A Statement from the Creative Team of Cowboys & Indians
Cowboys & Indians is a satirical slapstick Western-genre comedy that follows the story of Sketch, a young cowboy who learns that his long-lost mother is Native American—and his subsequent journey to find her. Led by an Indigenous Australian director and a Native American writer, the story is a metaphorical version of the writer’s own personal experience of family and heritage, created with and performed by a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous co-devisors.
The title is a reference to the old children’s game and is intentionally divisive, as we aim to subvert traditional tropes of the colonial Cowboy-Western genre and play with the discomfort of sharing an Indigenous tale through this lens. We hope audiences leave the theatre knowing that things aren’t always what they seem and identity isn’t black and white, that multiple truths can coexist. Just because you’re told something is one way doesn’t make it true, nor does it limit it to only be that way. (It’s also a playful crack at the fact that our protagonist is of both white cowboy and Native American descent—Cowboy AND ‘Indian’)