Mi:Wi 3027 An original play reading in development based on a remarkable cross-cultural wartime story
Mi:Wi 3027 brings to life a fascinating wartime story inspired by the friendship between the first Ngarrindjeri soldier to join the Australian Army during World War One and the German-Jewish ethnologist, and later University of Melbourne scholar, sent to interrogate him.
Roland Carter (Service No. 3027) became the first Ngarrindjeri man to join the Australian Imperial Forces during World War I. There he was interned in a prisoner of war camp in Germany, where a GermanJewish ethnologist around his age (27), Leonhard Adam, was employed by the government to collect information on the culture and customs of the ethnic prisoners. During meetings between the two men, Roland gave Leonhard valuable insights into the customs, history, language and daily life of Aboriginal people back home in Australia. It was these meetings that led the two men from very different cultures to form what would become a lifelong friendship.
During the next world war, an interesting reversal of sorts took place. Leonhard was forced to flee his German homeland and was eventually deported to Australia on the HMT Dunera where he then found himself in a Victorian internment camp for a period of time. Following his release, Leonhard began settling into a new life, quickly rising to become a distinguished scholar and lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Melbourne during the 1940s and 50s.
Roland and Leonhard were never to meet again, but through Leonhard’s sister-in-law, who travelled to Roland’s hometown of Raukkan in 1947, were reconnected and continued to correspond by mail.
It is through these letters, consultations with both families and workshops with the Raukkan community that Ngarrindjeri Wathaurong playwright Glenn Shea has developed the original work Mi:Wi 3027 (Mi:Wi is the Ngarrindjeri word for Soul). This play reading is in the final stages of development and we hope to eventually take it to full production.
Mi:Wi 3027’s Creative Producer Lee-Ann Buckskin said, “An untold story in our country’s military history, the friendship between Roland Carter and Leonhard Adam is a unique one. Mi:Wi 3027 is the story of their enduring bond built on the respect for Roland’s beloved Ngarrindjeri culture and the parallels between the two men whose lives transcend the perils of politics and war and ultimately the enormity of human sacrifice.”
Mi:Wi 3027 is the second stage of Country Arts SA’s broader 3 year Aboriginal Diggers project, designed to honour Indigenous soldiers in wars Australia has been involved with and employ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists to creatively document their experiences.
