Ilbijerri Theatre Company, formerlyIlbijerri Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Theatre Cooperative and also known simply asIlbijerri, styled ILBIJERRI, is an Australian theatre company based inMelbourne that creates theatre creatively controlled byIndigenous artists.

Ilbijerri was founded in 1990 as Ilbijerri Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Theatre Cooperative by a group ofAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists galvanised to tell Indigenous stories from an Indigenous perspective.^[1] Ilbijerri, pronouncedil BIDGE er ree, is aWoiwurrung language word meaning "coming together forceremony".^[2]

Theatre and film producer, director, and writerJohn Harvey was general manager and co-CEO of Ilbijerri withRachael Maza.^[3]

Dancer and choreographerDaniel Riley worked as associate producer and then creative associate for Ilbijerri between 2019 and 2021.^[4]

• Stolen by Jane Harrison, commissioned in 1992 and first performed in a 1998 co-production withPlaybox Theatre
• Jack Charles v The Crown, about the life ofJack Charles, which premiered in 2010 at theMelbourne Festival.^[5] Charles was nominated for aHelpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Play for his performance in the play in 2012,^[6] and the play was also nominated forBest Direction of a Play.^{[when?][citation needed]} The show toured across Australia and internationally, and in 2014, Ilbijerri was joint winner of aDrover Award fromAPACA,^[7] and Ilbijerri Theatre, toured byPerforming Lines, won theHelpmann Award for Best Regional Touring Production.^[8] and in the same year
• Beautiful One Day, a theatrical documentary about events onPalm Island (co-produced withBelvoir and version 1.0), which also played at London'sSouthbank Centre as part of the 2015 Origins Festival of First Nations^[9]
• Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country, averbatim theatre work based on historical events atCoranderrk, a formerAboriginal reserve inVictoria.Giordano Nanni andYorta Yorta/Kurnai playwrightAndrea James wrote the play, and it was co-produced withLa Mama Theatre, in collaboration with theUniversity of Melbourne.^[10] It was performed at the Playhouse atSydney Opera House in June/July 2012.^{[11][10][12][13]}
• In 2016, Ilbijerri performed atanderrum ceremony to open theMelbourne Festival^[14]
• Coranderrk, a recreation of the 1881 Coranderrk inquiry, was co-produced withBelvoir Theatre in 2017.^[15]

• Black Ties, co-written byJohn Harvey andTainui Tukiwaho, is a story about a cross-cultural relationship between aMāori woman and an Aboriginal man. It was first performed for theSydney Festival in January 2020, starring Jack Charles,Mark Coles Smith, and Lisa Maza, and co-directed byRachael Maza Long with Tainui Tukiwaho.^[16] It then toured toPerth,Melbourne, and thenWellington andAuckland in New Zealand in February and March of that year.,^[17]
• Big Name, No Blanket, a musical based on the story of theWarumpi Band, premiered in January 2024 at theSydney Festival. It was written byAndrea James withSammy Butcher and his daughterAnyupa Butcher, and co-directed byRachael Maza and Anyupa Butcher.^[18][19][20]Baykali Ganambarr plays Sammy Butcher.^[21] The show was also performed at theRISING Festival inMelbourne,Darwin Festival, andBrisbane Festival.^[22] In October 2024 a slightly scaled-down version of the show was undertaking a tour of 16 prisons, supported by theBalnaves Foundation.^[21]

• Indigenous theatre in Australia

• Official website
• ILBIJERRI onAusStage

• Theatre companies in Australia
• Indigenous Australian theatre
• 1990 establishments in Australia
• Theatre in Melbourne

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• Use Australian English from February 2017
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