By Rachel Rasker
Filipino-Australian playwright Jordan Shea was just 12 years old when he witnessed the Cronulla riots.
Shea caught the train to Cronulla with his grandmother that day to pick up groceries, unwittingly stumbling upon the infamous race riot.
Playwright Jordan Shea's new work Kasama Kita opens this week.Credit: Wolter Peeters
"As the train pulled in, we saw the mobs of people around the pine trees drinking," he says. "You could hear the crowd building. [My grandmother] saw what was going on and she put me back on the train and she went on alone.
"That day made me question my national identity to my core. Cause I'm not white [and] I'm not a Muslim. But I'm not what those people who started the riots called Australian.”
Shea's mother left home at just 19, eventually landing at Balmain hospital.
Fourteen years on, Shea's experience of the riots still runs through his creative work. His latest play is set to open at Belvoir St Theatre this week.
Kasama Kita follows three nurses who leave the Philippines in 1974, escaping the regime of Ferdinand Marcos, a dictator who declared martial law, leading to severe food and water shortages.
The play is inspired by Shea's mother, who took the same route alone at just 19, eventually landing at Balmain hospital. Her story is not uncommon, with Shea interviewing other Filipina nurses who practised at the time. Exploring themes of racism, belonging and what it means to be Australian, Kasama Kita focuses on characters who are "embracing, rejecting, or assimilating with the culture of Australia”.
“The title is Tagalog for 'I'm with you,' a phrase the Filipina nurses used to say to each other when they felt ‘grossly homesick’,” he says.
Shea's own understanding of being Australian is constantly changing, a process he finds “joyous".
"I think that our sense of identity is changing. So some days I feel Australian, some days I don't, but I always question what that means.
"I don't think there's anything 'uniquely Australian' because I think that changes so, so quickly," he says.
Producer Emma Diaz was drawn to the play because of its relevance to minorities across Australia.
"I immediately just fell in love with it because it's the story of so many Australians," she says.
"I'm also a second generation immigrant and my parents both came to Australia and experienced racism when they were younger."
The work is part of Belvoir St Theatre's 25A program, an initiative for low-cost, independent theatre. It challenges emerging artists to make a show for less than $1500.
Shea is also a school teacher, and hopes the next generation will be inspired.
"I hope young people can see it and be inspired to go into their past and fish out stories that they have, because everyone [has a] story."
Kasama Kita opens at Belvoir's downstairs theatre on Friday.