'The Cake Man' by Robert Merritt

The Cake Man

Robert Merritt

(Summary)

Introduction:

As an ingredient part of the post-colonial literature is to construct the history written by imperialism and present it as the experience of the colonists. As victims of British colonialism, Indigenous peoples have always reflected in their writings the historical, religious and territorial subjugation of their land, especially due to its high popularity and social influence in their dramatic literature. Robert Merritt's The Cake Man is an important dramatic text in aboriginal literature exploring forced transformation and its resistance. The Cake Man is an irrational search for white colonialism from a black perspective.

The Cake Man is a 1975 play by Indigenous Australian writer Bob Merritt, published as the first play written by an Aboriginal Australian, notable for television and travel outside Australia. A tele-movie was made about the 1977 performance of the play. The Indigenous Theater Company was formed by Bob Merritt and Brian Siren specifically to produce the play for a 1982 tour of the United States.

Again, as a typical story of expectation for a native family, The Cake Man is a thoughtful interest for the two blacks and whites to glance back at the beginnings of common doubt and work together to reestablish a valuable lost heritage.

A brief summary of The Cake Man

In the opening scene of the play, a native family is portrayed as living happily in nature. Their happiness is soon hampered by the entrance of a priest, a soldier and a civilian trying to convert them to Christianity, the dominant colonial ideology. After the local family resists the priest and the civilian word, the soldier kills the local man and takes away his wife and son. When all is said and done, in the symbolic scene, the native man opens his eyes and goes to his feet, and in his monologue he introduces himself as an anti-colonial figure.

In the second act, the local man, identified as Sweet William, his wife Ruby, and their 11-year-old child, Pumpkinhead, are all living in the mission. Ruby is now a Christian while William still resists the new religion. As a result, he is unemployed and spends his days drinking. Due to poverty he has lost respect as a family man and father. Ruby seeks solace in the Bible and remains a sympathetic wife and caring mother. Pumpkinhead helps wherever she can, even stealing from white settlers. Before going to bed each night, Pumpkinhead asks his mother about the story of a legendary character, The Cake Man that brings cakes for children when their dark shadows continue. Although the boy likes the story, he is at the same time skeptical about the existence of Cake Man. After stealing from a civilian home, Pumpkinhead was arrested. By taking the child to his parents' house, civilians can find out about their condition. He finally forgave his son by sending him a cake, which convinced the child of the Cake Man's existence.

At the end of the story, William is seen looking for a job in Sydney. While standing near a pub, he was mistakenly taken by the police to the unknown fate of some troubled tribesmen.

However, the story is partly taken from Merit's experience growing up on the Irambi Mission in Cowra, New South Wales. The so-called Cake Man is a character who was sent by Jesus as a gift of love for aboriginal children, but was blinded by a villain so that he could see only white children wandering in the bushes. Biblical stories are mixed with mythology, as the cake man holding by Ruby represents the hope of Christian love. The story tells of a family struggling to survive on a mission.

Note:

Indigenous Australians or Aboriginal Australians are the family traditions and membership of the ethnic groups living in Australia before the British colonization. They include Indigenous peoples of Australia and Torres Strait Islanders. The term Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander or a specific cultural group of individuals is often preferred, although the terms Australia's first race, Australia's first peoples, and the first Australians are also increasingly common.

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