[3] William Davis worked mostly in the timber industry as a log chopper and found it hard to support eleven children on his income.

[3] In early 1932, at age fourteen, Jack Davis and his brother Harold were offered work under false pretences at Moore River Native Settlement from the Protector of Aborigines, A. O.

[4][5][3][1] While his father was concerned about sending his sons to an Aboriginal settlement, the Great Depression put a financial strain on their family and work was scarce.

[1][3] At the Moore River Native Settlement, Aboriginal people were to learn skills that would enable them to integrate better into white society.

[6] Davis and his brother were among 400 Aboriginal people that were "offered" work at the Moore River Native Settlement considered as a social measure by the government.

This included being a stockman, a horse trainer, a drover, a mill worker, a driver in various methods of transportation and a kangaroo hunter.

He later published his second collection of poetry called Jagardoo in 1977, which was illustrated by Harold Thomas (who also designed the Aboriginal Australian flag).

Academic Adam Shoemaker has described his work as always alluding to the history of Aboriginal people even when his plays are not mentioning the past.

Davis’ play Kullark, translated to "home" is often considered by academics as a documentary, detailing the beginning of white settlement in Western Australia in 1829.

The meaning of the play is interpreted by academics as a protest, criticising the colonial recorded history of the 1829 white settlement in Western Australia.

Academics have inferred that Davis includes the details of these events to give Aboriginal people a voice and a known history that have been previously omitted.

[10] Davis wrote that he aimed to confront white and black audiences with a truthful and uncompromising picture of urban Aboriginal life.

The play was set in the 1930s during the Great Depression and tells the story of an Aboriginal family that is removed from their home and forced to work on the Moore River Native Settlement.

[2] An article by the Sydney Morning Herald writes that the play is a rejection of white assimilation and the degradation of Aboriginal lives and culture.

[2] A production of the play directed by Bob Maza was performed at the Black Theatre Arts and Culture Centre in Redfern in 1994.

[16] However, as mentioned in the Sydney Morning Herald, there is debate over whether the themes and inclusion of the Nyoongah language are too complex for students who are trying to learn the fundamentals of the English.

During the year the play was published, Aboriginal Australians accounted to ten percent of the national average of people in jail.

[14][8][7] Academic Bob Hodge states that Aboriginalism is much like Orientalism, where White society sees those of different race and  culture as 'the other'.

[14][8][7] Academics have analysed Davis' work through the lens of Aboriginality as he uses the Western form of communication to connect to a white audience.

By including these Aboriginal overtones, academics believe he is trying to show a white audience another form of history through a communication method they know.

In Davis’ play No Sugar he recreates the experience using different characters and detailing the large quantity of Aboriginal people taken to Moore River Native Settlement.

Similarly, the Western Australian Aboriginal Protector A.O Neville, who sent Davis and his brother to the Moore River Native Settlement, features in his plays Kullark, No Sugar and The Dreamers.

[19] He wrote another poem about his experience of making his own bow and arrow and killing a robin redbreast which he felt great remorse for.