Australian music superstar Kate Ceberano is still haunted by the experience of having worked on a film that advocated for better treatment of people with leprosy.
The Aussie music icon drew on her Hawaiian heritage when she played the Queen of Hawaii in Molokai: The Story of Father Damien, which is being re-released across Australia 25 years after it was made.
Playing the role of the last Hawaiian Queen – Liliuokalani was, she says via social media, “a privilege and honour.”
“On so many different levels, it gave me challenges I’d never experienced and haven’t experienced since, confronting a condition that still baffles me today (Leprosy), and navigating the importance of telling the story and also representing an important person in history,” she said.
Molokai, also starring Aussie actor David Wenham AM as Father Damien, was filmed on the remote and spectacular island of Molokai, at the former Kalaupapa leprosy settlement.
Ceberano, one of Australia’s finest voices and the only woman to be inducted into the Australian Songwriters Hall of Fame, was born in Australia in 1966 to an American Filipino father, Tino Ceberano, and Australian mother, Cherie.
Taking the opportunity to discover her Hawaiian roots, Kate played the role of Queen Liliuokalani in the 1999 film with characteristic warmth and passion. Her character visited Kalaupapa settlement in July 1884 and was moved by the plight of people who had been exiled from society because of the stigma surrounding leprosy.
“Much affected by the touching sight of two old women utterly unable to help themselves,” according to a contemporary report, the Queen recommended radical measures to improve the food, clothing and medical care of the local community.
While the conditions during the shoot were not as miserable as those suffered by the leprosy patients, they were grueling. The first thing the actors were confronted with as they got off the plane was the sight of mass graves of those who had perished.
David Wenham, then aged 33, played Father Damien, the Belgian priest who volunteered to take up a post at the isolated Hawaiian leprosy settlement and arrived there in May 1873. Appalled by the miserable conditions the leprosy patients were enduring, Damien worked tirelessly to improve their physical and spiritual welfare, including adequate shelter and food.
After living alongside the outcasts and giving them dignity, Damien eventually contracted the disease and died from it in 1889.
At the time, leprosy was untreatable and misunderstood. But Father Damien became a hero for his courage, compassion and generosity and was made a saint.
Ceberano attended a special 25th anniversary screening of ‘Molokai’ in Carlton, Victoria on 12 October as part of Leprosy Mission’s 150 years celebrations.
Kate is participating in a documentary on women in Australian music and performs with Jon Stevens ‘SUPERSTARS LIVE” in Canberra and Brisbane in October.
The Molokai DVD is AVAILABLE for you to own your own copy – SHOP NOW: https://shop.leprosymission.org.au/products/molokai-the-story-of-father-damien-dvd
TO BOOK tickets to the special cinema events around the country go to: https://fan-force.com/films/molokai/
