An Aboriginal theatre group performing a post-Brechtian German play may seem an unusual cross-cultural collaboration. Yet, from it has come the bold, new and challenging piece of Black Theatre by Australia's most innovative Aboriginal author that provides the core of this book: Mudrooroo's 'The Aboriginal Protesters Confront the Declaration of the Australian Republic with the Production of The Commission by Heiner Müller'. The fictional rehearsal of Müller's post modernist scenario turns into a battle against white/European cultural hegemony and into a quest for Black identity and consciousness, a search for the history of the Aboriginal struggle and for a theatre of Aboriginality. Set before the political backdrop of the Republican debate, Mudrooroo's work confronts the proclamation of a "White Republic" with the unresolved crisis of Australian history: the denial of sovereignty to the Aboriginal people. In what Mudrooroo calls his "Aboriginalising" of Müller, 'The Commission' becomes a play within Mudrooroo's play, creating an ironic foil to the Aboriginal experience. Müller's reworkings of betrayal, notions of black/white conflict and the relevance of European Enlightenment ideals (Liberty Equality Fraternity) exported to colonised peoples all find their echo and response in Mudrooroo's sharp and witty treatment. Mudrooroo meets Müller, Black Australia meets white/European intellectualism: head-on. This unique project originated from an idea and a dramaturgical concept by Gerhard Fischer. It yields fascinating and provocative insights to anyone interested in modern theatre, in cross-cultural exchange, and in Aboriginal responses to contemporary questions. The book documents the project, with accounts by Fischer, Mudrooroo and Brian Syron on its genesis and development, and with separate texts for both plays. Pieces by Walter Benjamin, Anna Seghers and Müller himself explore the background to Müller's play, and other contributions from Mike Mansell, Paul Behrendt and Syron extend black perspectives on sovereignty and self-determination, in politics as in the arts.