Jalen Sutcliffe - A First Nations Performer’s Journey Through Art, Identity, and Storytelling

In this episode of Yarning Up, we sit down with the multi-talented Jalen Sutcliffe, a proud Darumbal, Kalkadoon, and Papua New Guinean performer from Townsville, North Queensland. Jalen takes us on a journey through his inspiring career as a musician, comedian, actor, and storyteller. From his roots in high school performances to starring on television shows like Bay of Fires and theatre productions like Straight from the Strait, Jalen reflects on the power of art to break down barriers, honour First Nations heritage, and create meaningful change.

We delve into the stories behind his standout performances, including his role in Straight from the Strait, which honours the resilience and legacy of Torres Strait Islander railway workers. Jalen also shares the joy of embracing authenticity, the importance of debunking shame in First Nations communities, and the role of storytelling in preserving culture.

To connect with Jalen further and stay up to date with his upcoming projects follow him on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/jalen_sutcliffe/ 

Follow Caroline on Instagram:
@blak_wattle_coaching and learn more about working with Caroline here.

We would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri/Woiwurrung people of the Kulin Nation where this podcast was taped, and pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders, past, present, and emerging across Australia.

This podcast is brought to you by On Track Studio.
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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Podcast. Unite our voices.

SPEAKER_02 0:04

This podcast is brought to you by On Track Studio. Welcome to Yarning Up, the podcast that showcases First Nations stories and conversations to help us learn and unlearn Australia's history to work towards a better future. I'm your host, Proud Barbara Woman and founder of Black Waddle Coaching and Consulting, Caroline Cal. We acknowledge the Rurundari people and elders where this podcast is taped, but we also acknowledge the lands that you are listening in from today. It always was and always will be unseated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land. Well, I'm super excited about our next fella who's joining us on the show. I feel like it's been a pretty heavy time, and I was thinking about today's record, and I just felt this like immense sense of joy and lightness kind of come over me because I'm so excited to be sitting down with Jalen Sutcliffe, uh a fella from Northern Queensland, uh a countryman from from where I'm from. And um yeah, I'm really excited just to connect with you, bros. So thank you so much. Welcome to Yarning Up.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Oh, thank you, Mom, for having me. I'm excited to be here. When you sent the the um questions out and was like, hey, you want to come on? I was like, yes. Yeah, I was very excited to come on for a yarn. So no, it's good to be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Oh, thank you, my bro. I mean, I've been following your work and your socials and what you were doing in black comedy for a long time, but I was really taken aback because I was at event, uh, the fellowship program, you know, shout out to Culture is Life and Arnie Bin and Madeline and Umfara and the crew, and you just radiated this joy and energy and this, yeah, this this energy that I was like, yeah, I gotta get this fella on the show. I think he's gonna be not just good for my spirit, but for our listeners and the mob too. So yeah. Yes, every um, and I also want to say thank you because I understand you are coming off uh yeah, opening night of a show, which I really want to talk about, It's Lay Zombie. So thank you for being here, um, particularly in spite of that. As we do on this show, I'd love you to sort of start by, yeah, can you introduce yourself, your mob, and just tell us a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Yeah, for sure. So uh my name is Jalen Sutcliffe, born and raised in Townsville, North Queensland. Uh, but my mobs uh Durrumble and Calcutta are on my mother's side, and Papua New Guinean on my father's side, so um from the Mora Bay province there up in New Guinea. And yeah, I've I guess I'm I'm a musician, comedian, actor. What else is there? I'm trying to part-time dancer, um only after I've had a few and yeah, I guess I started started everything once I kind of left high school. Um, moved down here to Brisbane to study for three years at the Aboriginal Center for Performing Arts up here. So I had started in music and kind of music was the passion, and then I kind of found my way into Deadly Funny, which is also um another a branch of uh the Melbourne International Comedy Festival that highlights and showcases um up-and-coming comedians, First Nations comedians across the country. So um I got a taste of that, and that was my first time ever doing stand-up and um had the the opportunity to go down to Melbourne and take out the national final. Um so did that, and then um I've also had the opportunity to work with um Auntie Deborah Cheatham with Short Black Opera. Um so I got the chance to um perform in Pekant Summer that was on at the Sydney Opera House a couple of years ago. So yeah, so within that time frame, that was all still living down here in in Brisbane and kind of just getting an understanding of the industry and figuring out everything and how it all works and kind of yeah, going from there. And then the University of Tasmania did a gospel course with us at at ACPA. And after the call, uh after the gospel intensive, they were like, hey, if you want to, you know, if you're interested in in studying further or just want to test yourselves out and and come to uni, then you know, we'll help you, we'll support you when you come down, we'll help you, you know, look for accommodation, look for work, um, help you get into the degrees want to get into as well. If it if it's not in the musical stream, then whatever that may be at uni, if you're interested. So yeah, a couple of us ended up uh moving down to to Tassie to study at uni. Um and then I just recently graduated last year, the year before, with a Bachelor of Music. So within that time frame of living down in Tassie for a couple years, I got to work on black comedy, um, doing the writers' workshops and then being a mainstay actor for season four, and then did a few little extras things on Rosehaven, uh, which is another show on ABC that's based down in Tassie, which is um which is pretty funny with with um Celia and and Luke McGregor. Um and then yeah, getting the chance to be on Bay of Fires um as well, which is pretty awesome. Getting to there was a lot of heavy hitters, Australian heavy hitters in that show, which uh it was awesome to kind of rub shoulders with and and meet and have dinner with at night time and just you know hear their stories and just see how how cool they were with with everything and just being able to have a yarn after all the big roles that they've done and people they've worked with. And then finished that and then um decided to move back home. I thought I think I just needed a break from everything and just wanted to come back home and um just have a reset and and refresh and be back with family, and um, so I was really, yeah, really looking forward to finishing up down in Tassie and and making the trip back up home. Um it was my myself and one of my other brothers, Leroy uh Tipulora, who's a little Tiwi follower. Um, but he's a a deadly performer in his own right. Um and we we sold everything and hired a car and traveled all the way up the east coast back up to Queensland together. It was a it was a crazy trip. The longest we did it in I think a week and a week and a half. Um so we were we were fairly cruising it up that highway. We made it safely. I dropped him off in Byron Bay with his with his family there, and then I headed up the rest of the way by myself to Townsville. So yeah, we made it back, and then as soon as I got home, it was like a a weight was just kind of lifted off my shoulders, and I was like, ah, all right, I'm home now. I can kind of relax for a bit and um catch up with family and help out where I can and um just just be home for a little bit and um catch up on on miss time. I think I'm ready to to leave again. I feel like everyone's getting sick of me out there, but I'm yeah, it's excited for I guess what's to come next. Not sure what that is after this show, E Slay Zombie, but um yeah, just kind of taking everything as it comes and yeah, just excited for what's next on this on this journey in this crazy industry.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Wow, my bro. I mean, look, firstly, I just want to yeah, shout out to to your multi-clans and your mobs and um shout out to both your your heritages. And yeah, for someone who has left high school and gone on to uni, you sure have accomplished a lot, my bro, in featuring in all these shows. And it was interesting, I guess, to hear you say that it all started out with you performing, like singing, and that led to comedy and theatre and TV. You know, I want to I want to take it back to the first time that you performed, I guess, in front of people. Can you talk to us about that experience and what was going on for you that sort of put that fire in your belly to go on and do all of these real proper deadly things?

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Oh, yeah, I think the first time, I think the first time I performed would have been, I think it was in high school. I think we had um there was I went to an an all-boys' school in Townsville, we called it uh Ignatius Park College. So myself and Tristan, my other baller that was on the Culture is Life program, we both went to high school together and grew up together. So we're we're bungees, I guess. Lovers. Now yeah. Um, yeah, so we we went to to high school there in Townsville, and um, I guess our our kind of little group, our little mob that we all had, we always had a guitar or a ukulele, and we were always jamming in our multicultural room. That's kind of where we all, that was our safe haven for mobs. So we was always always in there, um, just jamming away and playing, and then I guess one of the teachers must have walked past and um put us forward to to do an item or sing at one of the assemblies. I think we sang at one of our Mother's Day assemblies that I think it was a song for mama from it's a boys to men, I think they they sing that one. So I think we ended up singing that. Um, and that was my first time performing. And I think at that point it was very much uh the at at in all boys' school is kind of like sports and footy and theater and music, and isn't uh kind of as uh strong of a heavy hitter at uni's sorry at at high school. So um yeah, we got up and and sang that, and at first I was um because I think I think back then I I sounded like Tucker when I used to sing. Um I thought I was the deadliest thing.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

But you got so much confidence at that stage, it doesn't matter, does it?

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Um and yeah, that's that's it. I think everyone, all of them boys jeered us up, but I think we sounded like trash. Uh but everyone was sitting there clapping along, like, oh that's cool, that was awesome. Um, but yeah, I think it was the the first time I'd started to understand what what shame was as well. Um so I was yeah, that was kind of my first like, oh no, I don't want to do that. That's shame. That's that's not that's not us. That we don't have to do this. What are we doing this for? That's silly. And so all those thoughts started coming into my head. Um, but then as soon as we'd done it and everyone was clapping and cheering and yahooing, I was like, oh, actually, this is alright. I don't mind this. Um, and then so yeah, that was kind of my first memory of I guess performing, like properly performing in front of people, um, yeah, instead of just being silly at home doing stupid things. Um and then yeah, it kind of went on from there to get into school musicals as well. They um we were in a uh a little tutoring program for mob at the end of the day. We used to go up there just for the food because they had they had free food and cordial, but we would go up there at like yeah and do homework, but really we were there for afternoon snack, um, and they had auditions on for uh it was Beauty and the Beast, my first school musical I did. Um, and so we walked down and like sussed out what what it looked like because the teachers were all like, no, you're coming and if you don't come, then you mob, but we're gonna put you on detention because you should be in here with this doing this. And we're like, no, miss, sir, that's silly. What's what's wrong with you? Um so we went in and had a look and we seen everyone, and there wasn't a I think there was only two other black faces in there from um one of the other all girls' schools, two two sisters there. Um, and we was like, nah, stuff that we're not staying in here, we're not staying in here with all these Migaloos. Um we turned around and started walking down the hallway back to the tutoring room, and then all three of them teachers walked around the corner and they're like, Oh, oh, this is perfect timing. Use it here now. Well done. Well, guess you've got to turn around and come back and audition. And we were like, ah, no, no. But we ended up doing it, and it was it was probably one of the maddest first experiences of like just a high school musical, and it was yeah, I had the best time, and that's kind of from then on. I was like, oh, this performing thing is pretty pretty fun, I think. Yeah, and that's kind of where it all started.

SPEAKER_02 12:59

Great tasting music from boys to men to beauty and the beast. It's definitely like songs that that and times are absolutely slaps. But yeah, I mean it's it's it's deadly to hear that um you push through some of that shame and that feeling of maybe vulnerability, and on the other side of that is this like really beautiful feeling, like I just did that. Um, and you know, to to see that you kind of yeah, push through that feeling to to lead you where you are is pretty deadly, my bro. Yeah. Yeah. And it's nice to hear that, like, yeah, being a part of like other friends and communities and peers who are also kind of going down that path as well. I mean, I'm curious to know, were you always the performer in the family growing up? There's always one, I think, or maybe a handful, but you know, thinking about your family, like are they all performers and musicians, or is it just you? Where does it come from, do you think?

SPEAKER_00 13:56

I think I like to think it was just, I think at the moment since I've been born, it was I think it was it was just me growing up. Well, I was an only child as well, so um, I think I was always the one kind of ging all the cousins up and being silly and doing stupid things to make everyone laugh. And um, so I think I've always kind of had that funny bone um in my soul. Um, but I think there's there's been a lot of performers in in our family. There was our great-great-grandfather, uncles, they everyone call them um Uncle Paul and Uncle Dudley. They were um musicians back in the day and around the the time of uh when the the 10th Embassy was going on and um kicking up and um there was a so when when we were doing um the uh we were doing a week-long intensive with um short black opera, and we had the opportunity to um record with um Uncle Archie Roach um on his last album that he did. So we got the the chance to be like the kind of little gospel choir in there. Um and there's there's always this um yarn through the family that um Uncle Paul and Uncle Daly had kind of helped Uncle Archie out of his tough times and kind of got him into music and and playing guitar and um singing and and everything like that. And I've always been like if I ever get to meet Uncle Archie, then you know I'm gonna ask him the question and see if you know if the yarns are true, because you know how mob goes sometimes, they just spin yarn just to just to spin a yarn and think about it.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

Put a bit of spicy mayo on there, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

That's it. Um and so we we finished the recording and I went up to him and I was like, hey Uncle Archie, I'm jailing on this and that, such and such. And I was like, I don't know if you um if you remember these these fellas, um uh Paul and Dudley Meredith. And he was like, oh, and then he just went on a big, a big small yarn there and was telling me about them and um how they helped him and everything they done, and I was like, Whoa, that's that's that's insane. Um so yeah, ended up ended up, I was like, Oh, I'm I know everyone's been asking you for a photo, but can I please get one?

SPEAKER_01 16:15

Yeah, what about me?

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Yeah, um, which was which was a real spin out because I was like, man, wow, this is like that's that's cool. It was yeah, it was unreal to kind of felt like a a full circle moment in the in a sense of like oh that's it's true, like this this yarn is is true, uh, which is pretty deadly. Um, but yeah, there's I guess that's kind of the only performers I've kind of heard of, I think, in our in our family, apart from uh then there was my great-grandfather, my nan's dad, who was a a um a boxer, um but 10 boxer and everything back in in the day, um, Jack Hassing. Um but yeah, that's apart from that, I think. I feel like if they watch this, I'm gonna get struck down because they're like oh well my bro.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

I mean, that's so deadly to hear that you got to perform with you know the late Uncle Archie Roach, he's you know, um an icon for our community. And yeah, I mean, what was that experience like for you? I mean, it's so deadly to hear the connections, like you say, it's so full circle, you never really know what legacy you're carrying on from your old ones. Um, but yeah, what was that like for you in in meeting and singing uh alongside somebody so so important for our communities?

SPEAKER_00 17:44

Oh moments, moments I'll never forget. Um it was yeah, it was special, really, really special just to just to be in the room with with him, um, and just to kind of feel the the energy that just exuded out of him when he walked into a room and he didn't have to say anything, he just walked in and it was everyone knew what was what was going on. Um and it was yeah, it's powerful. He yeah, didn't have to say much either, it was just um but really really softly spoken, really, yeah, just nice. I just like there is he's like just you see him and you just want to give him a big hug. Yeah, hold him down.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

It's so beautiful, like to hear you say that. I I've had the privilege of being in a a sort of intimate setting with him, and I can yeah, I know what you mean about that that presence. Um and that he feels like everyone's uncle, eh, in that space. Uh, even the mingal's there, you know. Um so yeah, that's so beautiful. It's so interesting you're saying about that, like in our family. This is how old I am, bro. So I know you're a lot younger than me, but I'm one of six, and I was a bit of the performer going up. I did theatre and dancing and this and that. But I never sadly I never I never sustained it like you. And I often think about what my life would look like if I had of continued to pursue the arts and not gone down the whole counselor uni having to get do something with my brain and was more heart-led and in my heart and in my body. But I used to have to set up the video camera to do performances and then watch them back in the VCR. And I'll never forget like that no, that's how old I am. And it's funny, like in the last few years, um, we've gone through like some of our old stuff, and we found all these old videos of me singing, performing, and I was like, oh my god, true god, this is so embarrassing. But yeah, that's definitely how old I am. We didn't have cameras back then, and my my family was so sick of having forced performances that I would just do solo shows for one. That's funny. But I was actually yarning with my auntie when I was up in country last year about it, and because my little niece, Ivy, she's into all this performing and dancing and especially tap dancing. And I used to do tap dancing, and my nan was a tap dancer before she was a domestic. She was like an amazing dancer, and so you just think, what are we taking on? We, you know, we often think about, I guess, a lot of the struggles and the trauma we take on, but we also get these beautiful gifts and talents too that we just sometimes don't know. So I love that connection with with your uncle, your great uncle, and Archie, and now you. So that's deadly mud, bro. We'll be back, you mob, right after this short break. I want to sort of circle back. You know, you have done quite a lot of things in your young career, I would say, you know, from black comedy uh to Bay of Fires, um, to Rosehaven, paper dolls, to this new um uh It's a zombie straight from the straight, both on TV and theatre. You know, I I want to know what's been the most memorable moment for you or memorable moments on on stage or on set? You know, what's something that's really reminded you that you love what you do and has stayed with you in this process?

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Oh I think it was I I think maybe during Straight from the Strait, just the the understanding of the story and the meaning behind the story and how much power this the story has and uh what we had what we had to do to put it on, and the weight that we carried to get this story out for. For them old people and um for for the Torres Strait Islands. I think once as soon as we hit that stage on opening night, um, and you could just hear everyone screaming up in the crowd and whistling out and singing singing back the songs that were in the the musical as well. I think that was one of those moments where I was like, This is we're we're doing something right for the people. Um yeah, it was a powerful first opening for for that show as well, being it being a sold-out season, um, but just with the the show the show had been in works for 13 years plus, I think, and so to for it to finally now be on a stage. Um I think yeah, being having the the honor and and privilege to come in and help bring this story to life with myself not being a Torres Radan uh person, um just to to have the honor to help bring that story across and um yeah and to to get that kind of the love from them old people and all them elders that were sitting in the audience that come up to us after and said thank you for this show. And um my my father's my uncles were on them on that railway and um they were it was all it was all love. Um and I think it was one of yeah, that was probably one of the moments where I was like this is this is why I love performing and this is why I love kind of doing doing what I do. Um and it's yeah, especially for our people too, um whether to straight or aboriginal or POC or um any any mob, I think just yeah, it was it was a special moment. Um so yeah, I think that's probably that's probably one of them. But there's there's so many to pick from.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

Yeah, man. I mean like uh so as I understand, and you know, I'd love to sort of unpack it, but as I understand, Straight from the Strait was sort of like based on two stories of people who had left their islands to come to the mainland for work and to um you know find opportunities through through that, often exploited as well, um, as I understand, you know, there's lots of um the wages they should have. Yeah. I mean, can you tell me a little bit around so you said that this is sort of like 13 years in the making? Like, yeah, can you talk shed shed some more light on like yeah, what what the show was about and what it what it was trying to I guess um portray to the the people who were there in the audience?

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Yeah, yeah. So um the show was uh was in the in development for for 13 plus years, just kind of getting the stories right and kind of creating the the music and creating the characters and I think finding time to sit down with those uncles as well and have them yarns with them because they'll they'll get old now. A lot of them have passed too, so trying to yeah, trying to to be able to get their get their stories and their memories to be able to put it on paper too, I think, was was a big thing in the development stages. And then the show itself was about the um when the Torres Rhode Islander man left the straits and went to move move down to the mainland to to work on the railway. They'd either come across on a on a lugger boat and they'd either find work in the cane fields and then either make their way from the cane fields into the into the railway lines, and um some of them made it over to WA to work on this railway, this rail from um Port Headland to Mount Newman, I think, or Mount Newman and Port Headland, one or the other. But it was those it's in between those two, those two towns over in Western Australia. Um and they ended up breaking the world record on May 8, 1968. I think they laid 7.2 kilometers in 11 hours and something limits. So they had yeah, they had broken the American record by lunch, and then um I think the record the the world record was then broken after that. So they and they didn't there was yarns that they didn't stop the clock when it was a break, they kept the clock running too. So I think it would have been a lot quicker if they had stopped the clock. Yeah, so um, yeah, a powerful story about um them leaving the islands, a lot of them not even making it back to the straits, they would stay stay over in WA. Um, so yeah, it was kind of the struggles of when they would leave the islands and the struggles that the women also then had to face, um not having their companion there by their side with them to do day-to-day activities and um help out around the house uh or on the islands, or so yeah, um, and then also the the intricacies and struggles of men from different tribal groups and clans all coming together um to go and work on this railway together. So it's a story of brotherhood, um, and yeah, coming together from from all different nations, whether that's Torres Rhode Island or Aboriginal, um, they had Yugoslavian brothers on there. There was a whole melting pot of cultures. Um, so yeah, it was it was special to be able to to represent all of that and and all that story.

SPEAKER_02 27:50

So gosh. Wow, my bro, I'm just taking that all in, eh? I mean, how powerful to be a part of something that yeah, uses I guess um performance, but with like ancient stories and uh honoring people's stories in that way. And do you just imagine the ferocity in which they were working to be able to do that?

SPEAKER_00 28:14

Um yeah, then them men were built different. They were there was a a lot of the photos we were given um from I think it was the Queensland, Queensland Library, I think. They had a lot of the old photos, um, and so they were always up wherever we were, they were up in and around the room. So every time we were breaking down characters or just needed a bit of inspiration, we would they would always be there watching us. So um them men were chiseled by the ancestors because they were we was a lot of us were looking at oh me especially, I was looking at them photos and thinking, gee, stuff that I couldn't I couldn't even imagine that too strong hard work like in that yeah, that's just insane. And they would just they would be shirts off, shorts off, just in their jocks working on that railway with boots, work boots on, just because it was that hot over there as well. So yeah, it was insane. The conditions they worked under too and still worked that fast and efficiently, and yeah, it's just something about being black that the power of our blackness, eh?

SPEAKER_02 29:27

As Barker says, but you know, it's sort of like one of those things that I get proper wild in my work because you know that I'm really passionate about burnout because people have this like narrative that black fellows are inherently lazy, but we are the hardest working people, and all of our infrastructure is back on the back end of black and brown, you know, enslavement and and labour and poor qualities of labor. And like even my mum, for instance, she was born in a sugar cane field, she didn't even go to hospital because my nan was clearing the roads, right, getting ready for um trains and train tracks and infrastructure because they were just working to the bone, literally. And so we owe a lot of thanks to people um like that who have created what we have now, like in civilized society, I guess, in quoted quoted now. But wow, my bro, how special. What a special, special project. Straight from the straight. How how amazing. Yeah. Was it emotional for you? Like, did you find like yourself feeling a bit emotional during the process? Because this is the this sort of art of storytelling that would be really unique for people of colour or black fellows or um, you know, um people from the Toro Strait. It is like it's like this sort of um expression, but it's also like honouring a sacred like calling or responsibility. Yeah, did you find it emotional along the way for you?

SPEAKER_00 30:52

Like Yeah, it was it was yeah, it was an emotional roller coaster that that show. Um, because we had um the amazing Annie Nadine McDonald, she was our um our our director, um, and she just laid down the law from the get-go of what this story means, and she really and embedded that that sense of hard work um into us to help find them characters um and to help us understand what it would have really been like back then and the just the um a lot of the the real yucky moments in the show where it's like you know, as we could them fellas, we're not free now, but them fellas still couldn't be free back then, like they had needed to have passes to go to places they couldn't leave with without those passes, or else they'd get locked up or um sent back to the island somehow or thrown on another boat, or like it was just yeah, in insane. And I think, yeah, it was it was a powerful, powerful and emotional couple of weeks. Um but we were all together in this this hotel as well. So we were um we'd always be eating together, we'd always be sharing stories, getting closer. So it was um on a that type of emotional level, it was really really tight-knit too. So when we got into the rehearsal room, we were building on that that friendship and that brotherhood and um that sense of family as well. And yeah, understanding also that a lot of them didn't even make it back home to their families, so um having that that feeling of of not ever seeing your family again after you moved down to work. Um so yeah, it was it was it was it was tough some days, but um, it was just really powerful in everything we did. So it was yeah, it was it was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 32:51

Wow. Well, mad respect to you and all the people that um shared their stories and pulled that together to um yeah, honor what was and to to do it in a way that is meaningful and respectful and yeah, uh it's um a beautiful thing. Thank you for sharing that, my bro. Oh that's all right.

SPEAKER_00 33:12

Yeah, it's always always love sharing the yarns of the straights, the the stories for the show, and yeah, it's it's special.

SPEAKER_02 33:19

Well, I mean, switching gears, I don't know, but um I know that so last night was opening night for another show which you've just started. Eat Slay Zombie. Tell us about the show, what's going on? What can people expect in coming along and seeing you?

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Um, you can expect us to slay zombies. Um there's dance sequences, there's a lot of comedy, a lot of black humour in the show. Um, so it's a a story um about a zombie apocalypse that breaks out in in Brisbane here, and um it follows the the story of two sister girls that have been titters their whole lives. Um, but since the outbreak, they've been bunking down in a in a bowling alley. Um they've been kind of bunkered down here and they've been fighting zombies, and um then my character comes along and kind of shakes the tree up a bit between them and the relationship and makes one want to go find the people and the other doesn't want to bother me because I'm coming in here and buckles the feathers, and she kind of just wants to stay in the bunker, and because that's that's all they've known, and that's um that's safety for for her character as well. So um, yeah, but it's it's really it's really really fun. It's kind of like a um older sister's little brother type of relationship. Um, but yeah, it touches on a lot of a lot of issues that mob faces, especially in today's day and age. Um and but it's kind of it doesn't hit it with the the whole doom and gloom of those yarns. So um it's it's really yeah, it's a really nice, deadly play written by the amazing um uh Alintha McGrady, known as Bad Us Mother, on um socials. She's also a deadly um performer, musician, um in in her own right as well as perform with Hop Brown Honey. Um and um yeah, she's insane. She she wrote this, and I think she should write more. It's deadly, yeah, it really is pretty deadly.

SPEAKER_02 35:28

I love it. This is what I love about Blackfellas too, like the light and shade between what you do, and so you know, to have something like you know, quite um plain then, like straight from the straight, very important, but then also to um think about the apocalypse and its links to like yeah, colonization and being funny and silly and carrying on um is also really important. We need them, we need all those stories and all that versatility around it. How deadly. That sounds um that sounds like something worth going along. When can you maybe shout out some details? When is it running from where can people go and see it?

SPEAKER_00 36:06

Um it's a it's a short season. Um, but yeah, it's it's running from uh so we opened on Wednesday. Um, and we're going to we got a show today and then a show tomorrow at QPAC in the Cremon Theatre here in Brisbane from um yeah, 6th to the 9th. Um so we got a show tonight and two shows tomorrow, and then we're all finished. So I hopefully it goes on tour because I feel like it deserves to be seen by the rest of the country as well. But yeah, story about two staunch sisters, um, and then my character is just there for just for a little bit of comedic relief. I love it. Story that represents represents the sisters and the strength of women um within our our people um and the power that they hold that all you mob holds. So yeah, it's it's deadly.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

Oh, deadly, bro. I really hope it does take taking a national sort of uh tour and and we all get to see it um all around so-called Australia. I mean, bro, I'm curious to know, you know, what I got two two questions, I guess. Two pronged. You know what? What is performing like to think back to getting up on stage, feeling shame, singing some boys to men, to now, you know, being a part of this like rich tapestry of performance in Australia, bringing black stories and magic to the stage. You know, what has performing taught you about yourself? And what advice would you give any young fellas who are feeling a bit shame and don't want to get out of their comfort zone, you know, to maybe think about exploring themselves through the arts?

SPEAKER_00 37:51

Um, oh that's a good one. I think I think for me, performing has taught my myself to um to be free and to let go. Um and um yeah, I think those are the some of the big things because with I guess with acting as well, you kind of you can put on these characters and live out a a different different style of life with with who you're playing. So um being able to have that freedom with characters as well and with performing on stage, and um, I think it yeah, it it allows you to to free up your body and to free up your soul to just have fun and just not worry about all the stresses of of life and the colony and everything else that is tough with being black. Um so I think yeah, that's probably probably being free and and and just being able to let go and let loose on stage, I think is um is what I've loved about performing. Um and it's I think yeah, what performing has done for me. Um and then advice for young mob that would want to get into the arts and do some things and drop the shame game. I think I think you just you just gotta do it. I think there's um yeah, I I don't I don't know. I think there's you can kind of tiptoe around it and you know break things down and kind of get into stuff in the community and just kind of get out there and um do daily things that can kind of help break down that shame if you're not one to kind of just kick it in the gut straight away and be like, I don't want to be shamed no more. Um because it is a it is a tough thing, shame carries a lot of a lot of weight with with us as black people, um and so it's tough, whether that be shame to do this, shame to do that, shame for your body, shame for um anything else that you might have going on in your life. Um so it's just yeah, trying to find ways that that you can kind of navigate it and and break it down for yourself, um, especially for our younger generations that are coming. I mean, I'm still young now, but all them young, young ones that are that that are coming up through it that are gonna be the the ones to really make the the change. Um I think yeah, just to you just gotta drop it. There was a um a scene I did in Bay of Fires um where I've come straight out of the water with out of the ocean and I'm holding on to a a little boy that's floating around in the in the ocean. Um and it was a scene where they were like, Oh, do you want to wear like a swim shirt? Or and I was like, No, why would I want to do that? And I think it that for that moment I was like, you know what? We there's no big bodies on stage, it's just all them fellows from home and away with walking up and down the beach with their little yeah, skinny white meagaloos. Yeah, they all look the same, but I'm gonna get my big frame on this screen and um have it have it up there. And brother Wayne Blair was directing the second half of the this the show at that point, and I said, I said, bros, I'm gonna come uh like you don't mind if I come out of this ocean shirtless and in just in my shorts. He's like, You sure? Like you sure? I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like, all right, let's do it. And I was like, Yes. So that that was for me, that was like a you know what, I'm doing this for all them big body people that all them big mob that you know aren't seeing us on screens. I was like, this is that's for us, and so it's just yeah, I mean, and for myself as well, like I think shame is it's been big in in my life, and it's like, well, you like you can try and call me fat or call me obese or whatever you're like, it's not gonna you're the one that's got the problems, like I don't care what you're like, oh my gosh, you hurt me.

SPEAKER_01 41:53

Like, yeah, yeah, like I could I could call I could call you fat and you'd be more hurt than me.

SPEAKER_00 42:00

Like it's one of those situations where it's like you need the one that has to go just check yourself properly, please. Um but but yeah, I think just doing daily things here and there, community things is as big as well, whether it be community theater, a lot of people do community walks these days as well, um, with health and fitness being a big thing and deadly choices and all that stuff. So um, yeah, yeah, I think just getting out there and just kind of not being ashamed to talk to random people sometimes too, saying g'ay every now and then, and that's a good thing to kind of break down being shame as well. Because I think once mob leave shame in the bin, then it's it's dangerous. Like this, yeah, I don't think I don't think anyone's ready for once mob stop using the word shame. Like it's it's gonna be dangerous. No one, yeah. I'm excited for when that happens. I think that's that's gonna be special.

SPEAKER_02 43:02

Wow, gosh, there's so much beauty and wisdom in what you've just shared. And I think, you know, like full circle, circling back to where we started, the fact that we're here talking about debunking and demystifying shame, you know, there might be someone in their car, someone on a walk right now, you know, who really needs to hear that. And so I wanted to say thank you for reminding us all. And also that you push through that and and now you're creating a conversation, but you're living it, bro. You're living in your truth. And you're right, once you sort of, once you, I mean, the the world is hard. We know that as black fellas, you know, it's a certain hard that we shouldn't have to feel. But, you know, when we allow ourselves to really honour our own voice, our intuition, our knowing, what it is that fills us up, lights us up, brings us joy, once we're at a place where we can accept that and we can be an authentic selves, then you're like yourself. Say we're literally unstoppable, like we are so powerful in that, and you know, it's it's a beautiful thing that once you're there in life and it's work and all that, and you have to keep reminding yourself, sure, but once you're at that place, um, there's an it there's a peace and a power that comes with that. Um, so I love that, and you get to sort of like you say, liberate yourself through other characters um and explore other characters, which is just beautiful. And I I just want to sort of replay what you said in terms of some of those tips, which is you know, starting small, you know, um having a yarn, putting yourself out there. I think after COVID, we have become a little like in our bubbles. So yeah, go out, meet people, say hello on a at on your walk at a cafe, or and just you know, really notice, okay, how did I feel? What did I would come up for me? And pushing yourself. It's like sometimes it's like the little steps over time become big steps. Yeah, and yeah, sometimes dipping your toe in community, um, uh in community arts, it's a great way to build a network and community around you, and so you can do this with people in your corner as well. So they're really great practical tips. Thank you, my bro.

SPEAKER_00 45:15

No, that's they yeah, I feel like I feel like they, yeah, people aren't ready for once we drop shame. Like, yes, yeah, they don't know what's like we know what it's gonna be like, but they're yeah, but it's it's gonna be insane, I think.

SPEAKER_02 45:30

So and I think with that too, my bro, like we sort of also as black fellas need to get better at not shaming people up, or you know, I think it's also two-way, like you know, we we've we've had shame in our community because of a reason, and as I understand, is like we don't want people to get too big for their boots because back in the day, if you were too confident, you'd put your tribe and mob at risk doing dumb, you know, lumber things. And so there was a there was a purpose for it. But the challenge is is in this place, you know, we've been painted as problems to be solved. We we start to believe that we are, you know, not worthy of living a life that we love, and that shame holds us back, and that's where I think it's really problematic. So I love this conversation just to think about where we will be as people without the shame is just yeah, deadly. My final question to you, my bro, because I know you're probably tired and you got to get back to performing, but you know, what are you hoping to? What's your legacy that you hope to, you know, through all this work, have you thought about what it is you hope to sort of build as you grow? And yeah, what it is you want to be known for in this, my bro?

SPEAKER_00 46:43

Whew, that's a good question.

SPEAKER_02 46:46

It's a big one, I think, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 46:48

Oh yeah. I think if I I I like to think that if if you something comes up and and someone thinks of me and they smile instantly, then I feel like that's that's a legacy I'm pretty happy with leaving behind um and creating for myself, because then I know that my my job for what I'm doing on this on this earth is is being done right and um giving giving people laughter and and putting smiles on their faces, and even if I don't have to be in front of you, but you think of something that I've done, or um just something come up and you just see me and smile, then I know that like I'm putting joy out there for everyone. Um, so yeah, I think that's a the type of legacy I feel like I'd love to leave behind.

SPEAKER_02 47:43

Oh, I love that. You're gonna make me tear up good ways, but you know, I think we're always in a state of striving and and just to be reminded of somebody who yeah, loved their life, made people feel good about themselves and smile and be silly because Lord knows we need it right now, more than ever before. We need that healing, we need that laughter, we need that silliness. So, yeah, that's beautiful. Well, I want to say thank you. I'm gonna put all of Jalen's details in our show notes so you can go along and follow all of what he's doing, uh all that he's creating, and be smiling up with all of us along the way at what you be doing, bro. So thank you so much for being on Yarning Up, considering yeah, you're in the middle of shows.

SPEAKER_00 48:31

Thank you, Mob, for having me. It's been unreal, and I love coming to yarn on things. So just thank you, Mob, for having me come up and yarn up big with you, fellas. It's been deadly.

SPEAKER_02 48:41

Oh, deadly. Thank you, my bro. Thank you so much for listening, you mob. If you are vibing this season of yarning up, then please head over to Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from to show us some love, rate, and review. Alternatively, you can get in contact and give us some feedback by visiting www.carolinecow.com.au