Line of duty
True Colours explores Aboriginal culture, art and identity in a fast-paced murder mystery. Lauren Mitchell chats to Rarriwuy Hick about her first leading role
LEADING an incredible line-up of NAIDOC Week programming on SBS and NITV, True Colours is an immersive and groundbreaking murder mystery, set in a First Nations community.
Over four parts, the unique series combines the culture, art and language of Central Australia’s Arrernte people with a conventional crime drama to produce a whodunnit unlike any other.
Wentworth’s Rarriwuy Hick stars as Toni Alma, an Alice Springs detective who’s assigned to investigate a suspicious car accident in the fictional Aboriginal community of Perdar Theendar, the town she left as a child and hasn’t seen too much of since.
Toni’s complicated return to Perdar Theendar was something Hick identified with after spending time away from her own north east Arnhem Land home for acting work.
“I’ve been down in Sydney and Melbourne filming for many years and I decided three years ago to go back home and be closer to my mum and my family up there in Arnhem Land,” Hick explains.
“This role came up during that time of me returning back home and I was like ‘This is me in many ways right now, in my life.’“
True Colours is a Bunya production for SBS with development and major production investment from Screen Australia’s First Nations Department in association with SBS and NITV, Screen Territory and Screen NSW. The show builds on Bunya’s incredible body of work, which includes Sweet Country, Goldstone and Mystery Road, and features an exceptional line-up of raw local talent.
“Eighty per cent of the cast, I reckon, were people who had never been on screen before, who didn’t have the experience of working on a film set or TV set,” says Hick.
“It was really exciting.
You could feel that this was something we’ve never done before in Australia’s TV/film industry.
“It felt new, it also felt really old. You’ve got all these old ancient stories, we’re speaking languages that are 50,000 years old, we’re talking about art that’s 50,000 years old.
“We’re talking about old traditional customs and how does that survive and live in a world where Western society is very different to traditional Aboriginal custom and culture? How do we walk in two worlds?”
Toni reckons with her two identities through the course of her investigation, torn between respecting the traditional laws of her culture, and the legal system she represents as a member of NT Police. Her inquiries are made more complex by the kinship system, customs that govern social interaction for Central Australian Aboriginal communities.
“With kinship systems, what we have is some restricted relationships where you just cannot talk to some people,” explains Hick.
“Toni Alma is trying to do the right thing in both worlds and she just keeps messing up and she’s like ‘How do I make this right? How do I do it the right way?’
“What I love about True Colours is that offscreen we worked with the kinship system. This is the first production I know of that has done that.”
Hick, who speaks Yolngu Matha at home, learned to speak Arrernte for the role, taking classes for a month and immersing herself in local life.
“I just wanted to do the right thing and portray Toni Alma as an Arrernte woman in the best way possible and be respectful of that. I’m not a desert woman, I’m not from there, but I felt the huge responsibility that comes with telling someone else’s story.”
■ True Colours, MondayThursday, 8.30pm, SBS, NITV and SBS On Demand