A landmark Aboriginal theatre production exploring the enduring impacts of colonisation, grief and resilience will take to the stage at Margaret River HEART next month.

The 7 Stages of Grieving follows the stories of the Stolen Generations, protest movements, funeral rites and silent mourning through a powerful series of monologues and visual storytelling performed by sole Noongar/Yamatji actor and WA Academy of Performing Arts graduate Shontane Farmer.

Written by Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman in 1995, the show has been produced now for the first time by an Aboriginal theatre company, Yirra Yaakin — one of the longest standing and biggest Aboriginal performing arts companies in Australia.

Yirra Yaakin associate artistic director Bobbi Henry said the story was still relevant today.

“Although it was written around 30 years ago, I think the conversations around grief, identity, truth telling and resilience. . . . all of those struggles are still continuing today,” she said.

“What the play asks from an audience is, how we can all reflect on this shared history of Australia and where we do go from here?

“Of course we know how relevant that dialog is right now in in the Australian conversation.

“I think what’s unique about this production is how beautiful it balances the humour, the pain, the storytelling and the hope, and as a Noongar theatre-maker, what I was really interested in was creating a work that honoured the original work while speaking to an audience today.”

As Ms Farmer moves through the seven stages of grief — dreaming, invasion, genocide, protection, assimilation, self-determination and reconciliation, the audience is invited to witness not only what has been taken, but the resilience, culture and an unbroken connection to country that remains.

Ms Henry said Ms Farmer brought a fresh perspective to the role.

“Shontane holds it with so much care and reverence, she brings this beautiful modern edge to the work as well, which is really exciting to see,” she said.

“So it’s very different, and it’s done in a monologue style with 23 vignettes, it’s not plot driven.”

Ms Henry said she wants audiences to feel invited into the story rather than be overwhelmed by it.

“It’s called the Seven Stages of Grieving, so you look at that and you go, ‘oh my god, this must be a real heavy work’, but it has beautiful humour in it and we’ve injected some beautiful physical storytelling into it,” she said.

“I think what country audiences can take away is a conversation and have discussions with their communities and whether that’s hope or reflection, curiosity even or empathy.

“If people continue these conversations afterwards, then myself as a theatre maker and the theatre itself has done its job.”

The regional tour will visit Margaret River, Bunbury, Mandurah, Carnarvon and Kalamunda and Ms Henry said connecting with local communities had been central to the production.

“I was down in Margaret River a few weeks ago, connecting with mob there, to let the community know we’re coming and we connected with the Margaret River Heart mob,” she said.

“Engaging with community as part of this production is something that was very important for us.”

The 7 Stages of Grieving will be performed on August 21 at Margaret River HEART with tickets available at www.artsmargaretriver.com/event/the-7-stages-of-grieving/