Interrogating National Conscience:Blacks Versus Whites in Louis Nowra’s Radiance

Veena Sharma

Volume 12 Issue 6

Global Journal of Human-Social Science

In contemporary Australian drama, quite often family is represented as a portrait of the nation as a whole. The intimate family scenes are integrated with the larger political themes of strong contemporary relevance like Australian race relations, exploitation of women and the fragmentation of black families through state policies to which many contemporary Aboriginal people are heirs. The present paper analyses that how Radiance, an internationally acclaimed play by one of the famous Australian playwrights, Louis Nowra exposes the secret history of Australia’s black and white sexual relationships and the fate of mixed-race individuals and their status in contemporary white Australia. The play, an emotional story of the inter-personal relationships of three half-caste sisters, Mae, Cressy, and Nona and their mother becomes a narrative of historical Aboriginal stories of dispossession and sexual exploitation. The aboriginal myths of the stolen children and the Home coming are dealt with in the story of the three sisters in the play. The paper will focus on the bonding of the three sisters after initial mistrust, lies and mysteries. It will also be analysed that how this intense family drama is suggestive of the reconciliation at the national level.