Whitefella Yella Tree (Griffin Theatre Company), at Union Theatre, University of Melbourne - 90 minutes, with no interval

First love erupts into a fight for Country in Whitefella Yella Tree.

Teen indigenous Australians from different clans meet to exchange information.

Ty (Joseph Althouse) of the River mob is tall, wiry, reflective and intelligent. Neddy (Danny Howard) of the Mountain mob is slightly shorter and sturdier, a livewire who darts about.

Photos by Prudence Upton

They meet beneath the knotted branches of a newly rooted lemon tree.

They have eyes only for one another. It is all very fresh and exciting.

But as colonial rule changes the dynamic of Australia, so too does it impact upon the relationship between these two.

Ty is determined to follow his tribal elders and relay the stories integral to his clan.

Neddy is swayed by the impact of white man rule and puts his faith in it.

Can their love – indeed, can any love – survive this, as their absences from one another grow ever longer?

This, as traditional culture suffers irreparable harm at the hands of the white man.

Writer Dylan Van Den Berg’s premise for Whitefella Yella Tree pivots around a simple question: what happens when first love collides with the violence of invasion?

Through listening and asking, Van Den Berg discovered that Blak queerness, like queerness in every colour, always existed … and was cherished.

Further, the true obscenity was colonisation, with its imported homophobia and impulse towards erasure.

Whitefella Yella Tree is a rich and rewarding experience, but it is also deeply distressing.

It is an artistic recreation of how the land was claimed by colonisers, seen through the maturing, yearning, at times tortuous relationship between Ty and Neddy.

Van Den Berg is insightful, interweaving the personal, the spiritual and the political.

Althouse and Howard are equally compelling, as their characters approach colonisation from different perspectives, increasing the pressure on their relationship.

We see that in Althouse’s frustration and vulnerability, and in Howard’s enthusiastic, all-in approach.

The staging is striking. Designer Mason Browe’s gnarly tree (or part thereof, upside down) is a major drawcard – the centrepiece – along with lemons dropped from on high. So, too, their representation of Country.

Reflecting seasons and moods, lighting from Kelsey Lee and Katie Sfetkidis is rich and redolent.

Composer and sound designer Steve Toulmin’s variations in tone are masterful.

Co-directors Declan Greene and Amy Sole have created a meaningful and compelling work.

There is a despairing eloquence in Whitefella Yella Tree, which left me feeling shame.

My final thought is by way of an analogy.

Once the perfection of an egg is shattered, it can’t be resurrected.

Ninety minutes without interval, Whitefella Yella Tree is on at Union Theatre at the University of Melbourne until 15^th November, 2025.