The Davis family moved to Yarloop when Jack was five. (p.6) He remembers walking two kilometres to school with his three older siblings. (p.11) On his first day, an older boy named Lennie stuck a pencil in Jack’s back after he refused to give up his sandwich, and he retaliated by punching the boy in the face.

Jack Davis, who is widely known as a poet and playwright, became the Western Australian state secretary of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI) in 1969, after the position had been unfilled for two years.

Jack followed his parent’s advice and left school in 1932, when he was fourteen. (p.116) The Chief Protector of the Aborigines in Western Australian at that time, Mr A. O. Neville, offered to teach Jack and his brother Harold farming skills at the Moore River Native Settlement. (p.116) Bill Davis was reluctant to send his sons away, but eventually agreed because there was no employment in Yarloop during the Great Depression. (p.116)

A prominent playwright and poet who expresses the richness and diversity of Indigenous culture, Jack Davis has been described as the most public voice in Aboriginal literature. His work cuts across language, generation and racial barriers to present the multifaceted issues of Aboriginality in a very accessible way.

Jack became politically active in Perth during the ’60s. He was director of the Aboriginal Centre and played a key role fighting poverty and winning access to housing and other services. He was the first chair of the Aboriginal Land Trust. He also played a leadership role in early Aboriginal publishing.