Artscape: Making Dust

This week on Artscape is the documentary Making Dust, a look at a community theatre piece on asbestos and James Hardie Industries, with songs by Mark Seymour.

With November being National Asbestos Awareness Month, now is the perfect time to consider, that by the 1950s one quarter of all houses built in Australia were clad with asbestos cement sheets. This is a frightening fact because inhalation of asbestos dust can cause a number of diseases such as asbestosis and mesothelioma. It was not until 1983 that all mining of asbestos ceased in Australia, and the use of asbestos was only entirely banned in 2003.

James Hardie Industries is the most well-known of the companies that made and distributed asbestos products in Australia. The compensation cases waged against James Hardie since the 1980s, the most famous being fought by mesothelioma sufferer Bernie Banton, have seared asbestos into the Australian consciousness. Part of what made it all so horrifying was the fact that just one fibre breathed in decades ago could end up killing you. It wasn’t just workers who were at risk, but women washing their husband’s overalls and children helping out on home renovations. The epidemic of asbestos diseases is not expected to peak in Australia until around 2023.

The community theatre production Dust explores the deadly impact of asbestos in Australia. Spearheaded by writer and director Donna Jackson, the show incorporates multiple elements; songs, film, sculpture, sideshow performances and real life testimonies. The show is tied together by Mark Seymour’s original songs, performed by Seymour and a community choir. Explaining what attracted him to the project, the former Hunters & Collectors frontman says, “I’m interested in writing about experiences that I haven’t directly had myself. I mean, big Australian stories are important, they need to be told. Everyone benefits from that because it’s part of our own cultural heritage.”

Making Dust captures the theatre show in its incarnation at the Queens Theatre in Adelaide. It has also been performed in Ballarat, Williamstown, Geelong, Shepparton and Sale. In each location the show changes to incorporate local stories.

10pm Tuesday November 26 on ABC1.