Aboriginal elder, Coral Campbell from Bowraville, will be taking over as manager of the Box Office Café at the Bowraville Theatre, after Nambucca Shire Council consented to sub-lease the café to the Bowraville Local Aboriginal Land Council at the general meeting last week (4th).
The new management represents a landmark decision for the Bowraville community when considering the history of the township and the personal history of the new Box Office cafe manager.
In the 1950s, when blacks and whites were segregated in Bowraville, Coral Campbell was a young Aboriginal girl forced to enter the pictures in the dark after the show had started.
Today, a trained caterer with international experience, Coral is thrilled to be back in Bowraville in a new role as café manager at the same theatre.
In those days, the Bowraville Theatre featured large in the famous “Freedom Rides” in February 1965, when a group of Sydney University students led by Charles Perkins toured northern NSW towns to investigate and protest about discrimination against Aboriginal people.
When the Freedom Riders reached Bowraville, the manager of the Bowraville Theatre put up a sign “No Pictures Tonight”and the theatre was closed.
The students held a protest, but were ridiculed by the local papers.
The national media reported discrimination in Bowraville, but the partition in the theatre remained when the theatre opened the next night. The story of Bowraville Theatre went out around the world.
The Bowraville Theatre has changed dramatically since the 1950s.
After laying empty for many years, it was renovated and restored by volunteers with the aid of government grants in 2001 and 2002, and now regularly provides live theatre as well as movies.
In November 2008, council approved the lease of the café and allowed the Bowraville Arts Council to receive the rent paid for the lease.
The lease concluded by mutual agreement in December 2009.
Under the new management of Bowraville Local Aboriginal Land Council, the lease term will be for a period of 12 months.
To coincicde with the opening of the cafe this Saturday (13th) with Coral at the helm, the indigenous muscial Bran Nue Dae will be screened at the theatre.
Bran Nue Dae was first staged 20 years ago as a musical by Jimmy Chi. It had singing, dancing and laughter and most critics emphasised its exhilarating and sardonic chorus line.
The lyrics, There is nothing I would rather be than to be an Aborigine - blew a musical raspberry at the policies of assimilation in the 1960s.
The official opening of the café will be Saturday, March 13, and there will be a special movie screening of the Aboriginal musical ‘Bran Nue Dae’.
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