This verbatim work-in-development is based on the stories of Kinchela Boys Home survivors. Led by NYU Steinhardt Verbatim Performance Lab alumnus Dr Blayne Welsh, it blends First Nations ways of Knowing, Being and Doing with Verbatim Performance Lab methodology.
Spanning several months, this development process began with visits to the KBH site in Kempsey, NSW, and building meaningful relationships with the KBH community, culminating in a showing for community at Carriageworks during NAIDOC Week 2023, 'For Our Elders'.
"Kinchela Aboriginal Boys Training Home (KBH) was a ‘home’ run by the NSW Government for almost 50 years from 1924 – 1970 to house Aboriginal boys forcibly removed from their families. It's a place of deep importance for survivors, their families and communities."
"This verbatim performance project intends to not only preserve the important and challenging history of the Kinchela Boys Home in a way that aligns with First Nations oral traditions, but seeks to do so in a way where the survivors and the KBH community have maximum agency and creative power within the work, in order to create permission for future generations of performers to also take on the responsibility of becoming truth speakers, regardless of background." - Dr Blayne Welsh
