Sister Chick
More than twelve years ago I first heard the story of the Eastern Curlew. It was told to me on the edge of a bay by a bird-lover. I was filled with the wonder of the migration of this magnificent wading bird from one side of the world to the other. That day beside the bay this thought dropped from the sky - follow that bird!
And so, three years later, with a team of other people, I did. I was a director of theatre performances then. Together with visual artist Kate Clere and project manager Nell White, it took three years to make the world-wide contacts and gather the resources needed for the journey – Waderbirds - Odyssey of the Wetlands.
Our team of theatre artists – directors, choreographers, builders of giant puppets, composers, technicians, publicists and managers – were joined by indigenous elders, scientists, musicians, painters, educationalists and bird lovers from across the world.
In four wetland locations we created a one-off spectacular outdoor performance to tell the story of the Eastern Curlew.Our first performance took place on the edge of Manukau Harbour in Mangere, Aotearoa/New Zealand with 450 people in the show and several thousand watching. From there we went to a park beneath the Westgate Bridge in Melbourne, Australia, to stage the second and largest Waderbirds event to an audience of 4,000 people. Town Beach in Broome, North West Australia, with its ten metre tides was the stage for the third Waderbirds. Our journey concluded in Kushiro on the North Island of Hokkaido, Japan, performing with local people to an audience representative of the 87 nations gathered for the Ramsar International Wetlands Convention.
Where one journey ends another begins.
When I returned home from Waderbirds, my daughter who traveled with us across the world was only nine months old. She probably thought we’d just been down to the local supermarket and back. For Grace, and for Brenna who traveled with Waderbirds when she was only one, I wrote The Way of the Birds, illustrated by Shane Nagle and published by Allen & Unwin Australia in 1996.
This book attracted the attention of film producer Fiona Eagger. When she showed the idea to animation director Sarah Watt, the Curlew story continued. Their 23 minute animation, The Way of the Birds, was a finalist for the Australian Film Institute Awards 2000 and received Best Film in Category at the Cinanima International Animated Film Festival Portugal 2000.
The idea that dropped from the sky didn’t rest there.Nell White, one of the original Waderbirds team, now a film producer, thought of creating an online documentary - A Year on the Wing (www.abc.net.au/wing ) - one of the first of its kind produced in Australia. Nell invited me to co-write and Kate Clere to direct this exploration into new media.
Sister Chick grew out of revisiting the story of the Curlew’s migration for the online. With Allen & Unwin’s encouragement, I had the rare opportunity to rewrite an earlier book and produce this new offering. I hope Sister Chick brings as much richness in the reading as it has brought in the journeying to get it here.
Cover blurb
Once, not long ago, and in a place not far from here, a baby girl was born. In that same moment, in a place far away on the other side of the world, an egg cracked. The tip of a tiny beak poked through, and a curlew chick was born. Sister Chick.
Eva dreams of places far beyond her own backyard. While other kids go by, fooling around with their friends, Eva is watching, listening for the call of a curlew flying high overhead; waiting for the bird with the long slender beak. And when the curlew finally comes, Eva goes on a magical journey, flying with Sister Chick from the distant marshlands of Siberia to the ancient southern land of Australia.
Sister Chick is a lyrical story about a young girl and a curlew, and the way they change each other’s lives.
copyright meme mcdonald 2002
