WA Advocate Benny Chan shares his carer story through theatre

When Benny Chan was a boy, his Mum told him the story of the Bakunawa.

A tale from Filipino folklores, Benny said the Bakunawa is a male dragon resembling a gigantic sea serpent. 

“With a mouth so big almost the size of a lake, a red tongue, shiny whiskers, silver gills, small wires at its sides, and two sets of wings, one is large and ash-gray while the other is small and is found further down its body,” Benny said. 

“It is believed the Bakunawa causes lunar eclipses. It is said to have eaten the seven moons the earth used to have, except for one lone moon, that disappears once in a month.

“In my recently produced play, ‘The Moon and the Bakunawa’, I wanted to pay tribute to my mother who lived with vascular dementia. So I used the Bakunawa to symbolise the dementia in a person and how it eats up that said person's memories, one by one.”

Benny wrote this play, which was funded by a Dementia Australia Small Diversity grant, to help raise awareness of dementia. The grant enabled Benny to put shows on in Perth and Sydney.

The next rounds of diversity grants will be out soon, so stay tuned for more information.