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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Entertainment
Dee Jefferson

Back to Bilo review – the remarkable story of the Nadesalingams and Biloela makes for compelling theatre

Nadesalingams Nadesalingam Bilo Biloela Priya Sri Lanka Australia Brisbane
Leah Vandenberg and Matt Domingo in Back to Bilo
Leah Vandenberg as Priya and Matt Domingo as Nades in Back to Bilo, a verbatim theatre show that tells the story of the Nadesalingam family and how their deportation from Australia was successfully fought by the town of Biloela, Queensland. Photograph: Morgan Roberts

Even if you don’t know their name, you’ve probably heard of the Nadesalingams: the family of Tamil refugees living in the small Queensland town of Biloela, whose dramatic seizure by border police in 2018, incarceration on Christmas Island and fight against deportation to Sri Lanka made national headlines.

Back to Bilo, premiering as part of Brisbane festival, dramatises this story and the successful grassroots campaign by members of the Biloela community to bring the family home, using the words of the people involved as well as news and documentary footage.

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