Window on our history

Local Innawonga actor Shaka Cook is set to star in a new Australian film exploring redemption and reconciliation in a World War II tale that will hit the big screen in Karratha on Friday. Cook, who was last month cast in the Australian version of the hit US Broadway musical Hamilton, plays Waru Banganha in The Flood, a dramatic western-style adventure film that explores Australia’s history. Waru is an Aboriginal man who goes off to war after being promised fairness and equality by the Government. However, he returns and finds that not to be the case. “He comes back and learns that everything that the Government promised him is a lie and his family has been split up and taken apart, so he goes on a journey trying to get his family back together,” Cook said. Cook grew up on a horse station in the Pilbara and went to school in Tom Price, and said he brought a lot of his childhood to the role. “Having a very traditional background as well, and growing up knowing all of these stories about what happened back in the 40s and 60s and knowing what happened to Indigenous people in Australia,” he said. “Telling the story was very important.” The Flood will screen at Red Earth Arts Precinct.