The Drover's Wife

Leah Purcell's reimagining of Henry Lawson’s short story flips the colonial perspective on its head and gives agency to its heroine.

While her drover husband is away, heavily pregnant Molly Johnson and her children struggle to survive on their isolated property. Finding herself in a desperate situation she accepts an offer of help from Yadaka, an Indigenous man suspected of brutal murders.

Curator's note

Leah Purcell wrote, produced and directed this commanding bush Western which is powered by her own riveting, AACTA-winning performance as Molly Johnson. Adapted from her play which gave a name, depth and complexity to the central subject of Henry Lawson’s classic short story (on which it is loosely based), Purcell knowingly flips the white colonial perspective, illuminating the bias and contradictions at play in the original text. By forging her own, distinct narrative, and through her compelling embodiment of the role, Purcell gives Molly Johnson agency and voice, while reclaiming and honouring Indigenous experience.

– Clare Stewart