‘A Strange Blend’: Authenticity, Eclecticism, and the Politics of Cultural Representation in Margaret Sutherland’s The Young Kabbarli

In this article, I recontextualize Margaret Sutherland’s opera, The Young Kabbarli (1964), and its representation of Aboriginal people. Building on studies by David Symons (Citation1997), Anne Boyd (Citation2011), Jillian Graham (Citation2023), and Aidan McGartland (Citation2026), alongside a survey of the work’s reception and political background, I argue that The Young Kabbarli is best understood through a lens of cultural eclecticism, as it portrays three cultural groups: the Irish Protestant Daisy Bates, the Catholic missionaries, and the young Aboriginal man Goondowell. The depiction of Aboriginal people is problematic, being stereotyped, unrepresentative, and written with no input from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples throughout the creative process. To explore this misrepresentation, I employ a ‘settler-primitive’ framework (after Rachel Campbell). At its premiere, the opera was presented as ‘authentic’ given the scoring of the didgeridoo and the use of Aboriginal dancers. The work critiques the ethno-religious sectarianism of the time, showing a strong-willed ‘Irish Protestant’ Bates confronting the Catholic missionaries and insisting on unity across religions and cultures. Despite its many shortcomings, The Young Kabbarli is significant for attempting to create a distinctly Australian opera; one that challenges the assimilationist thinking of the time, foreshadowing a pluralistic, modern Australia.