Narragunnawali – Indigenous Plays Collection

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Introduction

To teach about First Nations plays and playwrights ethically and authentically, it’s vital to include First Nations perspectives. Shifts in cultural responsiveness has seen a marked increase in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander playwrights, artists and writers creating and contributing to performances, art, and literature. 

First Nations peoples have always contributed to the arts, although not always in the public sphere. Understanding how and why Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, perspectives and storytelling were excluded from and within national and international theatre productions is important when considering the timeline of published First Nations offerings. 

When engaging with works by non-Indigenous creators about First Nations content and themes, it’s essential to approach with an awareness of the creators’ positionality and the broader context of the work (sourced with permission from Narragunnawali’s Drama Subject Guide – 2024). See the Narragunnawali Evaluating Resources Guide to learn more.  

 

Nina Ross

Manager, Professional Learning
Narragunnawali: Reconciliation in Education
Reconciliation Australia

About the Collection – Plays by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Playwrights

Narragunnawali and Australian Plays Transform have curated this collection of plays written by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander playwrights. The list focuses on those which have been published, meaning that teachers and educators may be able to usefully access the scripts in print form. For more guiding information and resources for teaching First Nations content in the Drama classroom visit Narragunnawali’s Drama Subject Guide and other existing resources for teaching First Nations content in the Drama classroom. 

Jump to a decade:

1970s-1980s

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1970s-80s - Plays

 

Year of Publication Play Title Playwright About the Play
1978 The Cake Man Robert Merritt A moving portrayal of life on a mission in Western NSW, showing Christian paternalism from an Indigenous point of view.
1979 Kullark Jack Davis A dramatisation of the first contact between Europeans and the Noongar peoples, culminating in the death of Yagan in 1833.
1982 The Dreamers Jack Davis The story of a country-town family and old Uncle Worru, who in his dying days, recedes from urban hopelessness to the life and language of the Nyoongah spirit.
1986 Mereki Bob Maza An exploration of the tensions surrounding Indigenous land rights.
1986 No Sugar Jack Davis Set in 1929, this play follows the story of the Millimurra family’s forced removal from their home in Northam to the Moore River Native Settlement during the Great Depression.
1988 Honey Spot Jack Davis A touching story of the friendship between an Aboriginal boy and a non-Indigenous girl, raising issues of race as two families that seem to have nothing in common are forced to face their prejudices when danger strikes.
1988 The Cherry Pickers Kevin Gilbert Based on the experiences of itinerant rural workers, this play (notably the first to be written in English by an Aboriginal Australian, and performed entirely by an Aboriginal cast) explores issues of family, spirituality and dispossession.
1989 The Keepers Bob Maza Set in South Australia in the nineteenth century, the action revolves around the relationship between Mirnat, an Aboriginal woman, and Elisabeth Cox, the wife of a Scottish missionary.
1989 Murras Eva Johnson Amidst struggles against a hostile and racist society, an Aboriginal woman, Ruby, shows courageous strength despite tragic life events including the loss of her house under authoritarian government policies, and the loss of her husband to alcoholism induced by the despair at the loss of his land and culture.
1989 Barungin Jack Davis A powerful culmination of the dramatic history of Aboriginal life since the arrival of the white man 200 years before the play’s publication.
1989 Coordah Richard Walley This play examines life in a small country town during two periods, the 1940s and the 1980s, and focuses on the search for identity in the Aboriginal community of Coordah.

1990s

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1990s - Plays

 

Year of Publication Play Title Playwright About the Play
1991 Bran Nue Dae Jimmy Chi A musical telling the story of an Aboriginal boy’s journey home from a Catholic boarding school in the city of Perth to his homeland at Djarindjin, searching for his identity.
1992 In Our Town Jack Davis Set in a country town, this play centres on the return of an Aboriginal soldier after World War II and his rejection by the white Australian community.
1992 Funerals and Circuses Roger Bennett Following the story of a white policeman’s daughter marrying an Aboriginal artist in a small South Australian town, this play takes a searing look at black-white relations.
1994 Moorli and the Leprechaun Jack Davis When Moorli, the Aboriginal rainmaking spirit, meets Loopy, an Irish leprechaun, they determine to help young girl go on a school excursion to Uluru, despite her father’s opposition to the idea.
1996 Black Mary Julie Janson The story of Aboriginal bushranger Mary Ann and her partner, Captain Thunderbolt, roaming northwestern NSW in the mid-nineteenth century. She dreams of returning to live with her people but instead witnesses their massacre and plots revenge.
1996 Gunjies Julie Janson A contemporary play which combines family life, young love, a football match and a debutante ball with political activism, racial discrimination and uneasy relations with police (the gunjies).
1996 What do they call me? Eva Johnson Three interwoven monologues each present a different view on the impact of legislation from the 1940s through to the 1970s, and raise questions regarding both lesbian and Aboriginal identity.
1996 The Seven Stages of Grieving Wesley Enoch & Deborah Mailman This one-woman show follows the journey of an Aboriginal ‘Everywoman’ as she tells poignant and humorous stories of grief and reconciliation.
1997 Up The Road John Harding A celebration of life, love and family set in the remote Aboriginal community of Flat Creek, where life is pretty uncomplicated—until a Canberra bureaucrat returns home.
1997 Up The Ladder Roger Bennett Follows an Aboriginal man’s journey from the rough and tumble fights of the boxing tents of the 1940s and 1950s to a career as a professional champion boxer.
1998 Stolen Jane Harrison Tells the story of five Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their parents, brought up in a repressive children’s home and trained for menial jobs. Segregated from society from their earliest years, not all of them successfully manage their lives when released into the outside world.
1999 The Promise Jadah Milroy Vikala’s husband died three years ago and for three years she has remained pregnant. She embarks on a journey into the anarchic and contradictory world of her psyche, accompanied by the ever-watching Nightbird.
1999 Buckley’s Hope Ernie Blackmore Following the death of her husband, a young woman returns to an Aboriginal mission and marries a white man, thus breaking the unspoken rules of the local community.

2000s

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2000s - Plays

 

Year of Publication Play Title Playwright About the Play
2002 Aliwa! Dallas Winmar The true story of three Aboriginal sisters (those of playwright Jack Davis) whose mother was determined to keep her children when officials wanted to remove them following the death of their father.
2002 Crow Fire Jadah Milroy A story of a young, urban Indigenous Australian woman and a man from a desert community lured into the city.
2002 Enuff John Harding Set in a future Australia, the question of whether retribution or forgiveness will prevail is raised when a violent uprising is planned for Reconciliation Day.
2002 Box the Pony Leah Purcell A semi-autobiographical one-woman show which draws on Leah Purcell’s experiences growing up, her relationship with her mother, and the contrast between her country upbringing and city life.
2002 Casting Doubts Maryanne Sam A funny and at times heart-wrenching play about an actors’ casting agency and the problems faced by Indigenous actors.
2002 Conversations with the Dead Richard Franklin The playwright’s response to being an investigator during the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (1987-1991). Jack is a young, ambitious Koorie struggling the contradictions of working in both black and white worlds.
2002 I Don’t Wanna Play House Tammy Anderson A one woman play about surviving a childhood of horrendous obstacles, charting the experience of living in 16 houses in 15 years and using country and western music to punctuate the story.
2002 Belonging Tracey Rigney Follows the taunts and temptations of a school girl and her personal struggle to remain true to her culture and herself.
2004 Yanagai! Yanagai! Andrea James Exploring the struggle for Indigenous land rights, this play tells the story of the failed claim by the Yorta Yorta people for land along the Murray River.
2007 The Story of the Miracles at the Cookie’s Table Wesley Enoch In the 1870s a girl is born under a tree – her birth tree – chosen to give her strength and wisdom. When the tree is cut down and becomes a kitchen table, she follows it into the white man’s world.
2008 The Forever Zone Andrea James In this comic and poignant magical-realist piece, an ancient Aboriginal warrior in a possum skin cloak is confronted by a motley crew of ticket inspectors on a tram. Back at their headquarters he whisks them away on a magical journey into the forever zone.
2009 Oodgeroo – Bloodline to Country Sam Watson A play which tells the story of Oodgeroo Noonuccal and her son, Denis Walker, as well as the tensions that tore at the fabric of one of Australia’s most prominent families.
2009 Welcome to Country Colleen Johnson A grandmother, Mavis, babysits her four grandchildren and shares her anxiety about doing a ‘Welcome to Country’ speech – the first in her town.

2010s

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2010s - Plays

 

Year of Publication Play Title Playwright About the Play
2011 Waltzing the Wilarra David Milroy Charlie, Elsa and Fay take you on a musical journey back to 1940s post-war Perth. Against a backdrop of curfews, and the fear of arrest for consorting, White and Black manage to form their own club.
2011 Three Magpies Perched in a Tree Glenn Shea An Aboriginal man from the Stolen Generation comes into contact with many young Aboriginal people who have come into contact with the criminal justice system.
2012 Beautiful One Day Ilbijerri Theatre Company Palm Island, 2004. An Aboriginal man dies in police custody. Members of the Palm Island community make a direct challenge to police power and the police station is torched. Eight years later, the people of Palm Island continue to demand real justice.
2013 Windmill Baby David Milroy A story of an Aboriginal woman who returns to the cattle station where she worked in servitude to confront the memories that have haunted her adult life.
2013 King Hit David Milroy and Geoffrey Narkle An acclaimed play that strikes at the very heart of the Stolen Generations, exploring the impact on an individual and a culture when relationships are brutally broken.
2013 Rainbow’s End Jane Harrison Chronicles the lives of three generations of Koori women —unsung heroes who fight the good fight every day from their humpy on Yorta Yorta country.
2013 Black Medea Wesley Enoch A poetic adaptation of Euripides’ Medea, blending Ancient Greek and Indigenous storytelling to weave a commentary on the contemporary Aboriginal experience.
2013 Bitin’ Back Vivienne Cleven An exploration of stereotyping, identity and race relations in a Queensland country town.
2013 Jack Charles v The Crown Jack Charles and John Romeril A one man show telling the story of Uncle Jack Charles, Australian legend: veteran actor, musician, Koori elder and activist.
2013 Yibiyung Dallas Winmar Yibiyung is one of hundreds of girls swept up in the forced removals of the 1920s and trained to become a model domestic servant. Yibiyung breaks from this regime and undertakes an extraordinary flight across Western Australia.
2014 Brothers Wreck Jada Alberts Ruben wakes to find that his cousin has died by suicide.  As he begins to spiral out of control his family try desperately to pull him back from the brink, Ruben must face himself and the loving force of his links to the world around him.
2015 Kill the Messenger Nakkiah Lui Set in Western Sydney, the lives of five individuals collide around questions of familial bonds, institutionalised racism and the value of life.
2015 Masterpiece Glenn Shea An Aboriginal man from the Stolen Generation is living as a recluse in the middle of the desert. His life is just about to take a different direction when Hope steps off the train.
2015 Chasing the Lollyman Mark Sheppard A joyous sharing of stories, a celebration of urban Indigenous identity and a satirical look at media and popular culture.
2016 The Drover’s Wife Leah Purcell Loosely based on the classic short story of the same name by Henry Lawson. Once again, the Drover’s Wife is confronted by a threat in her yard, but now it’s a man. He’s bleeding, he’s got secrets, and he’s black.
2016 The Season Nathan Maynard The Duncan family return to Big Dog Island in Bass Strait for the annual mutton-bird harvest, where one generation is giving way to the next and government regulation is making its presence felt.
2017 Black is the New White Nakkiah Lui An incisive romantic comedy about family, race, politics and too much wine over dinner.
2017 Which Way Home Katie Beckett Tash and her Dad are going on a road trip. Draws on Katie Beckett’s memories of growing up with her single Aboriginal father.
2017 Some Secrets Should Be Kept Secret Glenn Shea An Aboriginal man from the Stolen Generation receives news that his adoptive mother has passed away and has to return to the home he grew up in.
2017 Barbara and the Camp Dogs Ursula Yovich & Alana Valentine When a family tragedy beckons, Barbara and her sister (and fellow muso) René set off on a long and winding motorbike adventure from Sydney, through Darwin, and finally to Katherine.
2017 Walking into the Bigness Richard Frankland A theatrical collection of stories and songs from Richard Frankland’s extraordinary life as a child abattoir-worker, a young soldier, a fisherman and a field officer for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
2017 Battle of Waterloo Kylie Coolwell Two sisters, Cassie and Sissy, live with their Aunt Mavis. When Cassie’s boyfriend Ray returns from three years in jail, the family’s relationships, their hopes and their failings all come into stark relief.
2018 Mother’s Tongue Kamarra Bell-Wykes David and Ngala try to find their way in life after the death of their grandmother, the keeper of secrets and last custodian of the knowledge of a whole language group.
2018 Crying Shame Kamarra Bell-Wykes A monologue that explores the internal sufferings of a young single mother as she struggles with her mental illness and the demands of her new baby.
2018 North West of Nowhere Kamarra Bell-Wykes Wyatt and Nella are 16 and from the middle of nowhere. Cuz has just gotten out of jail and tags along with Nella and Cuz as they head to Sydney.
2018 Body Armour Kamarra Bell-Wykes Follows the journey of three teenagers as they experiment with at-risk activities such as piercing, tattooing and blood sharing
2018 Shrunken Iris Kamarra Bell-Wykes Alexis is a 22 year old drug addict determined to make it clean and make it home. As she waits for the train we are taken to the depths of her experiences and addictions.
2018 Chopped Liver Kamarra Bell-Wykes Written to raise awareness of hepatitis C in the Indigenous community, follows Lynne and Jim, who have both been around the block – working, protesting, jail, partying, and kids.
2019 City of Gold Meyne Wyatt Young actor Breythe returns home to his siblings in Kalgoorlie, where they struggle with regret and responsibility after their father’s death.
2019 Man with the Iron Neck Ursula Yovich When Ash loses his best friend to suicide, he starts to idolise 20th century stuntman The Great Peters, who jumped from bridges with a rope around his neck and lived.
2019 Winyanboga Yurringa Andrea James Six Indigenous women gather on country for what seems like a fun camping trip by the river. When the peace of the campsite is upended, they band together to make it right.
2019 Bukal Andrea James with Henrietta Fourmile Marrie Bukal is the imagining of social justice warrior, traditional owner, elder, mother and internationally recognised academic Henrietta Marrie’s extraordinary life realised on stage.
2019 MI:WI 3027 Glenn Shea Inspired by Ngarrindjeri Digger Roland Carter from the Raukkan community in the Coorong, and the lifelong friendship he developed with Jewish German ethnologist Leonhard Adam.

2010s - Scripts

2020s

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2020s - Plays

Year of Publication Play Title Playwright About the Play
2020 The Daly River Girl Tessa Rose Depicts Tessa Rose’s personal story, from growing up with various non-Indigenous foster families, through adolescence and into womanhood.
2020 The Fever and the Fret Jub Clerc In a mining town in outback Australia, Lizzy dreams of being reunited with her mother. Her grandfather Iggy wants to look to a more prosperous future, but her grandmother Ruby wants to keep all the broken pieces close to her chest.
2020 From Darkness Steven Oliver On the anniversary of his brother’s death, 17-year-old Preston is visited by spirits.
2020 FIFO – Fit In or F—ck Off! Melody Dia Explores the struggle of two First Nations FIFO families trying to pull themselves back from the brink of disintegration and the impact that mining has had on them.
2021 The Visitors Jane Harrison Reimagines the arrival of the First Fleet from a First Nations perspective. A group of senior Aboriginal people must decide what action they’ll take toward these unwanted arrivals.
2021 Milk Dylan Van Den Berg A young Palawa man is drawn back to the dawn of colonisation; to a woman who bore the brunt of the oppressors’ violence and then forward to her granddaughter, who buried the truth as a means of survival.
2021 Sunshine Super Girl Andrea James The story of how Evonne Goolagong Cawley rose from humble beginnings in an outback farming town to become a world champion tennis player by the age of just 19.
2021 Dogged Andrea James & Catherine Ryan On the hunt in the Australian bush, a farmer’s daughter forges an alliance with a dingo searching desperately for her lost pups.
2021 Blood on the Dance Floor Jacob Boehme Through a powerful blend of theatre, image, text and choreography, Boehme pays homage to his ancestors whilst dissecting the politics of gay, Blak and poz identities.
2022 Whitefella Yella Tree Dylan Van Den Berg In the early 19th century, two teenage boys fall in love as the earth they stand together on is about to be declared ‘Australia’.
2022 Tiddas Anita Heiss An adaptation of Anita Heiss’ best-selling novel, follows five women, best friends for decades, who meet once a month to talk about life and love.
2022 Cursed! Kodie Bedford An ode to growing up in a family affected by mental illness, the play follows Bernadette, who wonders if she will be the only one left with the capacity to hold her disparate family together.
2023 At What Cost? Nathan Maynard The bones of Palawa man Boyd’s ancestor, William Lanne, are being reunited to him. But strangers arrive and make claims on all he holds dear.
2023 Jacky Declan Furber Gillick Jacky is a smart, enterprising young blackfella in the big city. When his unemployable little brother Keith rolls into town, Jacky’s carefully compartmentalised lives are set to collide.
2023 Blaque Showgirls Nakkiah Lui A lonely kid in rural Australia, Sarah Jane high-tails it to the glitziest casino in Brisvegas. Her mission? To land a role in the First Nations burlesque spectacular: ‘Blaque Showgirls’… by any means necessary.
2024 swim Ellen van Neerven Genderfluid protagonist E negotiates the space between the men’s and women’s change rooms. As they step onto the diving blocks, the words of their Aunty come to them.
2025 37 Nathan Maynard The local footy team of this small coastal town have spent so long at the bottom of the ladder they might as well be welded to it. This year a new hope arrives: the Marngrook cousins are named after the Aboriginal game that inspired AFL, and they’re match fit to bring home the team’s first flag in forever.

Plays by non-Indigenous Playwrights

The tables below, curated by Narragunnawali and Australian Plays Transform, list a number of plays with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander or reconciliation-related themes which have been written by non-Indigenous Australian playwrights. The list focuses on those which have been published, meaning that educators may be able to usefully access the scripts in print form.

 

These works can be studied alongside plays written by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander playwrights. We also encourage you to engage with existing resources for Teaching First Nations content in the Drama classroom.

We also recommend the following resources:

 

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Plays

 

Publication Date Play Title Playwright About the Play
1940 Brumby Innes Katharine Susannah Prichard Written in the 1920s, this play confronts the turbulent relations between the sexes and the races in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia.
1986 State of Shock Tony Strachan A powerful and disturbing study of race relations in Australia, based on the true story of Alwyn Peter, who was released on parole in a historic decision by the Queensland Supreme Court because of the oppressive environment on Queensland reserves.
1994 Close to the Bone Ned Manning Written with students from the EORA Centre in Redfern, the play is about a family’s survival in the face of adversity. Moving from the Mission to Redfern and back again, it celebrates Redfern’s role in providing a focal point for dislocated Indigenous Australians.
1994 Dead Heart Nick Parsons In the isolated community of Wala Wala, Senior Constable Ray Lorkin struggles to keep an uneasy peace between Aboriginal tradition and the law he is sworn to uphold. But when a local man dies in mysterious circumstances, Ray decides he can no longer do things ‘blackfella way’.
       
       
2000 Radiance Louis Nowra An exuberant story of three Indigenous half-sisters with little in common except for the ghosts of their childhood who gather, in a tropical Queensland landscape, for their mother’s funeral.
2000 Burst of Summer Oriel Gray A social-realist play set in a country milk bar and dealing with racial prejudice as it explores a town divided over a new housing development for the Aboriginal population.
2000 Luck of the Draw Ned Manning Written as a response to the Howard Government’s refusal to offer an apology to the Stolen Generations, the play deals with the tragic consequences of the forced removal of Indigenous children from their families.
2001 Holy Day Andrew Bovell Revolving around a woman’s contested claim that Aboriginal people have murdered her husband and stolen her infant child, this is a mystery that draws together the lives of four women and their men, all struggling to survive in a hostile and misunderstood landscape.
2003 Inheritance Hannie Rayson A powerful family saga dealing with the divisions between the city and the bush, black and white, and duty and freedom.
2003 Wonderlands Katherine Thomson A drama about native title and ownership of an outback property.
2005 Children of the Black Skirt Angela Betzien An evocative gothic fairytale for young people, following three lost children who discover an abandoned orphanage in the bush and learn a history of Australia through the spirits of children who have lived there, from convict times, through to World War II, the Stolen Generation and beyond.
2007 The School of Arts Billie Brown In a small country town, a company of actors arrive to perform Shakespeare. It is 1967, the year of the constitutional referendum which recognised Aboriginal people as part of the Australian population.
2007 Image in the Clay David Ireland A blend of realism and poetry in a stark portrait of a rural Aboriginal family in the mid-20th Century.
2011 Gulpilil Reg Cribb and David Gulpilil A one man show about the life of Indigenous performer David Gulpilil.
2011 Namatjira Scott Rankin The moving story of Albert Namatjira (1902–1959). Namatjira was Australia’s most famous Indigenous watercolour artist and the first to achieve commercial success, but his story is hardly known.
2012 Ngapartji Ngapartji Scott Rankin Tells the story of a Pitjantjatjara family forcibly moved off their lands to make way for the testing of British Atomic bombs at Maralinga.
2013 Deadly Eh?! Sue Rider Developed with students from Brisbane’s Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts, follows a teenager’s journey to accept their Aboriginal identity.
2013 My Story Your Story Sue Rider Developed with students from Brisbane’s Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts, explores a young person’s journey from a remote Indigenous community to the bright lights of the city.
2013 The Secret River Andrew Bovell (adapted from the novel by Kate Grenville) Follows the story of convict William Thornhill, as he claims a stretch of land on the Hawkesbury River and comes into contact with a family of Dharug people.
2014 Head Full of Love Alana Valentine Set against the backdrop of the Annual Alice Springs Beanie Festival, this is a portrait of the complexity of cross-cultural relationship rewoven—like a beanie—into a simple and humble beauty.
2014 Today We’re Alive Linden Wilkinson A verbatim play about the efforts, 100 years after the Myall Creek Massacre, to create a fitting memorial to this event, which led to a powerful experience of reconciliation and healing for the descendants of the victims and murderers alike.
2014 Jandamarra Steve Hawke Tells the story of Jandamarra, a legend of the Bunuba people, who led one of the longest and most successful campaigns to defend Aboriginal country.
2015 Black Diggers Tom Wright A story of honour and sacrifice that has been covered up and almost forgotten, paying tribute to the lives and deaths of the Indigenous soldiers who fought for the British Commonwealth in World War I.
2021 The Tragicall Historie of Woollarawarre Bennelong, Native Ambassador of Nova Hollandia Kirk Dodd Written in Shakespearean verse, tells the story of the wily and charismatic Bennelong and his role as ambassador of the fledgling colony of New Holland.
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