Original scientific paper
A Development of Australian Aboriginal Drama: the Journey towards Kullark (Home)
Iva Polak
orcid.org/0000-0003-3061-4380
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
This paper traces the development of Australian Aboriginal drama from the late 1960s
to the 1990s. Aboriginal playwrights initially started writing engaged plays out of
necessity of their current socio-historical conditions. However, plays by Aboriginal
authors such as Kevin Gilbert, Robert Merrit and Gerald Bostock that appeared in
the late 1960s and early 1970s indicated that Aboriginal drama would become a forum
for rewriting history of Australia. The turning point is the appearance of Jack Davis
in the late 1970s, who still remains the most important Aboriginal playwright of all
times. His plays challenge official historical records and attempt to fill in numerous
historical ellipses by evoking Aboriginal counter-memory. Moreover, Davis is the
first Aboriginal author in general to introduce vibrancy of Aboriginal languages
in indigenous cultural production. His legacy continues in the next generations of
playwrights appearing in the late 1980s such as Eva Johnson and Richard Walley. The
next shift in Aboriginal drama occurs in 1991 with the publication of Bran Nue Dae:
A Musical Journey by Jimmy Chi. This carnivalesque play constructs a possible multicultural
Australia offering an unequivocally happy ending to the nation, revealing
that reconciliation lies in cultural diversity and not in cultural difference.
Keywords
Aboriginal drama; Aboriginal English; Kevin Gilbert; Jack Davis; Eva Johnson; Richard Walley; Bob Maza; Jimmy Chi
Hrčak ID:
61578
URI
Publication date:
15.4.2010.
Visits: 2.328 *