In No Sugar, by Aboriginal playwright Jack Davis. The British colonizers featured in the play attempt to bring civilisation to what they see as the primordial indigenous people of Australia

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In No Sugar, by Aboriginal playwright Jack Davis. The British colonizers featured in the play attempt to bring civilisation to what they see as the primordial indigenous people of Australia, but ultimately commerce on a traumatising program of racial purification. Davis explores the dispossession, absorption, and marginalization of the noongar peoples of Australia. With the use of narrative conventions such as; characterisation, plot, and language as well as the use of drama elements including; lighting and stage directions Davis successfully conveys the degradation of the Aboriginals culture in terms of the white’s superior attitude over aboriginals, the treatment of women, the price of freedom and the poor lifestyle conditions of the Millimurra family in government well.

The treatment of women in the aboriginal community is atrocious, through the function of characterisation and lighting the treatment of women horrifies the audience. An example is on page 92, act four scene two when Mr Neal raises his cat-o-nine tails as Mary is held over the flour bags, there is a blackout followed by a scream. The black is associated with fear and evil. As the blackout shields the audience from seeing Mary being hit so explicitly it is then left to the viewer’s imagination of what has happened. This also gives the play a sense of realism. The characterisation of Mr Neal infuriates the audience due to the way he speaks to Mary. An example is on page 92, act four scene 2 before he hits Mary, when she is disobeying his orders, and rebelling against what he is asking her to do he says ‘You’ll do as I say. Do you understand?’ The way in which he speaks to Mary indicates the dominance of whites over aboriginals. It positions the viewer to feel frustrated and appalled by the way women were treated. There was a distinct hierarchy at this specific time, with white men at the top and aboriginal women at the bottom. Which even now day’s aboriginals aren’t completely equal to whites. As it is stereotyped for men to have power over women and in this case white people to have power over aboriginals. The treatment of women in the Noongar community is menacing to the viewers.

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The conditions in which the aboriginals lived were also alarming to the viewers.  Through the use of characterisation language and stage directions the poor quality of the aboriginals living conditions is explored. An example is page 16, scene 1 when Cissie and David are going to school and Millie is giving them twopence to buy an apple each, “David: aw, can’t I have enough for a pie? Millie: it’s all the money I got. Cissie: Aw mum, old tony the ding always sells us little shrivelled ones and them wetjala kids big fat ones.” Another example on page 16 is ...

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