Australian Aboriginal Drama. Please Mention Books, Articles

¶ … Australian Aboriginal drama. Please mention books, articles critics commented aboriginal Iva Polak's "A Development of Australian Aboriginal Drama: the Journey Towards Kullark (Home)" provides a comprehensive overview of the scope and focus of Aboriginal drama from the 1960's to the early 1990's, alluding to its impact in contemporary times. The author discusses the fact that this literature and theater movement in the 1960's initiated as a way to address social and historical deficiencies that mainstream Australian culture had provided (or rather failed to provide) for this group of people.

In the 1970's, plays became a viable medium with which to actually rewrite the history of Aborigines, largely due to the efforts of a number of playwrights including Gerald Bostock, Kevin Gilbert, and Robert Merrit. The genre was somewhat revolutionized by the appearance and subsequent works of Jack Davis. Davis attempted to outright contest the historical records of Australian society regarding Aborigines, and helped to fill in a number of crucial gaps in Aborigine history.

He utilized various elements of Aborigine indigenous language as well as the notion of Aborigine counter-memory to influence his works. Davis' work also helped to influence several notable Australian dramatists of the 1980's, including Richard Walley and Eva Johnson. Polak's document culminates with the efforts of Bran Nue Dae, who offers a counterpoint to all of the previous types of plays written in the fact that his dramas celebrate multiculturalism and unity between Australians and Aborigines, especially in his Bran Nue Dae: A Musical Journey.

Chapter nine of Adam Shoemaker's work of literature, Black Words, White Literature, entitled Aboriginality and Black Australian Drama, analyzes the key elements that compromise the majority of Aborigine plays. Those elements include vestiges of poetry, protest, sorrow, and a healthy dosage of humor. It discusses these elements as they are traditionally used by mainstream Australian playwrights in order to contrast these notions as used by Aborigines.

One of the complexities that make Aborigine drama difficult to explore is the very definition of this term, and the form of identity it presents to a variety of indigenous peoples. This chapter in Shoemaker's work explores the way this term manifests itself within Aborigine drama by considering its application both in pre-colonial and in Colonial times.

It also delves into the nationalist tendencies of these people, which revolve not only around events of national significance (such as the anti-Bicentennial protest in Sydney in 1988), but also the way similar themes are explored within works of literature. The construct of humor is given particular emphasis in this work, which discusses the multitude of uses that humor serves within Aborigine plays.

Despite copious quantities of humor, such plays cannot be considered comedies and employ humor to bolster determination and resilience in the face of adversity as well as to disparage and make light of those of European ancestry who came and appropriated these peoples' land. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Guidelines for Drama/Theater Education, which was written by Dr. Maryrose Casey and by Lisa-Mare Syron, provides a great degree of insight in to the tradition of Aboriginal plays.

It considers this genre, referred to in this work as Contemporary Indigenous Theater in Australia (CITA) from a perspective of teaching it within scholastic settings. Therefore, it explores the bevy of languages, beliefs, and values that the myriad cultures which have come to be known as Aborigines elucidate within dramas. However, it does so by examining such works not as indicative of some common tradition, but by considering the individuality of the author, the situation, and the particular group of peoples he or she describes in his or her play.

This aspect of individuality is not always considered in works that discuss this genre. More importantly, it considers notions of dreamtime and creation myths, as well as role of storytelling from traditional and contemporary Aboriginal times. Gabrielle Rumble's "Movie Review: The Sapphires" alludes to the popularity of Aboriginal dramas in contemporary times by exploring the foray of this genre into that of film.

The film discussed within this article is an immensely popular play -- that combines elements of comedy with the format of a musical -- that follows the signing career of Aboriginal women during the 1960's. Interestingly enough, this epoch is when Aboriginal drama was making it entrance into mainstream Australian society. This article discusses some of the complexities and difficulties with turning a confirmed well-received drama into the format of a film.

It also alludes to the film's attempts to portray the realness of this story, which was based on the true events effecting actual Aboriginal signers, by utilizing black and white footage of real people, including the that of the singers. Maryrose Casey and Cathy Cragie's "A Brief History of Indigenous Contemporary Australian Theater" provides an abbreviated chronicling of the different phases that Aboriginal drama has progressed through. It alludes to its beginnings as a way of transmitting cultural concepts.