Adelaide Play 'Logan St' Uncovers Hidden Aboriginal and Migrant Histories

As far as streets go, Logan Street is as unremarkable as they come, unless you know.

WARNING: First Nations readers are advised that this article contains an image of a person who has died.

Writer and director Jacob Boehme knows, but only after digging beyond official records.

"It was a slum and it was pretty much every brown person, including the Irish, was dumped into the south-west."

He's talking about Adelaide in the 1940s, where Aboriginal people could only get off state-run missions and walk down city streets if they signed away their identity in exchange for an exemption certificate.

Non-European migrants fared no better, being heavily restricted, surveyed and socially excluded.

For years, Boehme heard the stories of that period through his grandmother Dulcie Sansbury, who during those pre-war times formed an unlikely friendship in Logan Street with a Muslim man, Afghan cameleer Gool Mahomet, or 'Goolie', at the Adelaide Mosque.

When State Theatre Company South Australia approached him to write a play, he immediately knew he wanted to tell that story.

Logan St production takes off

And so Logan St was born, and he began probing into the past, building on the fragments of a hidden history.

"The further I dug through city archives, state records, different publications in the library, the more I understood that there was a whole history that, as the city grew around it, had been lost to public memory," Boehme said.

It didn't take long to convince actor Alexis West to take on the role of Dulcie, the character based on Boehme's grandmother.

"It is a real privilege and honour to be able to take the role up, this incredible human being that Jacob has brought to life."

Just as crucial was finding the actor to play Goolie, with the role being offered to Ali Ammouchi, who has a Lebanese background.

"It was honestly a script that I had to put down halfway through it because I was so moved by it," Ammouchi said.

Preparation for him included visiting Mahomet's grave at the West Terrace cemetery.

"To kind of say, hey, I'm going to the best of my ability, tell your story."

Ancestral stories woven in production

Jacob Boehme's family has a remarkable history.

His great great great great grandmother Munarto Nellie Raminyemmerin was taken at age 14 by seal hunter John Wilkins to be his 'wife' on Kangaroo Island, which was known as the 'island of the dead'.

She had seven children with him, before the sealing trade ended and he abandoned her, forcing her to take drastic action.

"As a Kaurna woman, she knew those waters between Kangaroo Island and Cape Jervis and she grabbed every one of her children and swam them back to the mainland, which is why we're here," Boehme said.

Her story is also intertwined throughout the production.

Opening night is fast approaching, and with that comes plenty of pressure on Boehme.

"God yeah, I'm going to be completely nervous on the first night," he admitted.

And as he takes a break from intense rehearsals, the arts veteran knows there are other parts of the Australian community that might be saying what about us and our stories.

"There are plenty of layers of stories and people and history that have built this country that are still yet to be told," he said.

Logan St runs from July 24 to August 8 at Space Theatre, in the Adelaide Festival Centre.