The Cherry Pickers: An honest humour about social problems.

Kevin Gilbert was born in Condobolin, New South Wales in 1933, of the Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi peoples. He left school after fifth grade at age fourteen, and worked in itinerant seasonal jobs. In 1957 Gilbert was sentenced to life imprisonment after a domestic dispute in which his wife was killed. During the fourteen years that he spent in some of the worst jails in Australia he strove to educate himself, honing his artistic talents to become a prominent poet, playwright, printmaker (Gilbert was Australia's first recognised Aboriginal printmaker) and photographer. Gilbert wrote the play The Cherry Pickers in 1968 and first exhibited his work in 1970 at the Arts Council Gallery, Sydney, in an exhibition organised by the Australia Council. He was granted parole in 1971. Gilbert was instrumental in the establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy opposite Old Parliament House, Canberra the following year, and wrote Because a White Man'll Never Do It in 1973. His book Living Black: Blacks Talk to Kevin Gilbert (1977) was awarded the National Book Council Book Award in 1978.

Kevin was one of the paramount Aboriginal artists of 20th century Australia, known best as an activist, artist, poet, printmaker and the first Aboriginal playwright and political writer to be published in Australia.

The Cherry Pickers according to one story in the tradition of Genet and Gramsci, was smuggled out of gaol on sheets of toilet paper. Gilbert described the play as a story about ‘seasonal workers', focusing on ‘spiritual searching and loss, my people pushed into refugee situations, desocialised if you like'. Based on the experiences of itinerant rural workers, the play explores issues of family, spirituality and dispossession. The narrative combines creation myths, tribal ritual, political oratory, dirty jokes, songs and interminable waiting. It is the waiting that forms the heart of the play. Gilbert structures the work around a group of indigenous Australians condemned to wander the margins of their own continent in pursuit of whatever work they can find. They have set up camp to wait for the commencement of the cherry-picking season, traditionally marked by the largest cherry tree bearing fruit, and the arrival of Johnollo, a talismanic figure who evidently shares Godot's sense of punctuality. In the meantime, they tell stories, sing songs and keep the audience royally entertained for the play's 90-minute duration.

Jean Carlos Silva