The Dreamers Case

The post colonial play The Dreamers, written by Aboriginal playwright Jack Davis explores the reality of indigenous Australians living in an unban setting who neither conform to the norms and values of respectable white society nor those of their aboriginal ancestors and whose culture has been destroyed following the invasion by the British. It is only the Patriarch and protagonist, Uncle Worru who has a continuous connection with his past, which is reflected in his poetic monologues at the beginning of each of the acts. This connection is made clearer as the play develops and Worru's health further declines. It also presents the issue that in a world where power distribution is unequal, minority groups are often forced to collude with the cultural practices and beliefs of the majority, thus losing the connection to their own culture which was once held with great reverence. Davis uses stage directions, setting, dialogue, plot and characterization to juxtapose western culture with practices from traditional Aboriginal culture. This allows for a representation of characters that live in a combination of the cultures, to varying degrees and the effects of combined cultural identity, often to negative effect.

Throughout the play elements of belonging to family, culture and place or land are developed, and told from the perspective o three generations of a contemporary Noongar family, the Wallitchs. The story is based around a small indigenous family who are brought together by Uncle Worru, who has come home to live with his relatives in his last dying days. He links the past and the present through his stories, as he looses the ability to differentiate between reality and the moments lost in the past. A reappearing shadowy dancer allows the audience to visually share these memories. The younger members of the family fluctuate between respecting the traditions of story telling and losing themselves in the problems of surviving and coping with poverty and hopelessness, as they are separated from traditional cultures.

Traditionally in aboriginal culture a powerful and extremely strong connection to the land and a communal place is of vital importance. However in the Dreamers there is a loss of connection to land and therefore culture, demonstrating the effects an invasion of white culture onto Aboriginal lands. However, to juxtapose this idea the main character, Uncle Worru maintains his connection with the land and demonstrates a yearning to be reunited with his land, as he once was. The audience receives indication of what Worru's yearnings are for with though the intermingling of the dancer and abrupt Didgeridoo interludes between different scenes. The poetic opening of the play spoken by Worru orients the audience in relation to the dislocation he feels as a result from the divorce from his natural surrounds. As his health declines begins to hallucinate more and the dislocation from his place of being increase,