Review: MY NAME IS JIMI Gives Audiences An Interesting, Informative And Important Insight Into Jimi Bani's Torres Straight Island Heritage

Saturday 13th January 2018, 8pm Belvoir Theatre

Acclaimed actor Jimi Bani brings his own story, and his family, to Belvoir Theatre to engage and enlighten audiences about his culture and heritage in an effort to help preserve it for future generations. MY NAME IS JIMI, co-written by Jimi Bani and Jason Klarwein shares Jimi and his late father Dimple Bani's quest to ensure future generations understand the history of their clan, the Wagadagam from Mabuiag Island , part of the Western Torres Straight Islands.

Following ominous rolls of thunder, the audience is given a glimpse of a traditional dance, presented by two men who the audience later learn are Jimi's younger brothers Richard and Conwell. The dance and Jimi's explanation of the welcome mat that his mother Agnes Bani lays at the front of the stage helps frame the work as both entertainment and educational but this 80 minute performance is far from a staid lecture. Jimi has a wonderfully easy comic style that he balances with factual information and more earnest, serious moments, delivering what feels like a loosely scripted introduction to his family and his culture. He engages the audience as he explains his complex family tree with the remark that they need to pay attention for the test at the end of the show but it is easy to want to try to absorb as much as you can when Jimi speaks of his family and community with such adoration and care. To frame the western world's understanding of the Torres Straight Island people he dispels modern misconceptions about their way of life and also presents the origins of the first western research into their culture through an amusing dramatization of British anthropologist and ethnologist Alfred Cort Haddon who wrote several books on the Torres Straight Islanders in the late 19th century.

With the aid of archive footage, live video of expressions of traditional stories and songs, dance, Agnes and his paternal grandmother Petharie Bani's own stories, and Jimi's own interactions with his eldest son Dmitri Ahwang-Bani, the importance of keeping the Wagadagam culture alive is explained. The combination of the stories of Petharie's late husband, Adhi Ephraim Bani Jnr's quest to preserve the language, going so far as to move to Canada to achieve a Masters of Linguistics and his efforts to repatriate artefacts that Haddon and other Europeans had taken shows how important the preservation of their history and identity is to the Jimi, particularly in his role as the next 9th Chief of Wagadagam following his fathers passing. The interactions with the family members, the rest of which are not professional performers, show the importance of family and they also provide the support for the expressions from being puppet masters, camera men, singers and dancers. Hearing Agnes and Petharie's voices which also bring in the traditional Kala Lagaw Ya language and the Torres Straight Creole, gives the work more credibility and the uncles teaching Dimitri is also touching in the simple way of expressing how the family help to raise and educate the next generation.

This is a well-constructed, inventive piece that uses a variety of creative mediums to engage the audience and spark their desire to help Jimi and his clan "keep the fire burning", as Jimi's grandfather had described the continuance of their culture, practices, language and identity. Whilst the audience that aren't members of Jimi's family (there were a few of the Bani family's relatives in the audience on the night BWWSydney attended) aren't necessarily expected to learn the language, the understanding of the importance of culture and identity to the First Nations clans can be used to help ensure that clans like the Wagadagam are allowed to retain their artefacts and their identity as well as spread the awareness that regardless of how small a community, rich cultures still exist.

An entertaining and captivating work, do yourself a favour and take up the opportunity to see MY NAME IS JIMI and be treated to the honour of gaining an insight into another society that sits so close to our own but many aren't really aware of.

MY NAME IS JIMI

5 - 21 January 2018

Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir Theatre

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