Jack Davis (playwright)

Jack Leonard Davis

Jack Leonard Davis was born in Perth, Western Australia, where he spent most of his life and later died.^[1] He identified with the Noongar people, and he included some of this language into his plays.^[1][2]

The first five years of Davis' life were spent on a farm in

His mother, whose name is not on record, and father, William Davis, also known as "Bill", were both taken from their parents as they were considered by the government to be "half-castes".^[3] Under the Australian policy passed in 1890, children who had both a full-blood Aboriginal parent and a non-Aboriginal parent were considered half-castes,^[3] a policy which resulted in the Stolen Generations. His parents went to work for white families and never acquired an education, making them illiterate.^[1][3] His mother was seven years old when she went to work for the Stretch family as a servant in Broome, Western Australia.^[3] His mother recalls that while they treated her well, she never felt part of the family. Her employers never educated his mother with their other children and she would be left to do domestic house work as they went to school.^[1] His father was eight years old when he went off to work, and took the surname of his boss "Davis" because he did not like his father's last name "Sung" who was a Sikh man.^[3][1] Jack Davis’ father and mother met in Northam, Western Australia and were married soon after. During their marriage, they had six daughters and five sons.^[3]

William Davis worked mostly in the timber industry as a log chopper and found it hard to support eleven children on his income. However, his love of hunting and the bush allowed him to still provide meat for the family.^[3] He died in 1933 after making his way home from a hunting accident. He was walking through a paddock in the early evening and was attacked by a bull.^[1][3] This left the family with no income, leading to the family selling up and moving out of Yarloop, a less remote area.^[3]

Jack Davis attended school in Yarloop with his ten brothers and sisters. As a result of Davis' father having Australian citizenship status, his children were allowed to get the same education as children with European heritage. His father's citizenship status also meant his children were not forced to go to an Aboriginal settlement.^[3]

In early 1932, at age fourteen, Jack Davis and his brother Harold were offered work under false pretences at Moore River Native Settlement from the Protector of Aborigines, A. O. Neville.^[4][5][3][1] While his father was concerned about sending his sons to an Aboriginal settlement, the Great Depression put a financial strain on their family and work was scarce.^[1][3] At the Moore River Native Settlement, Aboriginal people were to learn skills that would enable them to integrate better into white society.^[1]

The two boys were to work on the farm in exchange for labour and farm skills, however, this turned out to be an empty promise that they discovered once they arrived.^[3][1] The settlement segregated white Australians and Aboriginal people and prohibited the Aboriginal people speaking their native languages.^[6] Davis and his brother were among 400 Aboriginal people that were "offered" work at the Moore River Native Settlement considered as a social measure by the government.^[7] While some Aboriginal people were forced to work, this was not the case for Jack Davis and his brother.^[3] After nine months, the two boys left to go back to Yarloop.^[3] Davis’ experience on the Moore River Native Settlement later shaped his literary work.^[7][8]

After Jack Davis and his brother Harold went home to Yarloop after working at Moore River, his Harold went to fight in World War II.^[1][3]

Career

Davis pursued many labour-intensive jobs before he committed to writing. This included being a stockman, a horse trainer, a drover, a mill worker, a driver in various methods of transportation and a kangaroo hunter.

Davis also wrote a monodrama called Wahngin Country, but he never finished it.[7]^[8] Academic Bob Hodge, who wrote the peer reviewed journal Jack Davis and the Emergence of Aboriginal Writing in 1994 stated Davis was interested in "White History" and how it omitted the Aboriginal history and their perspective.^[7]

According to academics, Davis wanted to offer an alternative narrative that included the Aboriginal story. Davis found the most effective format was through transforming the Indigenous tradition of oral storytelling into written plays and performance.^[7] Themes in his work encapsulate the history and discrimination of Aboriginal people,  including the first contact with white settlers. Academic Adam Shoemaker has described his work as always alluding to the history of Aboriginal people even when his plays are not mentioning the past.^[13]

Kullark

Davis’ play Kullark, translated to "home" is often considered by academics as a documentary, detailing the beginning of white settlement in Western Australia in 1829.^[8][7]

Kullark, published in 1979 translates to "home" in the

The Dreamers was first performed in 1972 and published in 1981.[10]^[8][7] The play centres its narrative around the memory of three Aboriginal men who worked at Moore River Native Settlement.^[10] Davis wrote that he aimed to confront white and black audiences with a truthful and uncompromising picture of urban Aboriginal life.^[14]

No Sugar

Davis’ play No Sugar was first published in 1986 and achieved great acclaim; receiving the Australian writers Guild Award (AWGIE) for best stage play, the year it was published. The play was set in the 1930s during the Great Depression and tells the story of an Aboriginal family that is removed from their home and forced to work on the Moore River Native Settlement.^[2] An article by the Sydney Morning Herald writes that the play is a rejection of white assimilation and the degradation of Aboriginal lives and culture.^[5] The Play includes many references of the Nyoongah language. Academics such as Bob Hodge consider this an attempt to validate the importance of Aboriginal culture, while also communicating the feelings of isolation when people cannot understand their own language and cultural customs.^[2]

A production of the play directed by

No Sugar is currently^[when?] in the Victorian High School Syllabus for students who are in the English as an Additional Language (EAL) course for the Higher School Certificate (HSC).^[16] However, as mentioned in the Sydney Morning Herald, there is debate over whether the themes and inclusion of the Nyoongah language are too complex for students who are trying to learn the fundamentals of the English.^[16]

Barungin

Davis' play Barungin was published in 1989 and translates to "Smell the Wind" in the Nyoongah language. The play focuses on the high incarceration rate of Aboriginal people and the large number of deaths of Aboriginal in custody. During the year the play was published, Aboriginal Australians accounted to ten percent of the national average of people in jail. The play is set in Western Australia, where the incarceration rate of Aboriginal people was 35%.^[8]

Recognition and awards

Davis' work and contributions were recognised by the Order of the British Empire (BEM) in 1976, the Order of Australia Award in 1985 and two honorary doctorates from the University of Western Australia and Murdoch University.^[17][2]

In 1980, he received the

His plays were recognised internationally and were performed in Canada and England.[8]

His work has been included in many Australian school syllabuses for children to read and discuss.^[16]

Themes and analysis

Aboriginality and Aboriginalism

Academics refer to the concepts

Academic Bob Hodge states that Aboriginalism is much like Orientalism, where White society sees those of different race and  culture as 'the other'. The concept is portrayed as white society needing to fix those cultural differences, which is referenced in Davis’ plays.^[7] Academics have said that Davis and other Aboriginal writers such as Oodgeroo Noonuccal from the sixties and seventies used literature as a form of activism against these ideals and as a powerful form of communication to write their own history.^[14][8][7]

Academics have analysed Davis' work through the lens of Aboriginality as he uses the Western form of communication to connect to a white audience. Plays are seen as a Western form of communication, as Aboriginal history has revealed that Indigenous Australians told stories through oral communication, more commonly known as

According to academics the theme of survival is recurring in Davis' work as it refers to the first settlement of white people and the long battle Aboriginal people have had to fight for their existence, land, culture, history and rights. Academics reveal the empowerment that Aboriginal people feel when they see themselves on the stage acting in Davis's plays, symbolising their ability to reclaim their sense of worth[7]

Influence

Davis' life and history was a driving force and influence on his literary work. Davis's experience on Moore River Native Settlement has shaped both his play Kullark, No Sugar and The Dreamers. In Davis’ play No Sugar he recreates the experience using different characters and detailing the large quantity of Aboriginal people taken to Moore River Native Settlement. Similarly, the Western Australian Aboriginal Protector A.O Neville, who sent Davis and his brother to the Moore River Native Settlement, features in his plays Kullark, No Sugar and The Dreamers. Davis uses Neville's speeches in his plays to portray the government's perspective on Aboriginal people. According to academics, Davis tries to demonstrate how the government believed they were doing the right thing for Aboriginal people but neglected to see the Aboriginal perspective and the pain and suffering that was the result. They infer that Davis evokes an understanding of the European mindset, yet shows how that attitude also shaped the way Aboriginal people see themselves; his plays were not meant to be a place of conflict or a vent of anger, but a place of clarity, empowerment, and understanding.^[7]

His poems were quoted in the Chinese Hugo Award writer Liu Cixin "Three Body 3".^{[citation needed]}

His childhood in Yarloop has been featured in his poetry. His poem "Magpie" was influenced by his walk home from school through the jarrah forests and the wild life:^[3]

He wrote another poem about his experience of making his own bow and arrow and killing a robin redbreast which he felt great remorse for.^[3]

List of works

Plays

• Kullark (1972)
• The Dreamers (1982)
• No Sugar
  (1985)
• Honeyspot (1985)
• Moorli and the Leprechaun (1986)
• Burungin (1988)
• Plays from Black Australia (1989)
• In Our Town (1990)

Poetry

• The First-born and other poems (1970)
• The Black Tracker (1970)
• Jagardoo : Poems from Aboriginal Australia (1978)
• ISBN 0-86770-079-3
• Black Life : poems (1992)
• Wurru : poem from Aboriginal