Gemma Bird Matheson
#ABOUT
Gemma Bird Matheson is an actor/writer/producer of South African and Papua New Guinean heritage. She was a finalist for the 2018 Heath Ledger Scholarship and starred in AACTA and International Emmy Nominated ABC series Content, which also won a Rose D’Or. On stage Gemma appeared in Griffin Theatre Company’s Superheros. She'll next appear in The Strange Chores (ABC/Ludo) and The PM's Daughter (ABC/Fremantle) - which she also wrote on. Gemma was co-creator/writer/star of the online series The Housemate (ABC iView), and is EP on web-series The Power of the Dream, and co writer/creator/producer/star in upcoming Me & Hers (pes), both funded by Screen Australia.
#PLAY SYNOPSIS
More Than One Canoe is a new work about differing migrant experiences in Australia. Set against the backdrop of a small rural QLD town, true-blue-aussie-sheila, Ros, is about to head off on the retirement trip of a lifetime. She’s spent the better part of her life teaching at the local school, coaching netball on the weekends and running bake sales with Tammy and Tracey. However, when her passport sends up flags at airport check-in, she quickly realises she may have more in common with the asylum seekers on Manus or Nauru than she thought. Having been born in Papua pre-independence, Ros must now grapple with the bureaucracy around immigration and the revoking of her Australian citizenship. What does it mean to be Australian? Does living in Australia for more than 50 years make her more Australian than, say, the Muslim family who just moved in across the street? More Than One Canoe juxtaposes the lives of Ros and her new neighbour Maya - a Muslim immigrant and lawyer - in order to interrogate our treatment of immigrants and the way this differs based on how well you assimilate or the colour of your skin.