Fountains Beyond

"Until the Queensland Theatre Company established a playwrights award named in his honour, few Australian theatregoers had heard of George Landen Dann. If Fountains Beyond, dating from the late 1930s, is anything to go by, we have all been the poorer for that" -- Martin Buzacott,The Australian, 2000

Celebrated English travel writer Miss Gertrude Harnett has arrived in Kooreelba. Mayoral candidate Mr Watson, determined to offer Ms Harnett an ‘authentic’ Aboriginal experience sets out to organise a corroboree, with all money raised to go towards a new children’s playground. The proposed playground site however, is the site of Koorelba’s indigenous settlement and home to, amongst others, Vic and Peggy Filmer. Will the Aboriginal population be forced to move? Or can a compromise be reached?

In Fountains Beyond, Dann highlights the complexity of the relationship between Indigenous and white Australians, explores the politics and practicalities of dispossession, and challenges the idea of Indigenous homogeneity. He demands that audiences consider the assumptions behind and ethics of “Aboriginal welfare” and Assimilation policies.

APT