No Sugar by Jack Davis is an Australian play set during The Great Depression. The play is centered around the Millimurras, an Australian Aboriginal family and their provisions for survival. The play evidently exposes Australian racism, the marginalisation regarding women and Aborigines, white empowerment/superiority/ dominance, Aboriginal disempowerment, the profane values controlled by the white Australians and the Aboriginal reliance on whites. A strong and powerful theme explored throughout the play would be the imbalance of power between two racial groups, where white settlers (namely Superintendent Neal of the Moore River Settlement) have placed themselves into a higher position of power over Indigenous Australians. The indigenous population is represented through the character of Black Tracker, Billy, a man forced to carry out white people’s instructions to capture any Aboriginal people who might attempt to elude white …show more content…
Act 2, scene 10 of the play is a scene that portrays the different classes of characters and the power of which they hold. In this scene, Billy arrives at Mr Neal’s office handcuffed and out of breath. In this scene it is evident that Billy has been assimilated into the society of white settlers and therefore becomes symbolic of white superiority and the power of this social group, reflecting Australian culture in this social context. Consequently, he is part of neither group, he betrays his Aboriginal cousins and is deemed inferior to the whites and says coldly “no, you wouldn’t”. Through this image we see a shift of power from Neal to Matron, as well as a shift in power to a character (Matron Neal) attempting to undermine the notion of white superiority and undermine the opinions of her own husband.