Bungalow Song

Just a few minutes’ drive north of Alice Springs the Telegraph Station Historic Site stands as a quiet reminder of a dark chapter in Australia’s recent past.

In 1932 when telegraph operations ceased there, the stone buildings were converted into a residential school for Indigenous children. Forcibly removed from their families, these children were subjected to the state’s concerted effort to destroy the Aboriginal culture into which they had been born.

The experience of these children is the focus of Bungalow Song, one of two original performances that premiered at the Mbantua Festival in Alice Springs.