On the picturesque set of Stan’s original series Black Snow, Stephen A. Russell learns about the ugly Australian history that inspires the crime-thriller, from stars Talijah Blackman-Corowa, Jimi Bani, Alexander England, and Brooke Satchwell.
The slow and steady rustle of towering sugar cane swaying under the relentless North Queensland sun is the only sound that remains, as a respectful hush falls over a location shoot on the set of Stan’s riveting new crime drama, Black Snow. Yes, the cameras are rolling, but there’s something else in the air.
This traditional funeral scene features a remarkable cast of actors, many of whom are first-timers and members of Australia’s South Sea Island community. The cane that wraps around this haunting hollow between the rural town Proserpine and the beauty of Airlie Beach in the Whitsunday region is inextricably linked to one of the darkest annals in Australian history. Blackbirding was the savage act of kidnapping South Sea Islander peoples, shackling them in chains and shipping them to Australia to work as slaves in the cane fields.
This shameful stain informs the bones of Black Snow creator Lucas Taylor’s story. It straddles two time periods. There’s a sequence set in the 90s, leading up to the murder of tenacious high school student and South Sea Island-Australian Isabel, played by remarkable newcomer Talijah Blackman-Corowa. Then we jump 25 years later, as troubled cop Cormack, played by Vikings star Travis Fimmel, follows a lead unearthed by the digging up of a time capsule.
Suspicious of this outsider, Isabel’s now adult sister Hazel, played by another casting revelation in Jemmason Power, falls into his cold case pursuit. Watching Power as Hazel, played by Molly Fatnowna in flashback, gives me shivers. Power is a star in the making.
School’s out forever
Brisbane-based Blackman-Corowa was alerted by her cousin (also in the cast) to a Facebook call for people from the South Sea Island community to audition. She remembers driving through these cane fields as a kid on the way to visit family in Bowen and Townsville. The way Black Snow folds in the inter-generational trauma resulting from blackbirding struck a chord. “It was very emotional,” she says of observing the funeral shoot.
We sit down together in the grassy yard of a now-closed school in Proserpine that doubles as the show’s production hub, complete with a classroom given over to Vanessa Loh’s costume department, who have raided many a local op shop for authentic 90s looks.
Blackman-Corowa credits the help of cultural consultant Aunty Kaylene Butler and dramaturg Nadia Townsend in helping guide her through difficult material. “We’ve done such rigorous work. This is my first acting gig and I’ve become so attached to the story.” She’s very attached to Isabel, too—a role I’m sure will have casting directors calling her.
“She’s very courageous, loving and loyal and shows so much promise. She’s also really cool. A lot cooler than me in some aspects. I like how curious she is, and that everything she does, she makes those choices with her heart.”
Everyone’s a suspect
Of course, there are buried secrets around every corner in this small town that hums with the industrial thrum of the local sugar mill, and most of the cast are suspects. That includes Isabel’s devout father, Pastor Joe, played by esteemed actor Jimi Bani, who was nominated for the Silver Logie for his turn in Rachel Perkins’ TV movie Mabo. He says Black Snow’s producers built a strong foundation for writers Taylor, Beatrix Christian and Boyd Quakawoot. “The script is amazing, as are the advisor’s eyes all over it.”
A man of unshakeable faith when we first meet him, Joe questions everything after the capsule is opened. But is he as innocent as he appears? “He’s in the middle of a whirlwind of questions,” Bani suggests.
So is Anton, Isabel’s high school boyfriend played by Significant Others actor Josh Macqueen in flashback, and Little Monsters lead Alexander England. The latter tells me that the location shoot helped him uncover his troubled character. “The environment is a huge part of this, from the infinite cane fields stretching out in all directions to that big Queensland sky.”
It’s a sky Brooke Satchwell soaked up when walking around the surprisingly busy town before dawn the day she started shooting. No stranger to crime dramas, The Twelve star plays the grown-up version of Isabel’s bestie Chloe (Annabel Wolfe in flashback). “The day before filming began, I drove out amongst the cane fields and got a sense of Chloe’s place,” Satchwell says. As the scion of the local sugar mill business, she’s pretty suss too. “The most complex part of it, for me, has been playing a character with so much assumed status and power and being more authoritative.”
Satchwell says she didn’t know as much as she should have about blackbirding before filming began. “The brutality of that experience and the fragmentation and disruption it caused to a people who are deeply rooted in their sense of place and connection,” she shakes her head. “Hopefully Black Snow can open up more conversation.”
All episodes of Stan Original Series Black Snow premiere on New Year’s Day.
