Early 20th Century Indigenous Australian Drama and Representations of Australian Indigenous Culture

Early 20th Century Indigenous Australian Drama and Representations of Australian Indigenous Culture

(Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers should be aware that this document/blog may contain images or names of people who have since passed away)

The atrocities and attempted genocide of thousands of Australian Indigenous people did not happen without Indigenous people fighting and attempting to be heard. Jandamara and the Bunuba people were able to revolt and wage a war for almost 10 years. Perhaps one of the most fascinating and tenacious of protests, were those staged by Anthony Martin Fernando (1864-1949) in the early 20^th century. A.T. Fernando was very articulate and educated man who was an activist, toymaker and, due to the theatricality of his protests, perhaps Australia’s first political street theatre artist. He was probably born on 6 April 1864 at Woolloomooloo, Sydney. He was the son of an Aboriginal woman of the Dharug people. Due to poverty and the forced separation policy, Fernando was separated from his family and his clan as a child, and by the time he finally returned to his people, his mother had died. The thought of her, he was to assert, was 'the guiding star' of his life. In 1887, he observed the murder of an indigenous man by two White men, but when he tried to give evidence at the trial he was refused because of his colour and the belief that Indigenous people were not ‘fit’ witnesses. The murderers were acquitted without charge or record. This started him on a life of protest and street activism.

In around 1890, he set off for Asia, mainland Europe and England, where he publicized the Aboriginal cause overseas. By 1910, he was in Austria and he was eventually interned during WWI by Austrian authorities. He protested stating that the British authorities should come and claim him since “… the English think I am their property so they should come and claim me…”. After WWI, Fernando settled in Milan, Italy, and at different points staged quite flamboyant and theatrical protests. Outside the Vatican, he attempted to present a private petition to the Pope, he interviewed members of the League of Nations in Geneva and protested in a German newspaper against the litany of English and Australian injustices towards Indigenous peoples. He was arrested for distributing pamphlets declaring that the British race was exterminating his people and in 1923, he was deported to Britain.

In London, he continued his street protests by giving speeches in Hyde Park and picketing Australia House, in “… his long grey beard damp with mist, his frail elderly frame wrapped in a large overcoat.” Pinned to his coat were scores of small, white, toy skeletons and he wore a placard proclaiming: “This is all Australia has left of my people”.                                 

While the caricatures of indigenous people still dominated their representation in Australian drama, indigenous people were starting to be depicted on stage and even on film. The 1917 French film documentary Chez les sauvages Australiens provides a stark contrast to the stage and cinematic representations of the time as the imagery of ceremonies and cultural practices are described rather than assigned racially based predjudices. This engaging and respectful Australian/French documentary showing Indigenous dance and drama sequences and other cultural and ceremonies was shown in many JC Williamson theatres in Melbourne and Sydney and even at the film houses in Paris.

The non-indigenous playwright Louis Esson wrote The Drovers in 1920 (first performed in1923), This play has the realistic and haunting figure of the indigenous Pidgeon, overlooking the dying stockman protagonist as the stockman’s mates push on with the thirsty cattle (Esson 1920:45). When the Bolshevik/Socialist visionary, Katharine Susannah Prichard won The Bulletin's Literary Prize in 1928 for the book Coonardoo, an opportunity for a new era of cultural understanding was missed. The judges qualified their choice with the following statement:

"Our first choice is A House is Built, an Australian prose epic of marked literary quality. We find, however, such great merit in Coonardoo, with its outstanding value for serial publication, that we recommend it also as worthy of a first prize." (Judges Report 1928)

Some people appreciated the novel's insight into indigenous culture but most people were outraged when it was serialised in daily newspaper ‘The Bulletin’. The largest source of outrage was over the portrayal of a love affair between a white man and an indigenous woman. Plans by Prichard to serialise the book on radio using actor friends and a female indigenous family friend of her husband Hugo Vivien Hope Throssell, were first stopped when her husband, Throssell, committed suicide in 1933. By then, more opposition to having an indigenous character portrayed dramatically on radio had built and the radio dramatization was never completed. In a similar way, a 1933 attempt to dramatise for radio, the stories contained in the first book written by an Australian Indigenous writer, David Unaipon (1872-1969), Native Legends (1930), were also thwarted when objections were made to having Unaipon or any other indigenous people read or speak any parts from the book on a public broadcast medium let alone enter a radio station to do the recording. The book was originally published under the name of William Ramsay Smith, but Unaipon made no attempt to disguise the fact that he was indigenous.

Unaipon's work for the Aborigines' Friends' Association (AFA) allowed him to travel widely, lecture and do readings from his booklets and his articles for the Sydney Daily Telegraph. Besides dramatically reading and retelling traditional stories live, Unaipon also told stories of the new horrors facing indigenous peoples and fought for indigenous peoples rights. On many occasions he would get indigenous friends to do ceremonies, dances and songs at readings of his stories giving a sense of drama and context to the stories he had collected and translated into English. His readings inspired many indigenous people to become more active and vocal including two young Victorian indigenous men Bill Onus and Doug Nicholls who would later make their mark. As Unaipon travelled around visiting towns and cities, he was often denied food, accommodation and refreshment because of being indigenous and he was sometimes forced to sleep outside venues he was invited to speak in. Unaipon was also a visionary, scientist, inventor and ballistics expert. His face appears on the front face of the present day Australian $50 bill.

In 1935, Mary Durack (1913-1994) and her sister Elizabeth, were probably the first to publish indigenous stories of a dramatic nature and some indigenous stories reshaped as plays for children (Black Voice on ‘Awaye’ Oct. 2011). Mary Durack moved to Western Australia with her family where they lived in remote communities in Argyle Downs and the Ivanhoe Cattle Stations in the Kimberly region. Although much of the material Mary wrote with her sister and on her own was in novel form, her attempt to make events in the books dramatic and convert many of the stories into plays, is an early attempt to deal with indigenous stories from a more indigenous perspective.  All About: The Story of a Black Community on Argyle Station was written by Mary and the illustrations were supplied by Elizabeth. Their children's books used indigenous stories and settings from Chunuma in 1936 to Son of Djaro and the Way of the Whirlwind in 1940 to The Magic Trumpet in 1946 and To Ride a Fine Horse (1963). In 1964, she wrote a popular children’s book about the famous Nyungar elder Yagan entitled Yagan of the Bibbulmun (also known under a title forced upon Mary by publishers The Courteous Savage: Yagan of Bibbulmun). 

Always interested in indigenous ceremonies and dances, Mary was also interested in the way modern history became woven into traditional stories. Mary Durack’s first publication of a play was the two–act play, Ship of Dreams (1968) followed in 1969 by The Rock and the Sand which tells of the history of missionaries in Western Australia. This work, in particular, becomes a pre-cursor to the style and type of work produced by indigenous playwrights in the 1990’s. Her 1978 pioneering non-fiction work, The Aborigines in Australian Literature (1978) was also a significant work by this remarkable woman.

In late 1940's, Indigenous Australian issues started to be highlighted more in some Australian drama. Once again, Left-Wing activists and theatre companies drove much of this. In 1946, the Non-Indigenous Australian playwright Landen Dann wrote the play Fountain's Beyond which was performed by Melbourne's New Theatre (Hillel, 1988, p.14). The play was revolutionary in that it attempted to deal with the complexities of Indigenous land rights and ownership. The play centres around the visit of a famous English travel writer to Kooreelba where a candidate for mayor wants to put on an 'authentic' Aboriginal corroboree to raise money for a children's playground. The potential playground site is, however, the homeland and settlement area of the local Koorelba peoples. Dann and the New Theatre in the minutes to one meeting, had considered using two Indigenous actors but this was not pursued further. However, down the road in Onus' house in Collingwood, 'the pebbles were stirring'.


By the late 1940's, Indigenous activists and performers were starting to organise revues and shows which both showcased indigenous talent and provided some political content in the guise of humour. In 1949, Bill Onus (known also as William McLintock Onus) organised an all indigenous revue with traditional and modern acts called 'Corroboree 1949' at Wirth's Olympia.

Onus stated the purpose of the revue was "... to show Australia that, given an opportunity, the Aborigine is quite capable of development along cultural lines’ (Preface to program of Corroboree 1949). The acts included Indigenous singers; such as Margaret Tucker (‘Princess Lilardia’), Edgar Bux, Miss Georgia Lee, May Lovett and Joyce McKinnon; musicians such as Ted (‘Chook’) Mullett and his Gum Leaf Band. Most important on the program in terms of drama was a short dramatic satirical comedy written by Bill Onus' brother Eric Onus and James Scott. This piece mocked attitudes and stereotyping of indigenous people. Bill Onus was an activist, stage actor, designer, boomerang maker and indigenous arts business entrepreneur who also was a film actor who took on many roles in many films including K.G. Hall's 1937 romantic melodrama Lovers and Luggers, Charles Chauvel's 1936 adventure film Uncivilised and Harry Watt's 1946 classic, The Overlanders. He is also credited along with Doug Nicholls with organising the 1951 revue play An Indigenous Moomba: Out of the Dark for the Centenary of Victoria's separation from New South Wales. This all indigenous revue style performance featuring Bill Onus, Doug Nicholls, opera singer Harold Blair and indigenous blues singer Georgia Lee was very popular. The revue included a couple of satirical black comedy pieces as well as modern and more traditional mimed pieces. The revue played to full houses of 2,000 people for its entire run at Melbourne's Princess Theatre.

Out of the Dark included a handful of special guests but the core dance troupe was from Cherbourg reservation in southeast Queensland. Queensland was a state where indigenous people from all regions were subjected to forced resettlement and dispossession from the beginning of the century and children were removed from their families (later these generations of children who were stolen from their families became known as the Stolen Generation but this practice actively was practiced for about three generations in some states). Astoundingly, almost 80 per cent of the income that the Queensland performers derived from the show was deemed to be quarantined salaries (stolen salary) by the Queensland Native Affairs Authority. The quarantining of salaries generated much public outrage in Melbourne in the 1950’s.

Bill Onus also did the stage designs for Out of the Dark. Photos and sketches for these designs were on display in the 2008 ‘Making a Show of It: Indigenous Entertainers and Entrepreneurs in 1950's Melbourne’. The stage design also included indigenous motifs and reproduced a watercolour landscape originally done by Albert Namatjira and reproduced with his permission. This makes Bill Onus and Albert Namatjira probably the first Australian indigenous set designers and the fathers of modern indigenous set design. Although a famous painter, Namatjira painted backdrops for Onus on a couple of occasions.

In the political and legislative environment of the early 1950’s, ‘An Indigenous Moomba’ was unusual in getting funding from government sources, media attention, and the co-operation of influential non-indigenous professionals for an ambitious Indigenous project.

Onus and Nicholls' achievement with this show is all the more remarkable when you consider the political, cultural and legislative contexts of the early 1950's. They got bi-partisan government funding and support (the Victorian State Government gave 2,000 pounds towards organisation of the show), co-operation and endorsement from many influential non-indigenous people and they received considerable media attention. In this sense, ‘An Indigenous Moomba’ can be seen as the first piece of indigenous theatre that received government subsidy.

Controversy and urban myth surrounds the Bill Onus' suggestion of the name Moomba for the famous Melbourne parade and festival. Many people think 'moomba' in the local indigenous dialogue means 'great happy get together’, in some local Koori languages it also effectively means 'up your bum'. After Bill Onus' death, his son Lin claimed that both 'Moomba' and 'Out of the Dark' were part of a joke by Bill. The irony of this ‘urban myth’ can be seen as another example of the humour for which many indigenous writers and performers are so famous. After these ventures into the performing arts, Bill Onus continued to paint and make boomerangs and support local indigenous artists. He also campaigned tirelessly for the 'Yes' vote for the Referendum on Aboriginal Peoples (1967) to give indigenous people full voting rights. His life is indicative of many modern Indigenous artists where cross-arts projects and politics are crucially intertwined in their work.

Further Readings and Resources on Early 20^th Century Indigenous Drama

Berndt, R.M. & Phillips, E.S. (1973). The Australian Aboriginal Heritage: An Introduction Through the Arts. Ure Smith. Sydney.

Bill Onus. (2008). Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography. Australian National University. Canberra. ACT.

       http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/onus-william-townsend-bill-11308

Corroboree 1949 (show program). (1949). Melbourne. (State Library of Victoria Archives).

Durack, M. (1969). Ship of Dreams. Mary Durack Archive. Shire of Broome Archival Collection. Broome, W.A.

Hillel, A. (1988). Against the Stream: Melbourne New Theatre 1936-1986. Melbourne: New Theatre Melbourne.
http://www.reasoninrevolt.net.au/objects/pdf/d0937.pdf

Hinch, T, Butler, R. 1996. ‘Indigenous tourism: a common ground for discussion’ in R. Butler & T. Hinch (eds) Tourism and Indigenous Peoples. London: International Thomson Business Press.

Kleinert, S. 1999. An Aboriginal Moomba - Remaking History. Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International. Australian National University. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/61689537.pdf

Early 20^th Century Indigenous Drama Discussion

1. Why do you think that Socialists embraced indigenous culture more readily than others in the late 19^th early 20^th century?
2. Why do you think Australian society in the early 20^th century, found it acceptable, on one level, to read about a relationship between a white man and an indigenous woman but that any dramatized enacting of such a relationship was unacceptable? 
3. In 1986, a kiss between a white actor and indigenous actress Kylie Belling on the popular television series Flying Doctors was cut before it was aired. Have attitudes to relationships between indigenous and non-indigenous people on stage and screen changed that much since the early 20^th century? 
4. In what sense can we see performances such as those staged by Bill Onus and Doug Nicholls as both reinforcing stereotypes and challenging them? 
5. Discuss. Is politics a necessary part of all modern indigenous drama?