Wesley Enoch

Wesley James Enoch (born 1969) is an Australian playwright and artistic director. He is especially known for The 7 Stages of Grieving, co-written with Deborah Mailman. He was artistic director of the Queensland Theatre Company from mid-2010 until October 2015, and completed a five-year stint as director of the Sydney Festival in February 2021.

Early and personal life Wesley James Enoch was born on North Stradbroke Island/Minjerribah in 1969, the eldest son of Doug and Lyn Enoch. and grew up in Brisbane. He has four siblings and is the younger brother of Queensland government minister Leeanne Enoch. His heritage is Nunukul and Ngugi (two of three Quandamooka peoples from Stradbroke Island ), but also has a mixture of Irish, English and Scottish blood, and Danish and Spanish blood on his (non-Indigenous) mother's side, and Filipino, Pacific Islander and Kandju heritage on his father's.

, Enoch is the domestic partner of past artistic director of Australian Ballet, David McAllister , since around 2008, although they have lived in different cities for much of the time. where he directed a number of his own works. Kooemba Jdarra means "good ground" or "sweet land" in the Turrbal language of South East Queensland. Dancer and choreographer Marilyn Rose Miller, daughter of Pat O'Shane and Mick Miller, became artistic director of the company in 2005.

In 1998 Enoch became associate artist at the Queensland Theatre Company, then served a term from 2000 to 2001 as resident director at Sydney Theatre Company. From 2003 to 2006, he was artistic director at Ilbijerri Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Theatre Co-operative, remaining on the board until 2007. During his time at Ilbijerri, Enoch directed a number of Company B (later Belvoir) productions, including his own Black Medea in collaboration with Malthouse Theatre), and The Sapphires with Melbourne Theatre Company.

In 2007, his play The Story of the Miracles at Cookie's Table was presented in Sydney, with the cast headed by Leah Purcell.

From 2006 to 2008, took up the role of associate artistic director for Company B at the Belvoir St Theatre.

Enoch worked with Tom Wright to develop his play Black Diggers, about Indigenous soldiers in World War I, which under Enoch's direction premiered at the Sydney Opera House in 2014 to great acclaim and served as director from February 2017 for a five-year term, with his last festival in 2021. During his time there, he introduced many works offering a wide range of perspectives by First Nations artists.

In March 2021 Enoch was appointed to the inaugural Indigenous Chair in the Creative Industries at QUT.

Oral history Enoch was interviewed in 1996 by Jackie Huggins and Peter Read about his life and career. The recording can be found at the National Library of Australia.

Written works The 7 Stages of Grieving Enoch is best-known for The 7 Stages of Grieving, a one-actor play co-written with Deborah Mailman in 1995 and first performed at the Metro Arts Theatre in Brisbane by Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts, with Mailman in the solo role and Enoch directing, on 1 September 1995. The play was published in book form in 1996, and has been much studied and written about since.

The title refers to seven phases of Aboriginal history, with the words referencing Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's model commonly known as the five stages of grief. The stages in the play move from the Dreaming to a future of where Aboriginal self-determination and reconciliation with settler Australians has been achieved. The concept of the seven phases of Aboriginal history were identified and named as such by Michael Williams, director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies at the University of Queensland when Enoch was teaching and Mailman was studying there during the 1990s. The linking of Kübler-Ross's model and Williams' framework that started the examination of "the concept that Indigenous history has been a long and complicated grieving process since colonisation". Using traditional cultural forms of "dance, song, music, visuals and storytelling", they workshopped their ideas for two years before first presenting a 30-minute version, and then developed it further along with dramaturge Hilary Beaton to its full length, presented in 1995. The play was during the early years of a formal reconciliation process in Australia, but, interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, was postponed until mid-2021. This production, directed by Shari Sebbens and performed by Elaine Crombie, is being staged in Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra.

Other works Grace (1998) is a short film, first screened around Australia in a group of six short films, collectively titled "Shifting Sands".

Other works written by Enoch include: Little White Dress A Life of Grace and Piety (1998) The Sunshine Club (1999) Black Medea (2000) The Story of the Miracles at Cookie's Table (2006) I Am Eora (2012)

Recognition In 2002, Enoch was the recipient of an Australia Council for the Arts residency at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris.

Productions Works directed and/or produced by Enoch include:

Appropriate, STC Bitin' Back, Kooemba Jdarra The Sapphires (2004) The Cherry Pickers, by Kevin Gilbert Stolen Parramatta Girls, by Alana Valentine Fountains Beyond Purple Dreams Paul, by Howard Brenton EORA Crossing RiverlanD, by Scott Rankin Fountains Beyond Romeo and Juliet, Bell Shakespeare Black-ed Up The Dreamers Wonderlands Conversations with the Dead Rainbow's End, Koeemba Jdarra One Night the Moon, Malthouse Theatre Mother Courage and Her Children, QTC Bombshells, QTC Head Full of Love, QTC Black Diggers, QTC/Sydney Festival Trollop, by Maxine Mellor

Footnotes