Pecan Summer tells the story of 11-year-old Alice (played by Jessica Hitchcock) gfwho has walked-off Cummeragunja Mission with her family to strike at the Murray river bank. Curious and feisty by nature, she goes off wandering into town. Alice is taken by child protection services and put into care of the local Minister's wife.
This is the first Aboriginal opera production in Australia. Behind the scenes, director and playwrite Deborah Cheetham AO came to learn about her own family history, with her grandparents actually walking the true steps of young Alice and other Yorta Yorta mob as they left Cummeragunja in 1939.
Pecan Summer is comprised of Indigenous performers from across Australia, including the Dhungala Children's Choir, a youth program run by Deborah's company Short Black Opera.
'The Secrets of Pecan Summer' (a documentary) airs Saturday 4 Feburary at 7.30pm and 'Pecan Summer: The Opera' airs Saturday 4 Feburary at 8.30pm on NITV Channel 34.