Despite people trying to dampen her expectations at the start of the project, Dear says she always thought that the show had a real chance and would meet with a positive response: “The stories are surprising, we had a fantastic cast, something that was quite unique on television … so we always thought we’d find an audience.” She adds: “Films like Samson & Delilah, Bran Nu Day and The Sapphires proved that there was a real hunger for Indigenous stories, and it was a natural evolution for television to pick up that banner.”
As in the first series, many scenes were shot locally, which Dear says was important to give real authenticity to the series: “[Shooting in Redfern and Waterloo] has been absolutely critical for us to be able to tell the stories in a truthful way. We’re enormously grateful for the support that the community has given us, it’s meant everything.”
The new series will bring us new characters played by renowned actors like Craig McLachlan, Noni Hazlehurst, and Ernie Dingo, but we will also see many familiar faces from Season 1, such as Wayne Blair in his role as police officer Aaron Davis in the episode “Pretty Boy Blue”, as well as Deborah Mailman as Lorraine, Dean Daley-Jones as Indigo and Ursula Yovich as Nic.
Leah Purcell also reprises her role as Grace, which won her an AACTA (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts) Award for Best Actress in a Television Drama last year. Like in Series 1, where she directed the episode “Sweet Spot”, she also gets behind the camera, this time with the semi-autobiographical “Consequences”.
The episode, which was mainly shot at the South Sydney Uniting Church, tells the story of a high-achieving young woman who, having graduated with First Class Honours, seeks to renew contact with her estranged white father. She wants to show him that, despite him leaving her and her Aboriginal mother when she was young, she has managed to move on and lead a successful life. She finds out, however, that he has just passed away. She resolves to drive to his funeral and confront his new family.
“It’s beautiful, not because it’s my story, but because of what the story became,” says Purcell. Indeed, while workshopping with screenwriter Jimmy McGovern, Purcell soon realised that her story was something many people around her had experienced as well: “The beautiful thing is that when I was going through this process, there were people in the creative team that said, ‘Well, that’s my story too, my mum’s black, my dad’s white, I didn’t know him …’ And then we looked at it and thought: ‘This is such a universal story.’ It’s not really narrowed down to Aboriginal and white people, it can be of the [many] mixed races that we have in our society today, and some people who are not accepted by the other’s family.”
Even though she used creative license to make the story more dramatic for television, Purcell says that “it’s always scary when you put your own personal stuff out there”. However, her story ended in a better way, as she was able to resolve issues with her father. “I had a bit of history with my dad, but me and him we sorted that out, and we were great mates. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to finish the story, it wouldn’t have rung true.”
She mentions Lantana and remembers how people would stay in the movie theatre talking about relationships well after the movie ended and hopes her story will also start conversations. “It’s about forgiveness, trust, love and families able to speak. It’s a really well crafted, beautiful piece of drama … I think, I hope!” she laughs.
