Play Review – No Sugar by Jack Davis
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The play, No Sugar by Jack Davis seeks to expose the racist attitudes faced by Australian Aborigines at the hands of white authority whilst also promoting the strength of the Aboriginal culture and people in coping with these attitudes. Throughout Australian history the racist attitude towards Aboriginals has been a significant issue. The instant the early settlers arrived on our shores and colonized, the Aboriginals have been fighting for the survival of their culture. The Aboriginals haven been taken in and dominated to bring them in line with an idealistic European society. In communicating the racist and unfriendly attitudes of the leading white ideology towards, for example, discrimination and adjustment, Davis constructs characters, which are continuously under fire and in opposition to the oppressing dominant white society. Admittedly Davis utilises his characters to confront the audience and take them out of their comfort zone, showing them the reality of Aboriginal treatment. These themes have been put forward by Jack Davis in his stage play, No Sugar, the story of an Aboriginal familys fight for survival during the Great Depression years.
Throughout the Great Depression, discrimination and racism were both major issues relating to Aboriginals. Jimmy Munday, one of the more outspoken characters in No Sugar is characterised as the activist and lone Aboriginal voice that is constantly challenging dominant white principles. Jimmy is a character shown to constantly rebel against the prejudiced attitude towards Aboriginals. When the officials plan to relocate the Government Well Aboriginals, it reveals the racism in white authority, as the town wants to be devoid of all things Aboriginal, for the sole purpose of a politician winning an election. Realising he is relatively powerless against the oppressing white society Jimmy continues to treat the white authority with hatred, voicing the discrimination he feels: “You reckon blackfellas are bloody mugs. Whole town knows why were goin. Coz Wetjalas in this town dont want us ere, dont want our kids at the school, with their kids, and old Jimmy Mitchells tight coz they reckon Bert Awkes gonna give him a hidin in the election.”
Davis has chosen to present his Aboriginal beliefs in the form of a reversionary text, which is a text that challenges the common beliefs held by society. The text can be classified as a “jarring witness” for it attempts to disrupt, subvert and question existing versions of Australias history. Davis has attempted to challenge the whites accounts of West Australias history and undermine their version with a Nyoongahs version of the past. In order to present reliable information, Davis has used both official documents and the personal and communal memories of the Aboriginal people in order to create a dramatic narrative