GERT

GERT is a powerful multimedia performance that weaves spoken word, music and visuals into a haunting journey. Artist Jacqui Malins presents a mesmerising, time-bending experience, that brings the one woman’s story to life through the voice of a river.

In 1924, near Queenstown on the west coast of Lutruwita/Tasmania, a boy holds a gun with a black cockatoo perched on the barrel. A young woman with short curly hair stands beside him in the button grass, a cockatoo dangling from each hand.

Captivated by this arresting image, spoken word performer and artist Jacqui Malins wanted to know: who is this woman, and what is she doing?

GERT is her answer: part history, part poetic investigation, with spoken word, visuals and music. Jacqui transports you through the deep history of ancient Lutruwita/Tasmania and the vibrant community and boom-and-bust rhythms of the west coast - a world of rivers and rainforest, loggers and miners, smelters and dams. This 1-hour one-woman multimedia performance is adapted from her non-fiction narrative poetry collection of the same name.

GERT tells two inseparable stories: one of a place, and the other of one woman who lived there. It speaks to anyone interested in history, women’s lives, industrial history or the environment. It is resonant with communities who are grappling with the legacies of mining, smelting and logging, and looking to a different future.

GERT is layered and beguiling in all the right ways. Just when you think you know where you are, Malins shifts, like the ancient river at the heart of the story, injecting surprise and delight, and interlacing local history with ecology and art. 

(Johanna Bell)

The evening will be hosted by Gabrielle Journey Jones and include readings by Sandra Renew and Elizabeth Walton.

Supported by Ocean Mic Poets.

Jacqui Malins is a writer, performer and artist based on Ngunawal & Ngambri country, aka Canberra. Jacqui has performed at events including the Cobargo Folk Festival, National Poetry Month Gala, the Woodford Festival (QLD) and The Unconformity (Tas). Her previous shows include 'Words in Flight' and 'Cavorting with Time', and her poetry collections GERT (2025) and F-Words (2021) are published by Recent Work Press.

INFO

Date/Time: Saturday 11 July, 7:00pm

Duration: 90 min

Tickets: Adult $27 Concession $22 (plus booking fees)

Bistro opening hours - Dinner: 5:30pm to 8:00pm (bookings recommended)