‘We went on this dig together’: historical tightrope act to reclaim the Colleano Heart
A new documentary over a decade in the making unearths the hidden First Nations heritage of the once-famous Colleano Family circus troupe.
Note: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the names and images of, and references to, deceased persons.
The Colleano Heart is the kind of documentary that makes you want to re-watch it straightaway. Filled with emotion, mystery, adventure and a timeline spanning colonisation to the present day, it’s a riveting story that, somehow, has eluded the mainstream – until now.
Archival footage, home movies, interviews, animation and a family quest are woven into the beguiling narrative of the Colleano Family, an elite travelling circus troupe from Gamilaraay Country in northern New South Wales, who reached dizzying heights of international fame during the first half of the 20th century.
At its heart lies a powerful, deeper story about hiding identity to survive: specifically, Aboriginal people in colonised Australia trying to live and thrive in a time when every part of their lives could be controlled by the state.
The documentary speaks to this historical ‘Hidden Generation’, and the complexities and surprises that come from the ‘adapt-and-survive’ practice of hiding in plain sight – including discovering unknown family.
After ten years of research and three years of production, The Colleano Heart will have its world premiere this week at Adelaide Film Festival.
With the amount of historical excavation involved – 7000 articles! – it’s no wonder writer/director Pauline Clague refers to the film as a “dig”. The proud Yaegl woman couldn’t believe what she found.
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“When I was researching all the newspapers around the world, I’m like, ‘No, really?’ Clague tells InReview. “[There were] such amazing things all playing in the middle of history in a way that none of us had really heard before. You go, ‘That can’t be possible!’
“And then [I] kept digging and went, ‘Oh my God! It’s bigger than what I even imagined’ when I first started hearing the story.”
Clague heard it as a girl: four boys, six girls, born to parents Con Sullivan, an Irish tent-boxer, and loving matriarch Julia Robinson, a Gamilaraay women from Narrabri.
“When I first heard the story, they seemed magical and aspirational, so I felt like I wanted to learn more,” she says.
“You read the papers, and I knew if they if they had an essence of Indigenous traits within their family, that there would have to be family members that had oral history.
“For me the pilgrimage was to try and find the family connections and who held those histories.”
She did this with Gamilaraay historian Deb Hescott, who coincidentally was researching the Colleano family tree. It led them to Julia Robinson’s American granddaughter, Molly O’Donnell, the daughter of “triple ladder act” star, Coral Colleano.
Clague says she feels blessed to have found Molly, who knew the family’s stories firsthand.
“We were extremely lucky that Molly came into our lives,” she says. “It was almost like the matriarchal lines of all of our families were drawing Molly and myself and Deb together on this journey.
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“It feels like we went on this ‘dig’ together with this understanding that putting them into a film could bring them back to life in some shape or form.”
The talents of Coral’s brother, Con Colleano, the famous “Wizard of the High Wire”, also feature; once the highest paid circus performer in the world, the film makes great use of his home movies.
But from the opening frames, The Colleano Heart belongs to the women. You can feel it, and so could Clague.
“It felt like she was with us,” she says of her mother, who passed away just before she left to film in the United States.
“Our ancestors were constant. And the matriarch was constantly around us whenever we were shooting.”
“It felt like we were surrounded by these women to make sure that we would do right by the story. So it was really important for us that the matriarchal line had some strong voice in it.”
“We always had that understanding that our ancestors are wanting to revoice themselves. And so it was lovely to be able to bring them back to life.”
With so many strands and sources, Pauline walked her own ‘tightrope’ weaving this “story of the world” together.
“Getting to the edit meant I had to really work on making sure that I was delivering the right message,” she says. “And we’ve never talked about the Hidden Generation in the past. So how do you tell that story and give it its right space?
“I hope that there’s a little bit of a rebalancing of some of those historical points within the film.”
Coming from a small country town, Pauline also wanted to recreate the magic of the circus.
“I think we all have great memories of [the] magic of circuses… That thing of the excitement of – whether it was the rodeo or show day – they were all these great moments for us to imagine.
“I wanted to try and make sure that we had that as part of the journey, as well.”
The Colleano Heart will premiere as part of the Adelaide Film Festival and Tarnanthi festival on Sunday October 19 at Palace Nova Eastend, with a Q&A with the filmmakers and members of the Colleano family. A second screening will take place on Thursday October 23.