The 7 Stages of Grieving

Many stories are told through one single character. The play is divided into 23 scenes. Each scene can be seen to relate to either the seven phases of Aboriginal history or the five stages of dying. The seven phases of Aboriginal history are: Dreaming, Invasion, Genocide, Protection, Assimilation, Self-determination, and Reconciliation. The five stages of dying are: Denial and Isolation, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.

Some scenes are silent and dependent on visual effects, some scenes are in an Aboriginal language to show connection to the past, other scenes have very modern dramatic forms such as stand-up comedy. There is a sense of a chronological development through the scenes. By the end of the short scenes the audience has touched on a comprehensive account of individual and community grief.

Scene 1: Prologue

The prologue follows the appropriate Aboriginal protocols of respect for the dead indicating to the audience that the play will respect and uphold cultural traditions. It warns of the possibility of hearing about or seeing dead people. The reason that many Indigenous groups are sensitive to naming or showing pictures of the dead is that traditional law across Australia suggests that a dead person’s name could not be said because it would recall and disturb their spirit. After colonialism, this law was adapted to images as well. In some areas, families may determine that a substitute name such as ‘Kwementyaye’, ‘Kunmanara’ or ‘Barlang’ may be used instead of a deceased person’s first name for a period. This is also known as a ‘bereavement term’. Perhaps unintentionally, a very sombre tone is set by the prologue.

Scene 2: Sobbing

The first scene relies heavily on emotion to convey meaning; a sensory appeal to the auditory, familiar in that it will connect with audiences, sobbing. It introduces the idea of grief as the sounds of sobbing becoming a wailing noise and eventually subside with lights revealing a woman on stage. The metaphor of light and dark suggests revelation as the plight of an Indigenous woman is recognised. The projection of words synonymous with grief and loss including ‘sorrow’, ‘pain’, ‘mourn’ and ‘lonely’ are shown to indicate the state of this Indigenous woman who is not so much a single character but an ‘everywoman’, and symbolic of Indigenous people.

Scene 2 Quote

‘Absence, nothing, nothing – highlight despair and deep grief.
Grief … grieving … nothing, nothing, I feel nothing.’ Scene 2

Scene 3: Purification

The character displays the respectful act of ritual purification. The woman lights eucalyptus leaves and then after the flame subsides to smoke, she waves the smoking leaves and asks for permission to tell her story. Storytelling is a long tradition of many Indigenous communities but stories are regulated and some are restricted to ‘men’s business’ or ‘women’s business’ and some need permission to be told to other groups or communities. The language is traditional and ensures a sense of the character’s culture and perhaps defiance of white culture.

Scene 4: Nana’s Story

This scene is delivered in the style of storytelling, the oral tradition, and is also about the transmission of memories.

The performance area is flooded with colour. ‘The only thing black at a funeral should be the colour of your skin’, is uttered. A gathering has occurred that represents generations: Nana, the older ones, the character herself, younger cousins in floral dresses and kids grabbing videos. A story of the older generation is lost as Nana held so many memories and stories.

The funeral and the way the community responds in times of death helps the audience to understand and recognise the commonalities between two cultures. The god-fearing, church going description of Nana helps narrow the cultural divide. The fact that there are so many people, 400, at the service reveals the impact of one older person on many. White neighbours watch the activities of the five houses filled with relatives, ‘gamin’ (faking, joking) that they are watering a garden. They do not interfere but do not fully understand either.

The description of Nana’s death includes eight euphemisms for death, hints at the many ways a person can die: spiritually, culturally, physically.

Scene 4 Quotes

‘My grandmother was a strong God-fearing woman who, at the age of sixty-two, was taken from us, passed away, moved on, gone to meet her maker, departed this world, slipped in to her eternal sleep, her final resting place, laid to rest.’ Scene 4

‘The whole family came together for meals.’ Scene 4

‘… gave her tithe to the church and was visibly nervous at the mention of “gubberment”.’ Scene 4

‘Sometimes you felt like crying …, and sometimes the joy of being there was enough to forget, even for the briefest moment, the reason.’ Scene 4

‘The neighbours would watch from the safety of their kitchen window.’ Scene 4

‘She took so many stories with her to the grave.’ Scene 4

Scene 5: Photograph Story

Another culturally common occurrence around funerals includes photographs. It is a human experience, not a culturally exclusive experience. Memories are maintained through photographs and links the past to the present. In this case, photographs which cannot be seen once the person dies, ‘the nameless ones’ are placed in a suitcase which is pushed under the staircase. Although true to tradition, it does hint at a break with elders and loss.

Scene 5 Quotes

‘The room is full of photographs … A testimony to good times, a constant reminder.’ Scene 5

‘With an unspoken gesture we remove the picture of my nana from her commanding position … and without a sound push her in to the shadow.’ Scene 5

‘Everything has its time.’ Scene 5

Scene 6: Story of a Father

After touching the ice, the actor steps back and exclaims ‘Oh my sousou! (my chest)’. The pain she is experiencing comes from exploring the importance of family connections in this brief monologue about her father. The fact that her father is only 45, a relatively young age to be perceived to be near death, reminds the audience of the disparity in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. There is some relief that even though death stalks her father, the character knows death will claim everyone and lists some names of prominent people that have discriminated against Indigenous Australians. There is also hope as the actor realises that they will never have to live through what their father has been through.

Scene 6 Quotes

‘I’m trying to deal with Dad’s death. He hasn’t died yet.’ Scene 6

‘He hasn’t stopped fighting since ’67.’ Scene 6

‘The pain comes in here, I cry and cry until I can’t feel anymore. Numbed.’ Scene 6

‘It’s inevitable.’ Scene 6

‘The one thing that I find comforting about death is that other people die too.’ Scene 6

Scene 7: Family Gallery

This is a visual interaction. Family portraits are projected on stage emphasising the importance of family and continuity with the dark past, ancestors having passed through genocide, stolen generations, pain and adversity.

Scene 8. Black Skin Girl

A traditional dance that uses the Kamilaroi (Murri) language and includes dance as a means of storytelling. The dance is interrupted by projections of letters onto the actor starting with ‘A’ and proceeding through the alphabet. At first this symbolism of forced education and assimilation is treated as fun. However the character becomes weary and then distressed by the changing letters. Finally the letter ‘Z’, the end of her culture, is projected onto the actor’s bare skin. Assimilation has taken everything.

Scene 9: Invasion Poem

Verse is utilised in this scene to demonstrate the impact of colonisation on Indigenous Australians. The poetry displays a woman’s response to having her children forcibly removed as part of the Stolen Generations. Still topless from the previous scene, she is vulnerable. Her innocence is highlighted as she shows respect to those who come to her house. Their despicable act, deceptively framed as a friendly visit through the front door, is full of brutal violence as they remove the children. The children are taken and stripped of their culture, the woman left bereft among the sacred landscape.

Scene 9 Quotes

‘They come in the front door.’ Scene 9

‘I invited them in, they demanded respect.’ Scene 9

‘They sat in my father’s seat.’ Scene 9

‘Without warning.’ Scene 9

‘One took a handful of my hair and led my head to their knee … washed his face in my blood .. ploughed my feet. My feet.’ Scene 9

‘My children stolen away to a safe place.’ Scene 9

‘I lie painfully sleepless. In a landscape of things I know are sacred. Watching unsympathetic wanderings.’ Scene 9

Scene 10: 1788

Cloaked in humour and colloquial language, the woman rebukes the first fleet for parking in the harbour. Her comment that they are ‘taking up the whole harbour’ foreshadows their uninvited settlement that will reach the corners of Australia.

Scene 10 Quote

‘You can’t park that there! You’re taking up the whole harbour. Go on, get!’ Scene 10

Scene 11: Murri gets a Dress

A brief section of monologue is delivered as stand-up comedy recounting experiences of discrimination. A clear commentary on the inequitable treatment of Indigenous people, the monologue covers the suspicion others may have of them as security is heightened in shops, blame is attributed to them as someone who ‘budgied’ in the elevator, and the stereotyping of simple actions which are attributed criminal status. The humour is entertaining while subtly conveying the racist attitudes of many white Australians. The use of repetition – police, army, fire, UN, sniffer dog – shows the unbalanced response Indigenous Australians may receive in comparison to others in the same situation.

Scene 11 Quotes

‘Have you ever been black? You know when you wake up one morning and you’re black?’ Scene 11

‘You get a lot of attention, special treatment from being black.’ Scene 11

‘Keep an eye on the nigger.’ Scene 11

‘… policemen, firemen, army, fucken UN and that same sniffer dog.’ Scene 11

‘Thinking that tomorrow will be a better day, I go to bed. … I wake up, looking in the mirror… I’m still black!’ Scene 11