A
Strong Brown God (Now available in Book form, see below.)
The Mary River Diary
A Strong Brown God was performed
at the Metro Arts Theatre in Brisbane in 1996. Written, directed
and performed by Steven, it was an account of his journey on foot
along the length of the Mary River, from its source near Maleny to
where it reaches the sea, near Maryborough.
Steven was following the route taken by some of the first white men
to enter the region; Stephen Simpson, the Crown Commissioner for
Lands, and Christoph Eipper, a Lutheran priest. They had set out
from Moreton Bay in 1842 with the intention of finding a site for
a new aboriginal settlement in what was then known as The Larger
Bunya Country, now Kenilworth. They were accompanied on their journey by twelve soldiers, a team of bullocks and a dray, and the two pardoned runaways, David Bracewell and James Davis..
The performance was many-layered. Steven told stories from both
his own, and Eipper and Simpson’s, diaries, while three screens
showed photographs taken throughout the Mary Valley, contemporary
scenes as well as archival shots of early settlers and surviving
aboriginals.
Amongst other themes the play sought to consider change in the landscape,
both our response to it and our responsibility for it.
Maryanne Lynch, reviewing
the play in Real Time, wrote:
‘
Lang, quietly sitting at a camp table to one side of the screens,
dominated the piece with his measured reading…beyond Lang’s
desire to find connection, connections became apparent; differences
weren’t assimilated but found accommodation in small moments
of pain, bewilderment or some other experience of exile. Like [William
Yang’s] Sadness, A Strong Brown God offered itself as autobiographical – a
seductive notion when the performer draws upon recognisable personal
experiences. What both pieces highlighted, for me, was that the search
for meaning now begins with the self, and that all else must be discovered,
not in the nineteenth century style, but in a constant struggle to
not make meaning one’s own. Lang’s piece showed the difficulty,
as well as the possibilities, of this act.’
A Strong Brown God (Book)
In 1842 the Crown Commissioner for Lands, Stephen Simpson, along with a Lutheran priest, Christoph Eipper, set out from Moreton Bay with the intention of finding a site for a new Aboriginal settlement in the Larger Bunya Country, now Kenilworth. They were accompanied on their journey by twelve soldiers, a team of bullocks and a dray, as well as the two escaped convicts, Bracewell and Davis, both of whom had lived for an extended period amongst the natives. 150 years later Steven Lang followed their route from the source of the Mary River to where it joins the sea. In A Strong Brown God Lang marries his story with that of the earlier men, both Aboriginal and White, weaving a picture of the Mary Valley as it was then, and as it is now, a very personal portrait that becomes a paean for the river and its importance.
In this beautifully illustrated book Lang gives an account of his journey down the Mary River, weaving his own story with that of the original inhabitants and the first white settlers.
Published by Lang House Press
Jan 2010
non-fiction
ISBN 9780646518947
RRP: $25
297 x 248mm
64 pages
100 full-colour photographs
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