1. Introduction to ‘No Sugar’

2. Make a list of ten things that you know about Aboriginals.

3. ‘No Sugar’ is a play about indigenous Australians written by an Aboriginal playwright for mainstream ‘white’ audiences What is significant about this? Why do you think an Aboriginal playwright would write a play for mainstream Australian culture? What do you think he might have to say in this play?

4. The play is about? Racism

5. The play is also about: Part of Australian history that is not readily acknowledged: Aboriginal people were not considered citizens and therefore could not vote until 1967. Before 1967 they were classified as livestock yet Aboriginal people fought in both World Wars. Since settlement of Australia there have been countless massacres of Aboriginal people. The most well-known massacre occurred in Tasmania in the early 1800s: 6000 Aboriginals were killed. 11,581 Aboriginals were killed in Western Australia. Can anyone else tell us what other parts of Australian history we do not ‘talk about’ very much?

6. Predict what key ideas this play will address.

7. The play is about: Love, death, sacrifice, power, the strength, culture, injustice, hope, segregation, dispossession … and more. The playwright wants to provoke the audience to feel something and to learn.

8. Where the play is set

9. When the play is set

14. The play is also set in a period of time when… Aboriginal people were segregated from white society. They were forced to give up their culture and traditional ways of life.

15. To understand the play… We need to understand the fact Aboriginals have a very strong connection to: Land Family Traditions Spirituality