Marrow: powerful performance for Reconciliation Week

A production created in the wake of the failed 2023 Voice Referendum has made it to Toowoomba, as First Nations people pave a new way forward through billowing smoke.

An Australian Dance Theatre production, Marrow, is taking the Empire stage for Reconciliation Week.

In 2023 Australia voted against an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament, and the incredible production Marrow will embody the relentless debate and the experiences of First Nations Australians since the decision.

The production by The Australian Dance Theatre follows an ensemble of talented dancers as they delve into cultural narratives, falsehoods, alienation, and push towards a new future, through layers of thick smoke.

An Australian Dance Theatre production, Marrow, is taking the Empire stage for Reconciliation Week.

Marrow director Daniel Riley, a Wiradjuri man from New South Wales said the production was inspired by the failed Voice Referendum in 2023.

“What sets the work apart is that it speaks directly to that experience from a First Nations perspective,” he said.

“I was thinking about our collective imagination, about who we are as a nation at our core.

“Marrow is a work that responds, almost in real-time, to a national experience and asks us to consider things from a new perspective, with an open heart and generosity.”

An Australian Dance Theatre production, Marrow, is taking the Empire stage for Reconciliation Week.

The theme of Reconciliation Week 2025 is Bridging Now to Next in a conversation of the great strides taken over the years for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and some of the disappointing setbacks.

It runs from May 27 to June 3, which are the days commemorating the 1967 Referendum and the High Court Mabo decision.

The performance of Marrow highlights what is seen as one of the setbacks in First Nations reconciliation.

An Australian Dance Theatre production, Marrow, is taking the Empire stage for Reconciliation Week.

Mr Riley said the discussions surrounding the referendum felt relentless, something he harnessed in the creation of Marrow.

“The debate was big and relentless,” he said.

“The churn of it felt constant. A constant banging of a drum.”

Mr Riley said he wants audiences to come in with an open mind.

“When you make work that’s political, it can often feel like you’re wagging a finger or giving a lecture - that’s not my intention,” he said.

“I want audiences to sit with the ambiguities that are woven throughout our history.

An Australian Dance Theatre production, Marrow, is taking the Empire stage for Reconciliation Week.

“I want them to be inspired about a collective future where we can all walk forward, together, and to feel an urgency to interrogate our history in their own ways.”

Marrow was created in collaboration with First Nations artists and elders, who guided the creation of the masterpiece.

The production is on at the Empire Theatre on Thursday May 29 at 8pm.

Tickets can be bought at empiretheatre.com.au.