like I said, you know, the rest of
the country can help us as First Nations peoples in
terms of the heavy lifting when it comes to understanding

(57:30):
and also owning our history in this country.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
So I hope you've enjoyed this yarn. Until next time.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
Bye for now, don't forget to follow Black Magic Woman
podcasts on all social media platforms. To keep up to
date with the latest episodes and news, head to Blackmagicwoman
dot com dot au. You can rate and review the
podcast on iTunes, and please feel free to share the
podcast with your family and friends.

All Episodes

Best Of: Leah Purcell – Blak Women, Blak Stories, Blak Strength

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

The Breakfast Club

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Best Of: Leah Purcell – Blak Women, Blak Stories, Blak Strength