Behind those Gripping Hep C Plays

Kamarra Bell-Wykes, Creative Director of Ilbijerri Theatre Company, Playwright and Director.

I am a Jagera/Butchulla woman from South-Eastern Queensland. I contracted hep C when I was 15 (in 1995) through shared IV use. I struggled with my hep C status for 20 years while simultaneously writing the hepatitis-inspired works performed by Ilbijerri.

I successfully cleared the virus in 2010 and finally felt empowered to openly discuss my status and begin using my personal experience as a tool of advocacy.

I have advocated for understanding around the lived experience of the virus and smashing related stigma in the Indigenous community over the last 15 years through the works Chopped Liver, Body Armour and Viral: Are You the Cure?

Hep C is not an individual virus: it impacts our community as a whole and as long as the virus remains a dirty secret and something shrouded in stigma, we will not be able to seek the healing we all need.

The power for change starts with us and the facts are simple—hep C is a serious virus and it can kill you. Treatment is available, it’s safe and free. The only thing that can keep hep C viral is us and how we view it. We need to overcome it, instead of using it as a weapon of judgment and shame.