A_Cutural_Prison

A Cutural Prison Throughout Australian history a racist attitude towards Aboriginals has been a significant issue. The instant the early settlers arrived on our shores and colonised, the Aboriginals have been fighting for the survival of their culture. The Aboriginals haven been assimilated, subjugated and marginalized to bring them in line with an idealistic European society. These themes have been put forward by Jack Davis in his stage play, No Sugar, the story of an Aboriginal family’s fight for survival during the Great Depression years. In communicating the racist and hostile attitudes of the dominant white ideology towards, for example, discrimination and assimilation, Davis constructs characters, which are continuously under fire and in opposition to the oppressing dominant white society. Admittedly Davis utilizes his characters to confront the audience and take them out of their comfort zone, thus showing them the reality of Aboriginal treatment. Furthermore this influences the audience to see that discrimination and assimilation are compelling elements in the ongoing cultural survival of Aboriginals within a Western society. 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 aboriginal, white, society, gran, dominant, assimilation, aboriginals, through, audience, jimmy, culture, cultural, characters, western, towards, survival, influenced, discrimination, davis, construction, authority, actively, throughout, seen, resisting, own, ideology, furthermore, davis’, character, been, traditional, town, therefore, sugar, resist