Black Diggers: Act One Summary & Analysis

It is the year 1887 in Bellender Ker, Queensland. A group of white settlers are, by force, clearing an area of natives. Thinking everyone has been killed or driven away, they are dismayed to stumble upon a baby, “a bloody picaninny,” whose mother they have already killed. One settler proposes leaving it for “the dogs” as the group compares the baby to an animal. Another settler nearly shoots it, until a Taxidermist comes along and stops them. The Taxidermist picks up the baby, describes it as a “perfect specimen,” tells the child it is lucky to be “back from the dead,” and sings it a hymn, which closes the scene as the other men “reassemble” themselves.

In 1914, “Somewhere on the Gwyndir,” a stick-carrying white Retired Schoolmaster tells a group of boys—Harry and his mates Norm, Bob, and Ern—about the “quiet war” that “could easily threaten all that is right, and true, and valuable to us all” happening in Europe. He implores them to think about their “duties” and fear “swathes of Mahommedan Turks or creeping armies of sausage-breathed Huns” occupying Australia. The boys laugh, but soon join the Retired Schoolmaster in a song, “Sons of the Southern Cross.” The song’s lyrics name icons of Australian nature and announce to “our brothers” that Australians will “be there” in the war. Though they at first join in jest, the boys’ “parade of mimicry becomes a rallying march.”

Later, in same group of boys, Harry asks his friends why some seen people (“they”) are going to fight in the Army, then insists that “no-one knows what it’s all about.” One of his mates explains the factors leading up to the war in scrupulous detail, citing “the culmination of structural problems in continental Europe that have been festering for over four decades,” but after a pause Harry repeats that “no-one knows what it’s about.” The boys then “become stuffed primates in a nineteenth-century museum.”

The scene shifts to 1895, when the Taxidermist takes a boy, Nigel, through Sydney’s Australian Museum, showing him the exhibits of stuffed animals (really the play’s actors). When Nigel asks whether the lowland gorilla is a man, the Taxidermist explains that humans are related to the animal. Nigel asks if he is related to the Taxidermist, and the Taxidermist calls himself Nigel’s father, then explains how people and apes evolved out of monkeys. Nigel then asks, “what happened to my aborigine parents?” The Taxidermist says they died, but refuses to explain how, “because you’re not ready yet.” He wants Nigel to enjoy his childhood rather than dealing with “the complicated, difficult” adult world. When Nigel asks if his parents were killed, the Taxidermist admits that they were. Nigel then asks if they were scared, but the Taxidermist has “vanished.” The exhibits attack Nigel, who runs away.

In the year 1916, Norm, Bob, and Ern are in Brisbane’s Boundary Hotel wondering about what will happen to their “army pay,” and whether it will “go to the protector” (that is, the government agencies that run Aboriginal people’s lives). Ern suggests that they will get to keep their own wages, since “if you can fire a gun and stand in a sun, they might pretend to forget you’re …” Norm interrupts him: “What??”

Flashing back to 1915 in Petrie Terrace, nineteen-year old Ern—full name Ernest Hopkins—goes to sign up for the Army. Upon learning Ern was born in Barambah, however, the Recruiting Corporal shouts that “you can’t come in here” because “you’re not a citizen.” He gives Ern a form calling him of “Deficient Physique” due to his “Strongly Aboriginal Appearance.” On the street, Norm reveals that his own form says “Flat feet (Aboriginal),” and Bob that his says “No White Parentage.”

Ern, Norm, and Bob go to another recruiting hall in order to “do it different this time.” A number of officials debate and consult books to figure out “what ‘Substantially European’ means” and “how dark” the boys can be if they want to enlist. The boys give fake names, then the same fake address and birthday. The Recruiting Sergeant decides they can be “Substantially European” because “your father was white, wasn’t he?” A doctor examines Ern and the clerk writes down “Very strongly aboriginal in type.” Laughing, the boys put on ill-fitting military uniforms.

It is 1915. A “voice from an old wireless” praises “extraordinary specimens” for their “toughness” and “the ingenuity of the land of their birth.” These “specimens” are white Australians fighting in Europe, “the finest of the British race cast anew under a southern sun.” They display “the greatness of the White Man” and fight to define Australian identity on the global stage.

Ern, Norm, and Bob pose on Queen Street for a photo, joking that their families and friends “back home” will not believe they are fighting in the military, or else think they are police. They also note that people have started treating them differently since they put on the uniforms, “like they’ve forgotten you’re —”

In the military in 1915, about to cross into France, Archie writes a letter to his Aunty May under lamplight. He hopes her well and affirms that he is praying and thinking of her.

At the Dardanelles in 1915, on a boat approaching a beach amidst exploding shells, officials cower and prepare for the worst while a soldier named Laurie laughs, wondering “what the old folks would say” about “arriving in boats uninvited on someone’s beach.” He prays earnestly as the sounds of war grow louder.

In the Indian Ocean in 1916, an “Aggressive Private” named Jim takes issue with Harry’s presence during mealtime on a military ship. Harry insists “the world’s turned upside down,” and Jim agrees that it is “upside down when a coon thinks it’s all right” to share space, food, and utensils with a white man. Jim threatens Harry louder and louder; the other soldiers beat Jim up, and after the confrontation Harry reports that Jim is saying, “the world turned upside fucking down.” The aptly-named song “The World’s Turned Upside Down” plays, announcing that “the white man needs us coloured boys now” because “the world’s turned upside down.”

In a No Man’s Land foxhole at Passchendaele in 1917, a light sweeps past the characters, who fall to the ground. Two white soldiers accost Laurie, arguing that he should know where the light came from because “you have tracking skills […] you fellers all have a fifth sense or something.” Laurie insists that he “grew up in bloody Erskineville!” and the others ask why he kept getting sent “on recky” (reconnaissance). Laurie responds that he might have “better camouflage in the dark.”

At a battle in Bullecourt in 1917, having lost his unit, Nigel hides out with a different one. The soldiers are surprised to see he is black; they introduce themselves, reveal that one of their nicknames is “Darky,” and joke that they will have to “reconsider his name” because of their “recent reinforcements.”

Soldiers sing a song called Sandy Maranoa, about riding horses to watch cattle and returning home to Australia.

On the battlefield in Villers-Bretonneux in 1918, a “voice in the dark” announces he “love[s] that song” and is from Australia. Ern says he is, too, and they discover they are from the same place. The man is from the pub owner’s family, and Ern explains that they have “passed in the road” before, when “your old man took his belt to mine a few times.” The other soldier asks, “why would he do that?” before seeing Ern’s face while lighting his pipe and realizes that Ern is Aboriginal. He promises that “if we both get home, you’ll be walking into the front bar, mate.”

At Ypres in 1917, “Four West Indian ammunition haulers go past” and aboriginal soldier Mick wonders who they might be. The other soldiers joke that he “thought [he was] the only coloured bloke in Flanders” and suggest he chat with the men. But one of the four Trinidadians asks Mick, “What are you staring at, Australian nigger?” and another joins in in insulting him, saying that “them Australian niggers, live on the creek bank, never wash.” Mick punches all four of the Trinidadians.

Still in Bullecourt in 1917, Nigel gets sent to crawl into the battlefield and retrieve a telephone because his superior insists he is the shortest. He goes, but when he returns, all of his fellow soldiers are dead. The Germans come out, shocked, and ask, “Was auf der Erde bist du?” (“What on Earth are you?”)

Back in Australia two years earlier, at Frying Pan Creek in New South Wales, a woman is working with her son Bertie, who asks her to lie and say he was born in 1898, which would be easy because “there are no other records, no-one would know.” She asks why, and he says she will “get [him] out of [her] hair,” but she insists that he is only “a boy” and is wrong to expect “that they’ll make life easy for you” in the military, or that he’ll suddenly become a white man.

Bertie’s Grandad enters, and Bertie’s mom explains the situation. Grandad notes that they’ve “been fighting for country for a long time.” Bertie worries about the Germans invading Australia and Grandad explains that the British have fenced in their land. Bertie claims that the war is about “a bigger world” but Grandad wonders why Bertie cares so much about a “bigger world” that never cared about him. Bertie insists that Indigenous people used to be fighters and “all that palarver”—his mother objects to the word “palarver,” asking him to “speak the King’s English.” Bertie wants to fight “for Australia,” but his mother and Grandad jokingly wonder what “Australia” is.

Bertie’s mother agrees to forge Bertie’s birthdate, but warns her son that—just like when, as a child, he and his sister would go to the circus show and never get in, the world will never accept him. Bertie is excited at the thought the that Indigenous people are being included for the first time, but Grandad thinks that he is going to be used and his mother promises that “there’ no fancy land at the end” of the war. She claims she has “already lost [Bertie],” but has no choice but to write the letter. She hopes “someone decent [will] look out for [him],” but Grandad laughs that Bertie will end up “lick[ing … the] same boots that have kicked us for years.” Bertie apologizes but promises to “stay standing.”

At the 1917 battle of Polygon Wood, three white soldiers, one of whom is named Stan, ask Harry what he will do after the war, and he says he “can’t even imagine what it will look like” and simply “hope[s] that it’s changed.” They ask what he means, and he explains that them getting a drink together would be “a start.” Stan says they would “always have a beer with you,” and another tells Harry he is “as good as a white man.”

In a trench on the outskirts of a battlefield in 1917, Mick, Archie, Ern, and Stan play “I spy” to pass the time. Ern notes that they have “moved seven feet since April,” and they all contemplate the war’s pointlessness and seeming lack of progress. Archie declares it a stalemate and marvels that “the world’s gonna have to organize itself around us.”

At the battle of Pozieres in 1916, Bertie and Tommy fail to understand the last words of another soldier, Frank. They wonder how to properly honor him, as the only other Indigenous soldiers, and how to make sure his soul does not get “stuck” on the battlefield.  Bertie is confused and worries that, if they used nearby European plants in a funeral ceremony, they would make the wrong kind of smoke and “lead him a different way.” When the man holding the stretcher asks, “what’s this aborigine mumbo-jumbo,” Bertie notes that Frank is the first of the hundreds of dead people he has seen “who looks like me.” Knowing that Frank “can’t get buried in this dirt” but unsure what to do, Bertie and Tommy cut a lock of Frank’s hair for later, and then say the Lord’s prayer.

In an undated scene, a ghost gives a monologue, explaining that he and his brothers, like his father, spent their lives moving around following work, until “the big event sort of fell on top of us.” In France, he felt like he was “starting to lose it” from pointlessly fighting for scraps of land that did not seem to matter to anyone, while constantly dodging bullets.

Once, a bullet hit the ghost-narrator’s bunkmate in the face, killing the man. The narrator ran over and grabbed the German who took the shot, grabbed him around the throat, then “just squeezed his eyes out of his skull” before moving on, as everyone had to. Back in his trench, he remembered being home in Australia and his father saying that sometimes “you just find yourself in the slot.” He got a war medal for that assault, maybe “only aborigine to get one,” and his fellow soldiers immediately admired him. But then, the next day, he got blown up and killed, suddenly and randomly. His fellow black soldiers will carry his story home, but he is “moving in my own way […] here til everyone’s forgotten everything that happened and the dirt can go back to being just dirt.”

Back at the battle of Pozieres, Mick approaches five surrendering Germans but kills them all when one “ducks to pick something up.” He proudly counts that he has killed ten people, “ten little sauerkrauts all in a row.” He attributes this to his Indigenous “warrior blood” but another soldier asks what his ancestors’ fighting ability won them.

The same scene cuts to Bertie and Tommy “in a hole somewhere.” Bertie announces that he is only 15 and “shouldn’t be here.” Tommy tells him to calm down, Bertie insists they are getting caught and repeats his age, and Tommy reveals that he is “not much older” himself. After another explosion, both Tommy and Bertie are trapped under the soil. They cry out for one another, or anyone at all, but are both stuck and believe the other has been killed.

During a burial in the battlefield, Archie shuts his eyes as other soldiers sing “Our God, Our Help in Ages Past,” a song about “the flood” carrying forth “the busy tribes,” meaning people and their history. The song proclaims that people forget their history and ends with a prayer to God for protection and eternal life.

In another letter to Aunty May sometime in 1917, Archie writes that a friend of their family, Ollie Thomas, “shot himself in the face” in a suicide attempt. He fell, not screaming but “making these sounds like a kitten.” And he survived, which is “the worst of it.” “He hasn’t got a face,” Archie repeats at the end of the letter.

On the war’s eastern front, “the day before the attack of Beersheba” in Palestine, Laurie and a British Captain take turns quoting the Bible verses in which the prophet Elijah flees to Beersheba, then asks God for death. They wonder whether Jesus might have been in the same place where they are. The captain mistakes Laurie for Indian and apologizes. They hope they will “see each other in Jerusalem” and take turns quoting verses about the end times.

In Germany’s Zössen POW Camp in 1917, Nigel is imprisoned alongside three Indians and forced to listen to a German prison guard explain how they “are victims of [their] oppressive masters,” who colonized their land then made them fight in the war. The guard encourages them to fight colonialism and sees the War as a means to free British colonies.

One of the Indians explains to Nigel that they have to sit there all day and listen to these discourses, which are aimed at encouraging them to take up arms against their fellow Allied soldiers. The Indian finds this ridiculous, because “we are all British, are we not?” Their camp is the one “for all non-white prisoners,” but everyone thinks Nigel is African, and he says he has not “seen an Aussie since I was captured.” The same Indian compares Nigel’s invisible Australianness to their own invisible Britishness. Another Indian suggests that, while the Indians eventually will overcome their Britishness, Nigel “will always be Australian.” The other Indians accuse this Indian of adopting the German guard’s ideas, and they begin arguing about how their cultural traditions are disrespected when they are given pork. Nigel says he “should be with my mates,” and the Indians explain that they “are [his] comrades now.”

In a field hospital in 1917, a “strangely stiff and unemotional” Bertie dictates a letter to his mother, telling her to reveal his true age and get him sent home. But the Medical Orderly taking dictation does not write this down and instead insists Bertie “cover” the real meaning he wants to express by dressing it up in seemingly positive language. Instead, Bertie writes that he is “in the Show” that they had discussed before he left, that he now sees “what the grown-up world is like.”

A year later in the same hospital, which turns out to be the famous one in Abbeville, Norm has bandages on his ears and Bob on his eyes, while Ern is wearing a sling for his arm. Ern says the others’ injuries are their “ticket home.” The deafened Norm hears a “poem” and starts reciting it. Bob cries, but Ern says he will be seen as a hero back home. Bob replies that he is destined to labor, blind, for “the rest of [his] life.” Ern insists that they have fought for Australia, but Norm and Bob do not believe in “Australia.” Ern hopes Australia is “more than just a word” because of their sacrifices for it, and Bob wonders how much it will have changed. Norm says that, while “maybe the folks will be different […] the land stays the same.” He knows from seeing “lots of change,” but misses Bob’s response: “for those who are there to see it.”

Back at the Zössen POW Camp in 1917, a German Professor approaches Nigel and explains he is collecting “anthropological specimens” for his records in order to “draw an enormous map of the human species.” Nigel is happy to help the Professor improve his data on Australians, and the Professor is happy that the war “led you to me.” Nigel asks, on behalf of the Muslim prisoners, “if we could find a way to exclude pork” from their diet. The Professor agrees to “see what can be done” before marveling at Nigel’s seemingly unique appearance.

It is 1916 and Tommy finally gets pulled out of “his living grave,” then begins to cry. The other men say he “should be thankful” and compare him to Lazarus, for he has survived underground for a long time and “the bombardment stopped” three days before. When they cannot scrape any more mud off him, they laugh and offer him a cigarette that he can neither hold nor light.

Somewhere near Amiens in 1918, Archie writes to Aunty May, asking about the meaning of a specific quote from the Biblical gospel of John: “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”

Sometime in 1917, an officer tells Bertie that his “true date of birth has been ascertained” and he is set to be discharged back to Australia. He says Bertie seems unhappy but should see that he has “been snatched from the jaws of death.” He asks if Bertie has anything to say, but Bertie is “unable to speak.”

Soldiers sing a song, calling Lazarus to “come forth” because “the Lord is calling [him]” to “Rise Up,” and declaring he should not “be ashamed […] when Jesus calls [his] name.” The song repeats.

In Messines in 1917, Archie fights a German soldier with bayonets. Archie gets stabbed, but then manages to get his opponent on the ground and stab him instead. As he slowly dies, the German soldier says, “Schwarzer teufel. Schwarzer teufuel mit weiße Augen. Schwarzer teufel. Schwarzer … letzte, was ich sehe.”