By Elissa Blake
If you haven't heard of Moogahlin Performing Arts, that's OK, says Frederick Copperwaite, the Redfern company's artistic director.
''Our target audience is the Aboriginal community in Redfern and Waterloo, so, in a sense, we don't mind if nobody else knows about us,'' he says, though he is at pains to point out that Moogahlin (a Bundjalung/Yuin word meaning to play or fool around) is open to audiences from all backgrounds.
Healing: Katherine Beckett in This Fella, My Memory.Credit: Gabriella Lo Presti
''We absolutely welcome them but we are really focused on presenting stories for the community by the community.''
Moogahlin's new production is a case in point. Written, directed and produced by indigenous theatremakers, This Fella, My Memory puts the experiences of older Aboriginal women centre stage.
Copperwaite likens the project to a ''theatrical road movie'' which takes three women from Redfern to Narooma, 350 kilometres south.
They have all done it tough. Dolly is a chronic alcoholic. Toots is a failed musician who rejected her people to pursue a career. Col is a non-Aboriginal woman who paid a heavy price to extricate herself from an abusive relationship.
''Basically, one of them wants to return to country and the other two help her to do that,'' Copperwaite says.
''As they travel, they experience a kind of healing and a sense of reconnection with culture and with each other. They rediscover a sense of purpose in their lives through that journey.''
Moogahlin Performing Arts was formed in late 2007 by a group of Redfern theatre artists and community workers.
''We see ourselves as a follow-on from the [National] Black Theatre of the early 1970s,'' Copperwaite says.
''There has been a lot of Aboriginal work produced in Sydney in recent years with Aboriginal actors and sometimes an Aboriginal director but the production side has been essentially white.
''Some of these shows have been Aboriginal plays and not Aboriginal theatre. We want to be creative and we want control of production. We want the genesis of the idea to come from an Aboriginal context.''
This Fella, My Memory is a devised play, written by its performers including Elaine Crombie, Linden Wilkinson, Lily Shearer and Katherine Beckett, in consultation with cultural advisers.
This Fella, My Memory runs at Carriageworks, from Wednesday to Saturday.