The European colonisation of Australia commenced in 1788. Despite an estimated 750,000 Indigenous people inhabiting Australia at the time, the colonists were led to believe the land was terra nullius (‘no one’s land’) following Lieutenant James Cook’s 1770 voyage around the Australian coast wherein he declared it as such. Colonisation brought to Indigenous people an oppressed existence which many consider still exists today. It is estimated at least 3 out of 4 Indigenous Australians did not survive colonisation.

While an attempt was made in 1835 by pastoralist and explorer John Batman to form a treaty with Indigenous people, this was not recognised by the then Governor Richard Bourke. By 1911, laws were passed in each Australian state that handed total control over the lives of Indigenous Australians to governments. These laws stated where Indigenous Australians could live and work and made all children of Indigenous Australians wards of the state. During the two World Wars, many Indigenous children, known today as the ‘stolen generations’, were forcibly removed from their families and raised in institutions.

A formal process of reconciliation, a recommendation from the 1991 Report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, took place during the 1990s. The aim of reconciliation was to raise awareness among non-Indigenous people of the legacy of the past and continued policy failures that have affected Indigenous people and contributed to their disadvantage, disadvantage as seen in their poorer outcomes in health and higher rates of unemployment, imprisonment, homelessness, substance use and family violence.

‘The lives of Indigenous Australians today are affected by what has happened to us and our ancestors over the past 230 years since Europeans arrived. This can be hard for non-Indigenous people to understand, particularly if you haven’t learned much about Australian history at school. When people have some knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and the history of our contact with non-Indigenous Australians since 1788, they have a much better feel for our achievements and our persistent problems. They are more likely to share our pride and to want to improve relationships between us as fellow Australians.’ (Professor Mick Dodson AM, Australian of the Year 2009)

Just prior to the release of The 7 Stages of Grieving, the concept of seven stages of Aboriginal history, coincidental to Kubler-Ross’s model of the seven stages of grieving, was gaining currency in academic circles in Queensland. While participating in the funerary rites after the death of his grandmother, Wesley was struck by the concept and, together with Mailman, wrote a one-woman show about grief and hope for reconciliation in which the stories of different Indigenous people from the region are interwoven. The collaboration involved Wesley and Mailman reflecting on the process of Indigenous grieving, and the complexity of the process can be seen in the different forms of the play integrating personal with community grief.

The play was received by mixed reviews in Australia in 1995 but was well received in London, UK. It was re-staged in 2006 and 2008 by Ursula Yovich and in 2010 by Lisa Flanagan.