No Sugar

No Sugar


Jack Davis


Racism, Discrimination, and Colonial Violence Theme Analysis

Themes and Colors
Racism, Discrimination, and Colonial Violence  Theme Icon
Government, Civilization, and Religion Theme Icon
White Australians vs. the Aboriginal Family Unit Theme Icon
Language and Culture Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in No Sugar, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism, Discrimination, and Colonial Violence  Theme Icon

The Millimurra-Munday family, the Indigenous (or Aboriginal) Australian protagonists of No Sugar, are forced to endure racism daily, both personally and institutionally. They are taken advantage of and abused, forced to accept unequal treatment and invasive government control simply because white Australians have political and social power, and they themselves are not white. Davis clearly illustrates the impact that racism can have on the lives of minorities, but he also takes a broader view of the racist history of Australia, and the centuries-long disenfranchisement of the Aboriginal people. He examines the ways different individuals respond to the trauma of colonial violence—either by becoming angry and fighting back, attempting to assimilate and follow their oppressors’ rules, or even becoming complicit in the behaviors of the racist ruling class. By highlighting both the day-to-day racism wielded against the Millimurra-Mundays, and the long-term effects of colonial violence on Aboriginals as a whole, Davis illustrates how decades of casual interpersonal racism can lead to the systematic disenfranchisement of many generations of people.

The Millimurra-Munday family endures small acts of racism every day, which are the direct result of a colonial culture that devalues the Aboriginal Australian. Although this discrimination is familiar, it is difficult to tolerate. Even the youngest members of the family recognize the ways they are mistreated because of their race—Cissie complains that the grocer sells her and her siblings “little shriveled” apples while “wetjala [white] kids” get “big fat ones.” When Gran and Milly go to the police station to pick up their rations, the Sergeant tells them their real problem is that they have “got three healthy men bludging off you, too lazy to work.” These three men, Sam, Milly’s husband, Jimmy, her brother, and Joe, her teenage son, are unable to find employment—largely because the Great Depression is going on, and unemployment rates are over 30%—but the Sergeant implies that it’s a result of laziness, which he attributes to their race. The white Australians also have little respect for the Aboriginals’ belongings. One notable instance of this is their total disregard for the Millimura-Mundays’ pet dogs. When they are forced to relocate, the family wants to take their dogs with them, since the dogs are like members of the family and are used to catch game. The white Australians do not care, and the Millimura-Mundays correctly predict that any dogs that are left behind will be killed “with a police bullet.”

In addition to the more casual racism that the Millimura-Mundays face daily, the Aboriginal people of Australia must deal with institutional racism at the level of local and state governments, which leads to their systematic disenfranchisement. Most horrifyingly, this colonial violence manifests in genocides, such as the Forrest River Massacre (also called the Oombulgurri Massacre), a historical event recounted by Billy. What begins as more minor racist harassment turned into a large-scale effort to rid a white community of all its native residents. This genocide was the result of already simmering racial tensions, and it gave white Australians an excuse to exterminate a population they already had no respect for. In another instance, three white officials at the Police Station—the Sergeant, Neville, and Miss Dunn—discuss Aboriginal women and teens who “went out in domestic service last year.” Of eighty women, “thirty returned to the settlement in pregnant condition.” Although the implication is that these women have been raped by their white employers, the officials at the police station don’t see this as a problem, and take no steps to prevent it from happening again, or to care for the pregnant women in the present. This shows that even on the governmental level, white Australians show a systematic disregard for the lives and safety of their Aboriginal neighbors.

For the Aboriginal Australians, dealing with daily harassment as well as large-scale physical and sexual violence takes a toll on both individuals and communities. There is no single correct way to deal with the trauma of this centuries-long colonial violence, but by showcasing various solutions, Davis suggests there are better and worse ways to cope. Responses that bring about real change, or at least force white Australians to consider the plight of the Aboriginal community, are more productive than responses that continue to perpetuate the pain of the colonizers.

In response to a lifetime of discrimination, Jimmy becomes increasingly antiestablishment, challenging the authority of any white civil servants. This is evident in essentially every interaction he has with a white character in a position of power, but is especially clear when he and Sam are imprisoned for drunkenly fighting. While Sam is happy to cooperate, Jimmy plays the harmonica to irritate the Constable and Sergeant, talks back to them, throws a bucket at them, and generally tries to prove that, although they have locked him in prison, they cannot control him. Meanwhile, Billy and Bluey have done their best to assimilate into white society. Both men are policemen working for the Moore River Native Settlement. Even though Billy and Bluey are Aboriginal themselves, they treat the Millimurra-Munday family with the same disrespect that white Australians show them, and Billy especially has internalized the violent and racist tactics that his white employers use. Davis depicts their behavior critically, suggesting that assimilation into a racist system is not a productive way to deal with trauma. However, there is a possible way to break from the cycle of mistreatment and violence, Davis suggests. Joe and Mary, for example, attempt to escape their Settlement twice during the play. No Sugar ends with the two teens packing their bags and beginning a search for a home where they can control their own lives. Their departure is bittersweet but hopeful, as the play suggests that some Aboriginal men and women can find a way to escape the colonial violence and racism that has plagued them for centuries.

Throughout No Sugar, the Aboriginal protagonists are forced to endure racism and harassment on multiple levels. Although each individual attack could be bearable, added up over years and generations these assaults become systemic colonial violence.  Davis makes clear the relationship between racism at an individual and at a governmental level, and argues that such violence takes an incredible toll on its victims. However, he also suggests that how a person reacts to this violence is an individual choice, and allows room for hope that, in spite of great adversity, some Aboriginal men and women can break free from the cycles of violence, and learn to work through intergenerational trauma.

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Racism, Discrimination, and Colonial Violence Quotes in No Sugar

Below you will find the important quotes in No Sugar related to the theme of Racism, Discrimination, and Colonial Violence .
Act 1, Scene 1 Quotes


[They all stop what they are doing and listen.]






SAM: Sounds like bullshit to me.

Page Number: 15-16
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1, Scene 2 Quotes



NEVILLE: Where was I?



Page Number: 20-21
Explanation and Analysis:

MILLY: Whose idea was it to stop the soap?


GRAN: Mister Neville?

MILLY: I just can’t believe it: no soap!


MILLY: Where they gonna get work?


MILLY: Cockies want ’em to work for nothin’.

GRAN: They not slaves, Chergeant!



Page Number: 22-23
Explanation and Analysis:


Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1, Scene 10 Quotes

CONSTABLE: You’re being transferred to the Moore River Native Settlement.

GRAN: I ain’t goin’.

CONSTABLE: You’re all goin’. You’re under arrest.

GRAN: What for? We done nothin’ wrong.

SERGEANT: It’s for health reasons. Epidemic of skin disease.

JIMMY: Bullshit, I’ll tell you why we’re goin’.

CONSTABLE: You wouldn’t know.


Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:

MILLY: Who’s gonna look after our dogs?

CONSTABLE: We’ll attend to them.

MILLY: Yeah, we know that.

JIMMY: With a police bullet.





Page Number: 51-52
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 4 Quotes





Mary: He reckoned he was gunna belt me once.

Joe: What for?


Joe: Why not? Be better than this place.


Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 6 Quotes



BILLY: This country got plenty good dance, eh?

BLUEY: Wee-ah!





Page Number: 66-67
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 8 Quotes


NEAL: Who told you that? [Yelling] Billy!

BILLY: [off] Comin’, boss.


NEAL: They’re all scared of the dead.

MATRON: I think she was scared of the living.

Page Number: 72-73
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3, Scene 5 Quotes


Related Characters: Auber Octavius Neville (speaker)
Page Number: 86-87
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 4, Scene 4 Quotes


SISTER: Yes, I have.



NEAL: That’s right.


NEAL: I’m sorry, Sister, but—


NEAL: It’s quite out of the question.

SISTER: But why?


Page Number: 95
Explanation and Analysis: