Arrente woman and actor Sherry-Lee Watson gets annoyed by a lot of media about Indigenous Australians for a simple reason: Where are the jokes?
"A lot about [our] history is sad, dark and hurtful," she tells ABC Entertainment. "But you need to undercut it with something — not just so your audience can experience some catharsis, but because it mirrors a lot of our attitude as Aboriginal people.
"We're very resilient people, and we undercut a lot of the horrible things happening in our community with humour. We provide that release."
The actor, best known as Missy in the Heartbreak High reboot, says it was love at first read with Thou Shalt Not Steal — a funny, razor-sharp comedy-drama set in 1980s Central and South Australia.
An irreverent twist on a Western, its eight episodes — each under 30 minutes — race by with plenty of physical humour, inventive swears, ultra-dry wit, excellent needle drops and a rising body count.
At its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this September, director and co-creator Dylan River (Mystery Road: Origin, Robbie Hood) told audiences that they "have permission to laugh, even though sometimes you might not think you do".
Watson leads as Robyn, a teenager who escapes juvenile detention after her grandfather (Warren H Williams) calls for her on his deathbed. Before he dies, he shares a secret: Robyn's father is alive, contrary to what she'd been told.
She sets off to find him in a stolen taxi, reluctantly letting awkward teenager Gidge (fellow Heartbreak star Will McDonald) tag along. The police aren't far behind, as is pimp and the taxi's owner, Maxine (Miranda Otto), a frightful villain who left a wad of cash in her car's boot.
Without wheels, Maxine (also reluctantly) teams up with Gidge's preacher father, Robert (Noah Taylor), the two taking chase in his caravan truck. Grubby, sweat-stained and lecherous, Robert uses Christianity as a cover for his real money-maker: Selling alcohol to dry communities.
"It's a bit of a provocative storyline," says Watson. "A young Aboriginal girl breaks out of juvie and steals a car. But when you go and see Robyn's home life, and what her community is being subjected to, living on this mission … I think it adds a bit of context to why kids are running around really rough and tough."
Centring Indigenous resilience through humour
Thou Shalt Not Steal's co-creators — Kaytetye cousins River and writer-producer Tanith Glynn-Maloney — were inspired by stories of mischief they heard growing up in and around Alice Springs.
The pair come from a lineage of film creatives. Most notably, River's father is Camera d'Or winner Warwick Thornton, with River working as a cinematographer on Sweet Country and SBS series The Beach.
That might be part of why the show manages to have such a light touch with its heavy topics — the disproportionate incarceration rates of Indigenous youth, alcoholism, abuse, sex trafficking and violence, to name a few.
It arrives in a month of new laws issued by the Northern Territory's new conservative Country Liberal Party, including a public drinking 'nuisance' law that health experts warn will do little to reduce public harm. The Party has also gone against UN advice twice in favour of increased powers for youth detention by re-allowing police to use spit hoods to constrain children, and by lowering the criminal age back down to 10 years old, after it was raised to 12 years in 2022.
For Watson, who grew up in Alice Springs during the Northern Territory Intervention, there are clear links between now and the show's setting four decades ago.
"With a lot of current legislative restrictions on alcohol, or the BasicsCard, the scene was set in the 80s and 90s," she says, adding that those restrictions led to black markets like the one we see in the show.
"That causes a lot of social issues. People dealing with addiction can't access their means, so they turn to harder [substances]. And that affects the kids. That cycle is still very much happening. It's what happens when you don't have proper social programs to deal with addiction … But the resilience I see in a lot of the young people in the Northern Territory — that hasn't changed, too."
While links to our contemporary context linger throughout, Thou Shalt Not Steal never veers into heavy-handed didacticism. Speaking on RN's AWAYE!, Dylan says he wanted to avoid "preaching to the converted" by making a "binge-able" comedy that never labours its points.
"I wanted to make something fun," he told host Rudi Bremer. "I wanted to make something that was slightly more commercial, more accessible — [where] what I'm trying to say is maybe a little more hidden."
Walls up, walls down
Robyn's voiceover opens episode one, nodding to the show's title immediately: "Them missionaries reckon thou shalt not steal. Bit rich from the Bible-bashing bastards that stole our country!"
It's an excellent introduction to a character who is strong-willed, fast on her feet and cheeky: A girl who carries a lot within herself, tight-lipped in conversation but boisterous in voiceover.
"I'm very similar to Robyn. She's a young girl from Jay Creek, which is the literal block of land I'm from," she says. "But the more I read, I was like 'Whoa'. This is very accurate to the young kids in Alice; their toughness and grittiness. They have a lot of determination and walk around with these walls put up."
While Robyn's walls are eroded by Gidge's quirks and kindness, she remains word-shy, preferring to express herself with a well-timed hock. Watson points to it as one of the examples of the show's authenticity, noting that "different mob has different meanings around spitting".
"A lot of my mob, we spit when we see a shooting star or something in the sky, and a lot of people spit out of respect for someone or something," she says.
"For me, this is what [Robyn] does when she has something to say but doesn't have the words for it, or might not know the words. She doesn't use a lot of long words, but she has very deep, complex feelings."
Robyn's charm and cheek will be familiar to those who watched River's AACTA-Award-winning web series, Robbie Hood, about a 13-year-old troublemaker in Alice. Originally, Thou Shalt Not Steal was conceived as a prequel, following Robbie's mother.
The connection's still loosely there (hence the name Robyn), though it was later decided the show would stand on its own. Watson and her late mother were fans of Robbie Hood, with so many of the show's reference points immediately recognisable. So, working with River was a dream.
"In the city, I change a lot of things about myself," she says. "I code switch, I change my accent, my entire vocabulary. At home, I can speak in my dialect, I can speak Aboriginal English.
"It just takes a whole layer off and just allowed me to sink into the story we were telling."
Thou Shalt Not Steal is streaming on Stan.
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