'Kasama Kita': The untold stories of Filipino nurses who have helped shape Australia

Using his mother's migration story as a jump-off point of what it is like to build a new life in a new country, Filipino Australian playwright, Jordan Shea, writes 'Kasama Kita', an untold story of first generation immigrants that have shaped the Australia we know today.

"It's a local story but it's about a big picture. But it really is about a global kind of event, global politics that have forced people to come and start a new life in this country (Australia)," shares Jordan Shea.

Many Filipino nurses continue to be part of the biggest numbers of immigrants in Australia from the 70's up to present. Source: Aya Productions

Showing on 20 November to 07 December at Belvoir St Theatre in Surryhills, the play is about three student nurses - brother-and-sister Antero and Nancy and Cory -  who come to Australia in 1974, forced by a political uprising that has compromised the safety of millions in the Philippines. The trio enrolled as student nurses at Balmain Hospital and soon enough they all start to embrace, reject and assimilate into Australia's sense of culture.

Filipino Australian actor Kenneth Moraleda plays Antero, who said coming from a first generation migrant himself, he can relate to what the characters of the story have gone through.

"I, myself, from a first generation migrant in this country, my aunties sponsored my dad's side of the family to come here and they were a wave of migration around the 80's for the accountants and banking people. So we made a life here from 1989. And the struggles that these characters go through in 'Kasama Kita'. There are echos and reflections of our own personal story in my family," adds Moraleda.

Playwright Jordan Shea (left) with Kenneth Moraleda hopes to highlight more migrants stories in the future be it in theatre, television or films. Source: SBS Filipino

"Three very different perspectives on a migrant story because they are three very, very different people," furthers Shea adding "the second part of the play, takes place 45 years into the future, so now. It's these people that have aged and changed with the times as well. It's really about how people of colour, Filipino people, have changed through the times and how they have evolved with the changing country. Are they stronger? Are they more collegial? Are they ready?".

Under Aya Productions, produced by Emma Diaz and directed by Erin Taylor, Sandra Bate's Director Award winner of 2019,  this new Asian-Australian story also stars Jude Gibson, Kip Chapman, Teresa Tate Britten.