Jack Davis (playwright)

Davis also wrote a monodrama called Wahngin Country, but he never finished it. Academic Bob Hodge, who wrote the peer reviewed journal Jack Davis and the Emergence of Aboriginal Writing in 1994 stated Davis was interested in "White History" and how it omitted the Aboriginal history and their perspective.

A production of the play directed by Bob Maza was performed at the Black Theatre Arts and Culture Centre in Redfern in 1994.

Davis’ play Barungin was published in 1989 and translates to "Smell the Wind" in the Nyoongah language. The play focuses on the high incarceration rate of Aboriginal people and the large number of deaths of Aboriginal in custody. During the year the play was published, Aboriginal Australians accounted to ten percent of the national average of people in jail. The play is set in Western Australia, where the incarceration rate of Aboriginal people was 35%.

Davis’ play No Sugar was first published in 1986 and achieved great acclaim; receiving the Australian writers Guild Award (AWGIE) for best stage play, the year it was published. The play was set in the 1930s during the Great Depression and tells the story of an Aboriginal family that is removed from their home and forced to work on the Moore River Native Settlement. An article by the Sydney Morning Herald writes that the play is a rejection of white assimilation and the degradation of Aboriginal lives and culture. The Play includes many references of the Nyoongah language. Academics such as Bob Hodge consider this an attempt to validate the importance of Aboriginal culture, while also communicating the feelings of isolation when people cannot understand their own language and cultural customs.

Kullark, published in 1979 translates to "home" in the Nyoongar language. The meaning of the play is interpreted by academics as a protest, criticising the colonial recorded history of the 1829 white settlement in Western Australia.

Academics have analysed Davis' work through the lens of Aboriginality as he uses the Western form of communication to connect to a white audience. Plays are seen as a Western form of communication, as Aboriginal history has revealed that Indigenous Australians told stories through oral communication, more commonly known as Dreamtime. By including these Aboriginal overtones, academics believe he is trying to show a white audience another form of history through a communication method they know. Kullark, Davis’ first play in 1979 is used as an example by academics to show that Davis is confronting the issue of Aboriginalism. Davis provides a historical and chronological account in Kullark including Aboriginal people where they previously were not. According to academics, Davis believed that white historians were unwilling to write the Aboriginal history and this, he felt, was necessary to record Aboriginal history in the Western way. His purpose for writing  was for people to know Aboriginal people were omitted from white history, and to then provide the Aboriginal account. His goal, however, was for future generations to reflect and read history which included both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. Aboriginality encompasses the response and reaction of Indigenous writers in reclaiming their culture and history. It is seen as a protest against white imperialism and assimilation policies that dominated the beginning of white settlement in Australia. The concept of "Aboriginality" within literature also includes proposals of how both white and Indigenous people can move forward. This concept was introduced in the 1960s when Aboriginal literature was first published, proposing a new way forward.

The Dreamers was first performed in 1972 and published in 1981. The play centres its narrative around the memory of three Aboriginal men who worked at Moore River Native Settlement. Davis wrote that he aimed to confront white and black audiences with a truthful and uncompromising picture of urban Aboriginal life.

While known for his literary work, Davis did not focus on writing until his fifties. His writing centred around the Aboriginal experience in relation to the settlement of white Australians. His collection of poems The First Born was his first work to be published and also made him the second Aboriginal to have published poetry by 1970, after Kath Walker, also known by her Aboriginal name Oodgeroo Noonuccal. He later focused his writing on plays, starting with Kullark, which was first performed in 1979. His plays were recognised internationally and were performed in Canada and England. His work and contribution was later recognised by the Order of the British Empire (BEM) in 1976, the Order of Australia Award in 1985 and two honorary doctorates from the University of Western Australia and Murdoch University. His work today is now included in many Australian school syllabuses for children to read and discuss.

Davis pursued many labour-intensive jobs before he committed to writing, this included being a stockman, a horse trainer, a drover, a mill worker, a driver in various methods of transportation and a kangaroo hunter. In 1970, at the time of publishing his first collection of poems The First Born, he dedicated himself to literature. He became the Manager of the Aboriginal Advancement Council Centre in Perth from 1969 -1973. He then transitioned into becoming an editor at the Aboriginal Publications Foundation from 1973 to 1979, which published a magazine called Identity that focused on recognising Aboriginal literature.

Jack Davis began his writing career by publishing a collection of poems called The First Born in 1970. He later published his second collection of poetry called Jagardoo in 1977, which was illustrated by Harold Thomas (who also designed the Aboriginal Australian flag).

Jack Davis’ father died in 1933 after making his way home from a hunting accident. He was walking through a paddock in the early evening and was attacked by a bull. This left the family with no financial income, leading to the family selling up and moving out of Yarloop, a less remote area.

In early 1932, at age fourteen, Jack Davis and his brother Harold were offered work under false pretences at Moore River Native Settlement from the Protector of Aborigines, A. O. Neville. While his father was concerned about sending his sons to an Aboriginal settlement, the Great Depression put a financial strain on their family and work was scarce. At the Moore River Native Settlement, Aboriginals were to learn skills that would enable them to integrate better into white society.

The first five years of Davis' life were spent on a farm in Waroona, Western Australia with his ten siblings. His family then moved to Yarloop in 1923 after a bushfire destroyed their farm. Davis and his family were members of the Bibbulmun and Nyoongar peoplee and spoke the Nyoongar language.

Jack Leonard Davis AM, BEM (11 March 1917 – 17 March 2000) was an Australian 20th-century Aboriginal playwright, poet and Aboriginal Australian activist. Academic Adam Shoemaker, who has covered much of Jack Davis‘ work and Aboriginal literature, has claimed he was one of “Australia’s most influential Aboriginal authors”. He was born in Perth, Western Australia, where he spent most of his life and later died. He identified with the Western Australian Noongar people, and he included some of this language into his plays. His work incorporates themes of Aboriginality and identity.

His mother, whose name is not on record and father, William Davis, also known as "Bill", were both taken from their parents as they were considered by the government to be "half-castes". Under the Australian policy passed in 1890, children who had both a full-blood Aboriginal parent and a non-Aboriginal parent were considered half-castes, a policy which resulted in the Stolen Generations. His parents went to work for white families and never acquired an education, making them illiterate. His mother was seven years old when she went to work for the Stretch family as a servant in Broome, Western Australia. His mother recalls that while they treated her well, she never felt part of the family. Her employers never educated his mother with their other children and she would be left to do domestic house work as they went to school. His father was eight years old when he went off to work, and took the surname of his boss "Davis" because he did not like his father's last name "Sung" who was a Sikh man. Jack Davis’ father and mother met in Northam, Western Australia and were married soon after. During their marriage, they had six daughters and five sons.

The play documents the history and first contact between Aboriginal people and white settlers from the author's perspective, using an Aboriginal family that have been effected by the history Davis is attempting to divulge. Davis uses a chronological and documentary like structure to present the play. He includes details such as the white settlers trading poisoned white flour and the massacres at Pinjarra in 1834. Academics have inferred that Davis includes the details of these events to give Aboriginal people a voice and a known history that have been previously omitted. Kullark was Davis’ first play to begin that journey of historical story telling

Davis’ play Kullark, translated to "home" is often considered by academics as a documentary, detailing the beginning of white settlement in Western Australia in 1829.