The cherry pickers: The first written Aboriginal play

by Kevin Gilbert

Play about a group of Aboriginal fruit-pickers waiting for the year's cherry crop, embroiled in a discussion of race relations. The play premiered in 1971 in Sydney but was revised in 1988 for the Bicentenary with more political content, and republished.

Genres: Indigenous, Australia

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Mandy Partridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Cherry Pickers" was written in 1968, first performed in 1971, the first Aboriginal play published. It follows an Aboriginal family of itinerant workers who escape the grinding poverty of their rural station to feast, socialise and celebrate the cherry harvest, finally earning some money to buy toys for their kids at Christmas. Has been updated once, in 1988, could go another round for this generation.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

More powerful than I expected, this play holds up in its portrayal of a group of fruit pickers disenfranchised from their own country. The group await the beginning of something better - the fruit season, the return of a local hero, while they debate how to move forward.