Bighouse Dreaming

A very personal project by writer and lead actor Declan Furber Gillick, Bighouse Dreaming is unflinching in its portrayal of First Nations youth incarceration in Central Australia. 

Centred around loveable but troubled teen Chris (Furber Gillick), who has a gift for rap music, we watch him bounce between institutions and service providers in the absence of strong role models. Director Mark Wilson elicits a performance from Furber Gillick which makes for uncomfortable viewing, particularly for those working in youth crime in the Northern Territory. 

Furber Gillick's writing is piercing – he truly skewers the main players in the youth justice space. We follow Chris’ gaze as he attempts to make sense of the alienating  justice system, a perspective which is peppered with wry humour and striking insight. Dushan Phillips as Anand, a dedicated lawyer from Sydney, is a delight. Ross Daniels is devastating as both a vile youth detention worker and an austere youth court judge. 

At the start of the performance, Furber Gillick acknowledges that we are on Larrakia land, but, as he is an Arrernte man, this is a red desert story. He encircles the stage with red sand, literally demarcating that this is an Indigenous space. The set from Bethany J Fellows is without much ornament and yet at times is jarring and discordant. Unfortunately some of the scene changes and role switching is clumsy, undercutting the strength of the characters and the writing.

Situating the narrative through the lens of the child is a clever way to add more nuance to a highly politicised area of law and policy. In a jurisdiction where children are treated as criminals from an age as young as 10, it is both necessary and refreshing to elevate the perspectives of the people who are actually impacted by these systems. The contrast between the expressions of the judge, lawyer, children, psychologist, and prison guard emphasises who is and, more importantly, who isn’t, entitled to be heard in youth crime matters. We really have to ask who is being served by the pervading legal discourse when Judge Godbold’s pronouncements are completely incomprehensible to the First Nations child he is sentencing. It would appear that the system indeed "isn’t broken, it is working exactly as it was designed to do". 

It has been almost been two years since the findings of the Royal Commission Into The Detention And Protection Of Children In The NT were handed down and little has changed. Just this week, the NT Government announced that a new youth detention facility will neighbour the adult prison in Berrimah, suggesting that these juvenile offenders are destined for a lifetime of crime. Bighouse Dreaming reminds us that there is still so much work to be done in the youth justice space and this will only be achieved with law and policy that is compassionate, trauma-informed and culturally appropriate. 

Furber Gillick is brave for putting NT law-makers on notice – it is time they show the leadership we need to untangle these complex and intersecting social issues.