Characters & People
who is Deborah mailman and name 1 thing she's acted in?
Playright
Mystery Road
Mabo
7 stages of grieving
etc
what are main themes of the play?
Grief and Loss – Both personal (family deaths, separation) and collective (colonisation, stolen land, Stolen Generations).
Dispossession – The loss of land, culture, and identity due to colonisation.
Cultural Survival and Resilience – The endurance of Aboriginal culture, language, and traditions despite oppression.
Storytelling and Memory – Passing down history, preserving identity, and giving voice to silenced experiences.
Racism and Injustice – The ongoing impact of systemic discrimination on Indigenous Australians.
Reconciliation and Healing – The need for understanding, truth-telling, and unity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
Identity – The struggle and pride in maintaining Aboriginal identity in a colonised country.
whats the aim of the play?
The play gives voice to the history and struggles of this group of people in Australia.
One aim of the play is to create understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians through this emotional experience.
what year was the first fleet
1788
Who wrote 7 stages of grieving?
Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman
who came out with their camera?
Neighbours/ Random white people
what does red earth represent
symbolises land, ancestry, and spiritual connection to Country. It’s also tied to mourning and burial traditions.
what does putting photographs in a suitcase mean/ do
Putting away the photographs also represent hiding grief/ acceptance of leave.
what is the stolen generation?
The Stolen Generations refers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Australia who were forcibly removed from their families by government authorities, churches, and welfare agencies between the late 1800s and the 1970s.
The aim was to assimilate them into white society, often by placing them in institutions or foster homes, which led to deep loss of culture, language, and identity for many Indigenous people.
What type of play is it?
Monodrama
Why is aunty grace an outcast?
Married a white man, seen as betrayl
Funeral Flowers & White Ochre
Link to traditional and Western mourning practices, showing the blending and clashing of cultures.
Why did the woman go to multiple funerals?
She doesnt have family and hopes one day the people she mourns for share the same blood.
Flora and Fauna
what are the 5 stages of greiving/dying
denial, isolation, anger, bargaining, depresion, acceptance
What are 5 experiences Murri went through?
Murri
Racially profiled/ dressing room
Elevator boogi
Car theif
No help
fat in the dress
what does Aunty grace dumping all her belongings on the car floor symbolise?
Letting go of material possessions to make room for what is really important.
in bargaining what does the "For sale sign" represent?
it reflects how land which holds deep spiritual, cultural, and ancestral meaning for Indigenous Australians has been commodified and sold off under Western systems of ownership. The sign isn’t just about a physical sale; it’s a reminder of dispossession, disconnection from Country, and the way sacred places are treated as commercial property rather than living, cultural heritage.
How many years of recorded history do Indeginous Australians have?
60,000
what are the 7 phases of Aboriginal history/ "the 7 stages of grieving"
Dreaming, Invasion, Genocide, Protection, assimilation, self determination, reconcilliation
who is "the woman"
In The 7 Stages of Grieving, the Woman is the sole performer and central figure.
She’s unnamed and not meant to be a single, specific person — instead, she represents an Aboriginal everywoman, carrying the collective stories, grief, resilience, and cultural memory of her people. Through her monologues, humour, and storytelling
what does physical present on stage represent?
The way the Woman moves, creates, and dismantles spaces symbolises reclaiming or losing cultural identity.
What idoes the ice cube mean
time passing, grief slowly melting away, and the gradual process of healing.
The slow, steady drip can also feel like tears, linking it to ongoing sorrow — but because ice eventually melts, it suggests that grief changes form over time rather than disappearing completely. It’s quiet and constant, much like the enduring presence of loss in the lives of Aboriginal people, both personally and collectively.
what is the purpose of "welcome to country"
Asking the ancestors to accept the presence of those in the land and ensure the ancestors that their presence means no harm
name 5 chapters/ scenes and how many are there in total?
1. prologue
2. sobbing
3. purification
4. nanas story
5. photograph story
6. story of a father
7. front and centre
8. Family gallery
9. Black skin girl
10. Invasion Poem
11. 1788
12. Murry gets a dress
13. Aunty Grace
14. Mugshot
15. March
16. Bargaining
17. Home story
18. Story of a brother
19. Gallery of sorrow
20. Suitcase opening
21. Wreck/Con/Silly/Nation Poem
22. Everything has its time
23. Plea
24. Walking across bridges.