Deadly Unna Racism Analysis

Phillip Gwynne’s novel Deadly Unna is set in a small town on the Coast of South Australia, away from any city. In the novel there is the Port and the Point. The Goonyas (white Australians) hang out at the Port while the Nungas (aboriginal Australians) live at the Point. The two communities don’t get along to well because of racism that has been running on for decades. The protagonist, Blacky, starts to notice the discrimination against the Aboriginals after developing strong relationships with the Aboriginals. This is shown through his relationships with Dumby Red and Clarence as well as his stand against the town and the racism in it.

Blacky’s friendship with Dumby is extremely important when it comes to the progress of Blacky becoming more aware of the racism in the town. As Blacky becomes closer with Dumby and they start to hang out and they become good friends. In the beginning Blacky didn’t think much of it, as the aboriginals and the whites both played football together and to Blacky it was pretty normal to hang out with the Aboriginals. However when they had the award night for the football team that’s when Blacky realises that the aboriginals weren’t treated equally. Dumby is furious and so is Blacky, he says that Dumby deserved that trophy more than anyone and he was furious that the town cheered for someone who didn’t even

deserve it. After this incident Blacky starts to think about how racist his town actually is and he starts to feel ashamed. Once Dumby dies that’s when Blacky changes drastically as he is quite a timid character and is afraid of sticking out and really wants to fit in the group. However when he hears about Dumby’s funeral he goes to it, even when everyone tells him not to. Dumby’s and Blacky’s friendship was a one of the most important when it comes to Blacky becoming aware about racism because it affects someone so close to him and he sees how much the town is against Aboriginals even though they have done nothing wrong.
Although Blacky’s and Clarence’s relationship is quite unclear and they have only met a few times, Clarence still influenced Blacky tremendously. Although Clarence only knows Blacky as Dumby’s friend, she still shows him a great amount of kindness and she treats him normally and because of this he is able become friends with her even though they don’t have much in common. The time when Clarence influenced the most was at Dumby’s funeral when she invited Blacky over. Not only did Clarence influence him but her family as well. They welcomed him with open arms even though it was Dumby’s funeral. Clarence talked to him, joked around with him and opened herself up to him as she talked about her brother Dumby. Due to Clarence kindness Blacky did not only have Dumby to learn from but her and their family as well. He realised that the stories told down at the pub and in his friend groups were wrong and that they painted the Aboriginals as dirty and useless people who are like savages, but because of Clarence and her family Blacky now knows otherwise and because of this sequence of events he is able to build up the courage to stand up for himself and the Aboriginal community.
Not only did the kindness from Dumby and Clarence influence Blacky but the hatred and unfairness of the town towards the Aboriginals showed Blacky that not everything is as it seems. This shows the most when Blacky related with Greggy his younger brother when he said that his father is the best. Blacky mentioned that he used to think the same, that his father and the other adults were amazing and some sort of superheros. At Blacky’s current age he still holds respect for the adults and often believes what they say, however after forming friendships with Dumby, Clarence and their family he realises that the adults in his town were just regular human beings and were often drunk and constantly told racist jokes. The moment when things became clear to Blacky about the racism his town holds was when Big Mac told a racist joke at the pub and everyone laughed, Blacky started that he had laughed at the joke before, even told the joke before but now that he realises that this joke is actually insulting and offending someone like Dumby, Clarence and Tommy, he no longer finds the joke entertaining nor funny in fact he is quite disappointed. Because of the rudeness of the town and made low comments about the aboriginals, Blacky was able to realise that his town and the people in it aren’t who they seem to be and that in fact there is a lot hatred in the town.
As a result of the friendships Blacky made throughout the story, ‘Deadly, Unna?’ he was able to grow as a person by building courage and become aware of the racism in his community.

With Dumby’s support and friendship he was able to refrain from falling into the discrimination of aboriginals. With Clarence and her family Blacky was able to learn new things about the aboriginal community and become more educated thus being able to know what is true and what a lie is. All of these points show Blacky’s progress to becoming more enlightened and with that more courageous which he uses to stand for his beliefs and for Dumby and

Clarence.