Award-winning playwright and filmmaker and proud Wotjobaluk and Ngarrindjeri woman, Tracey Rigney, illuminates her journey into the screen industry and how she hopes to carve out pathways for other First Nations folk to follow in her footsteps.
Tracey Rigney’s love of storytelling started in early childhood when she was captivated by the yarns of her grandfather. “I was never read to like other kids,” Tracey says, “but my grandfather always told me stories in that oral tradition, and I would just love to be his own only captive audience and listen to him for hours.”
Tracey vividly remembers sitting at her grandfather’s feet painting designs on the boomerangs he’d carved by hand while he recounted old and new tales. That deep love of story was always there, Tracey explains, but it didn’t manifest into a dream or vision for her future until later on.
“Growing up in [the small town of] Dimboola, everything just seemed so far away and you kind of felt a bit foolish to think, ‘Oh, I’m going to get out of town and do this or that.’ Growing up in the country is really different to growing up in the city like that.”
Ultimately, Tracey did leave Dimboola and relocated to Melbourne where she enrolled in a handful of different degrees across three major universities, including courses in Education, German, Communications and Tourism, none of which quite stuck. “I changed courses three or four times in the space of a year and a half,” Tracey recounts laughing. Eventually, after running into a cousin who was a drama school graduate and completing a master’s degree on the history of Blak theatre, Tracey felt a strong pull towards the creative industries. “I remember all of the artsy, cool, blackfulla, creative mob were hanging around and I told my cousin, ‘I like storytelling too. I’ve never written anything, but I like it.’”
This interest steered Tracey to meet with the then Head of Creative Arts at the University of Melbourne, Dr. Angela O’Brien, who accepted her into the mid-year intake of the creative arts undergraduate program.
“Before I knew it, I was writing my first play, Belonging, which was produced and published when I was 21 (and still a student) and staged at Playbox Theatre [today’s renowned Malthouse Theatre].”
Mentors like acclaimed writer, director and actor Glenn Shea and Playbox’s then dramaturg Louise Gough took Tracey under their wing and created a network of support to help elevate the emerging storyteller. “That program was amazing and surreal. I remember thinking, ‘A year ago, I had no idea what I was doing with my life and now I know.’”
Tracey’s passion for spinning a great yarn has morphed and evolved over the years, from her origins in playwriting, to working on a plethora of film and TV projects of various scales including documentary and short film projects like Endangered, Abalone, Man Real and Elders, as well as the award-winning VicScreen-supported feature film We Are Still Here. She has directed a web series called A Chance Affair and has written for TV on The Warriors.
Today, Tracey is running her own production company and creative studio, Pink Lake Creative, which is based out of Victoria’s Wimmera region and is developing an exciting slate of new work. It’s a creative and collaborative social enterprise where Tracey hopes to nurture local talent and share untold stories, as well as provide opportunities for other up and comers, especially from regional, rural and First Nations communities.
It’s important to have production companies like Pink Lake Creative that exist outside metropolitan cities, Tracey thinks.
“We don’t have to live in a big city in order to have a career in the screen industry. Look at me. I’m proof. I live in Dimboola.”
So many films are shot in the bush, Tracey explains, so it makes sense to upskill country people and have these services available in regional settings. “Country influences everything I do; just being a human on the planet,” Tracey continues. “Having that really strong foundation of childhood and upbringing and connection to country, it’s everything. And I try my best to showcase that in the stories I tell.”
There’s still a long way to go in terms of representation both on screen and behind the camera for First Nations people, Tracey says.
“People are so apathetic, but [First Nations People are] living through it. We’ve survived genocide and colonisation so, it’s a responsibility I take very seriously. Once I became a mum, it ramped up my motivation in terms of representation and storytelling regarding what I put out there and what I choose to work on. Everything I do is for my daughter and for the younger generations; to educate these young ones so they can grow up with a better understanding. Because that’s all it is. It’s about creating understanding and empathy.”
Learn more about Tracey Rigney and her production company Pink Lake Creative.
To partner with talented Victorian screen creators like Tracey, contact VicScreen’s Head of Incentives & Production Support Joe Brinkmann at [email protected]
