‘We’re second-class citizens in our own country. No, we’re not even citizens. Heavens, and this is the fifties!’
History is about the heroes. Rainbow’s End chronicles the lives of three generations of Koori women —unsung heroes who fight the good fight every day from their humpy on Yorta Yorta country. Matriarch Nan Dear, the emerging activist Gladys, and the aspiring nurse Dolly reside along a river that continues to rise, threatening their displacement (time and time again).
Faced with subtle, and not so subtle, racism in their daily lives, the Dear women stand their ground. Nan holds abundant space for her family (while keeping the family secrets). Gladys faces up to her demons and articulates herself bravely in public spaces while Dolly cherishes education as her greatest asset. And then there’s Errol, the white Encyclopedia salesman who takes a wrong turn, bringing him into the sphere of this staunch family.
Jane Harrison’s Rainbow’s End is, above all, a story of how radical change unfolds in the most quotidian of exchanges, in the love shared by Aboriginal women within their families and their communities.
Purchase this play in the Contemporary Indigenous Plays Collection
