NEW: Emerging scholars in Australian Indigenous Studies

NEW Preface

Anne Maree Payne, Jennifer Newman — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 15:18:43 +1100

Truth telling in Australia's historical narrative

Iva Mencevska — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +1100

As it stands, the Australian narrative solely reflects the truth of the European settler with little acknowledgement of the truths of First Nations people. In light of Australia’s most recent truth telling project, this essay explores various truth telling projects throughout Australian history, their impact on the national narrative and critically examines the political goal of reconciliation.

Who knows best? Paternalism in Aboriginal policy

Emily Jeffes — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 14:48:42 +1100

Through colonial eyes, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are seen as subjects void of agency. They have been treated by the Australian polity as though they are in great need of saving. This paper explores the ways in which well-intended policies and initiatives implemented by successive governments have failed to recognise and support Indigenous Australians as functioning sovereign beings.

Contemporary consequences of the 1967 Referendum

Brooke Ottley — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 15:03:19 +1100

The 1967 Australian Referendum and subsequent constitutional reform are widely considered a victory for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and an elevating moment in Australia’s history. However, this analysis reveals the Referendum was in some ways an anticlimax, enabling paternalistic policies and exploitation of the First Peoples of Australia.

Can historians tell the truth? The Uluru Statement from the Heart and the quest for a new history

Ansel Wakamatsu — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 15:29:19 +1100

Following the Uluru Statement from the Heart, historians are again tasked with ‘telling the truth’ about past human rights abuses in Australia. However, I argue that such a demand is too simplistic, and it is better to understand historians as producers of impermanent historical narratives which are embedded in public memory through the historian’s discursive authority and the authority of a supporting truth commission.

Re-examining Australia’s hidden genocide: the removal of Aboriginal children in Australia as an act of cultural genocide

Emily Mays — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 15:39:01 +1100

The 1997 Bringing Them Home Inquiry (BTHI) sparked a significant shift in public understanding of the Stolen Generations. While substantial evidence incriminated the Australian government with acts of genocide, the allegations were subdued by the division around the circumstances in which Aboriginal children were removed. This essay analyses political discourse before and after the BTHI, while offering a contemporary understanding of genocide.

The evolution of the ancestral voice that always was and always will be

Kerri Simpson — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 14:25:36 +1100

In our stories, we carry the concept of voice in various forms. In the context of contact the Indigenous ‘voice’ is one ever-present and evolving. It is omnipresent, laying down new foundations for the ‘voice’ through to new generations. It is the representation of an entire culture. It is not a natural language or the voice of academia. It is as ancient as its land and lies at the heart of its peoples. It is a cultural voice. It is the voice of the dreaming. It is the voice of resistance. It is the voice of self-determination.

Truth-telling: a key to liberating Australia from a deliberate silence

Madeleine Wedesweiler — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 14:34:33 +1100

There have been a number of recent calls for “truth-telling” about aspects of Australia’s past. In order to deal with the horrors of our collective past they must be dredged up and confronted very widely, honestly and openly. In this regard there is much we can learn from similar processes overseas.

A powerful history told badly

Nadine Silva — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 14:48:57 +1100

You wouldn’t buy a ticket to a movie if the trailer was awful, right? Therefore, when non-Indigenous people only catch superficially boring glimpses of Aboriginal History, it’s no surprise they grow apathetic towards learning more. This essay explores why a powerful history is still being told so badly.

The case for cultural economic participation: achieving social and political change for Aboriginal peoples through community owned and run businesses

Sophie Hopkins — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 14:58:49 +1100

Aboriginal community owned and run businesses have proven to instigate social and political change for Aboriginal communities in Australia, and the nation as a whole. Integral to this change is recognition of the enduring effects of colonisation and realisation of social, cultural and identity capital as valid forms of economic contribution.

The impacts of control, racism, and colonialism on contemporary Aboriginal-police relations

Joshua Green — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 15:06:32 +1100

Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are still treated differently in their interactions with the police. By analysing the histories of the New South Wales Police Force, policy, and Indigenous affairs, this essay seeks to analyse the multifaceted factors which have given rise to contemporary Aboriginal police relations.

The lessons in the 1967 Referendum campaign

Gabrielle Watson — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 16:19:49 +1100

The composition of Australia’s Constitution saw a pattern of discrimination emerge against its Indigenous peoples, calling into question the strength of Australia’s commitment to its founding narrative of a ‘fair go’. This essay explores whether the 1967 Referendum, in which Australians voted overwhelmingly to amend the Constitution to allow the Commonwealth to make laws for Aboriginal people and include them in the census, had an affect on actual behaviour of the Commonwealth and non-Indigenous people towards the Indigenous population.

Wielding the past to voice the future: an exploration of Indigenous Australians’ sustained call to be heard

Joseph Khan — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 16:28:21 +1100

This essay explores why ‘voice’ has been a sustained desire for Indigenous Australians throughout history. By placing past efforts surrounding recognition, citizenship and self-determination on a continuum of progress, this text presents an argument for an unwavering, Indigenous voice to be enshrined in the Australian Constitution in order to serve the best interests of Aboriginal Australians.

Blood Money Currency Exchange Terminal

Tooba Anwar — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 16:55:13 +1100

Blood Money Currency Exchange Terminal by artist, Ryan Presley, is an exhibition that displays Australian dollars notes appropriated and revamped to have Aboriginal warriors as the faces of currency. The large prints have taken about 2-3 months each to complete and are made with mixed classical mediums (watercolour and oil paint). This exhibition raised important queries, it raised the obvious point that why First Nations People’s heroes are not on Australian currency, instead of those colonisers. First Nations People are rarely commemorated on money. The stories of poets, land rights pioneers and freedom fighters should be textbook history but unfortunately aren’t something that we lean in our school curriculum. These pieces are important in the way that they subvert mainstream history and reach out beyond dead history to a living history.

Native Tongue by Mojo Juju

Paul Murchison — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 15:57:14 +1100

The following is a review of the song and accompanying video clip ‘Native Tongue’ by Mojo Juju (Luzuriaga 2018); a queer artist of mixed Indigenous Australian, white Australian and Filipino ethnicities. The song tells of her struggles with this identity in the Australian context and the video clip uses striking imagery to accompany this story. Both the song and the video successfully use elements of hip-hop and Aboriginal corroboree, combined with glitchy effects to communicate a disconnect between the artist and her confusing identity.

Reclaiming what was lost in the fire: a review of Jonathan Jones’ "Barrangal Dyara"

Francesca Timar — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 08:45:29 +1100

The site-specific work titled Barrangal Dyara (Skin and Bones) was exhibited in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney from the 17th of September to the 3rd of October 2016. The artist behind the display, Sydney based Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi man Jonathan Jones (born 1987) is a young contemporary Aboriginal artist who specialises in site-specific works, which discuss the historical uses of locations around Australia. The name Barrangal Dyara means skin and bones in the local Gadigal language, and the work took place on Country with community approval from Gadigal elders Uncle Charles Madden and Uncle Allen Madden.

White Australia has a Blackie Blackie Brown history

Kezia Aria — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 08:52:31 +1100

The gatekeepers for institutions of fine arts, classical music and theatre in Australia are traditionally white, upper middle-class people. Nakkiah Lui’s existence and success as an Indigenous playwright is a radical disturbance in this bubble of society as, by nature, stories and storytellers that challenge cultural hegemony will always be political, and Blak artists entering theatre demonstrate a fusion and adaptation of Indigenous oral traditions into Australia’s highbrow society. Aboriginal playwrights and performances have a complex history in terms of audience reception as they often deal with difficult and confronting topics that ‘regular’ theatre audiences may not engage with (Grehan 2010). Not only do they have the burden of representing ‘all’ Aboriginal people, but the stories they share are often those whose voices were historically silenced, erased or dismissed (Morris 1992).

How Wayne Blair’s "The Sapphires" tells a story of collective and individual belonging

Lexy Akillas — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 09:00:59 +1100

Wayne Blair’s 2012, dramatic comedy The Sapphires is an Australian film that discusses a number of important issues for Indigenous people, including the concept of belonging. Blair explores how belonging can exist both within community groups and internally through self-identity. The bones of the film are based on the true story of Laurel Robinson and Lois Peeler, two Indigenous women who toured Vietnam as the original ‘Sapphires’ with a New Zealand Maori band (Herche 2013). Laurel Robinson’s son, Tony Briggs wrote the screenplay and the 2004 musical (of the same name) thus being able to add a sense of authenticity. The film opens up a side of Australian history that has previously been underrepresented but has a universal appeal through its representation of belonging.

Capturing "The Rabbits"

Sarah Furlan — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 09:06:50 +1100

The Rabbits, written by John Marsden and illustrated by Shaun Tan, is a beautifully designed yet melancholy allegory for the ‘discovery’ and subsequent colonisation of Australia. With its focus on Indigenous Australian history, Marsden has managed to summarise much of the Australian colonisation process in just 229 words. Since it was first published in 1998, the picture book has won multiple awards and continues to be a relevant text, with the issues depicted throughout still significant in Australia’s contemporary social and political spheres.

A.B. Original’s "Reclaim Australia" is ensuring Australians can no longer say “I just didn’t know” about Aboriginal issues

Sian Brian — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 09:48:13 +1100

Reclaim Australia is the debut album of hip hop duo A.B. Original that surged the voices and issues of Aboriginal Australia onto the airwaves and into the minds of the public. Fronted by Yorta Yorta man, Briggs (aka Adam Briggs) and Ngarrindjeri man, Trials (aka Daniel Rankine), A.B. Original stands for Always Black Original and their 12-track album released late in 2016 geared up political talks for the upcoming controversies of January 26th, known as Australia Day by some and as Invasion or Survival Day by others.

"Sweet Country"'s powerful depiction of racial dynamics and tensions of the 1920s

Casey Clarke — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 09:54:33 +1100

Warwick Thornton’s outback western, Sweet Country (2017) is a powerful depiction of the racial dynamic and tensions of the 1920’s. The plot follows the story of Sam Kelly, an Indigenous man, who shoots and kills a white man Harry March in self-defence. The themes of colonialism, law and power cultivate in the experiences of the Aboriginal and white characters alike. The stories of Aboriginal people from this era are still largely untold, and even a fictional representation of this history, such as Sweet Country, helps the histories of black Australia penetrate the mainstream.

"Jasper Jones" as a Window into Australia’s Aboriginal history

Lucy Dalziel — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 09:59:55 +1100

Jasper Jones (2017) is an Australian film adaptation of Craig Silvey’s 2009 novel of the same name. The film is directed by Arrernte woman Rachel Perkins, who founded Blackfella Films in 1992 and has since been heading the initiative to include more Indigenous representation on screen. With an Aboriginal character, Jasper Jones, at the forefront of the story, the film presents a window into the lives of Aboriginal people living in 1960’s white Australia.

Silent but deadly: a review of "Samson & Delilah"

Rayane Tamer — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 10:06:15 +1100

Ironically, since European colonisation, there has been a deafening silence of Indigenous representation in all forms and at all societal levels. As Stanner asserts, Indigenous people have been written out of history (1967, p. 22), but the disappearance of our First Nations people is not limited to just the encyclopaedias. Australians have long been viewing media and cinema through a white lens, largely representing an Anglo society, and by its binary, neglecting the Indigenous society that – while subjugated to a near nothingness – remains poignant to this nation’s existence. Indigenous filmmaker Warwick Thornton challenges this white lens in Samson & Delilah (2009), in what has been hailed as Australia’s ‘most important film’ (Redwood 2009, p. 27). Thornton’s film encapsulates the post-colonial state of Indigenous society through a perspective that is rarely shown, but is necessary for the nation and, more generally, the world, to understand the ways in which the First Nations people are subordinated on their own land.

Limits in complexity: the contextual boundaries of Peter Carstairs’ "September"

Freya Howard — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 11:41:01 +1100

Peter Carstairs’ 2007 film September is a quiet, intimate contemplation of friendship, coming of age, and ‘the subtle side of racism’ in 1968 Australia (Carstairs in Robertson 2007, p. 16). In the Wheatbelt of Western Australia, Ed Anderson (Xavier Samuel) the son of a wool and wheat farmer, and Paddy Parker (Clearance John Ryan) the son of an Aboriginal labourer on the Andersons’ property, navigate the strains placed on their relationship by complex long-standing prejudices and the changing nature of the Australian political world.

Speculating reality: a review of Claire Coleman’s "Terra Nullius"

Samantha Lejeune — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 11:46:19 +1100

Fiction has the power to show the reality of people’s experiences and spark emotion in those who read it. Speculative fiction especially has been used to observe our political and cultural climate and project an image of what is possible, even probable, through speculating about worlds that are unlike our own reality. My shelf is filled with speculative dystopian novels; George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, exploring surveillance and censorship in an authoritarian State, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, studying conservative approaches that tyrannize women. Terra Nullius, written by Wirlomin Noongar woman, Claire Coleman, sits beside these classics in its own right, detailing the dystopia generated by colonialism in Australia.

Victoria Park

Nathaniel Sharpley — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 11:53:52 +1100

It was mid March this year when I visited Victoria Park. Not to say I hadn’t visited before, walking through the park twice a week most weeks. This time however as a ‘site visit’ in its intentionality, the visit was of significantly greater educational substance. This visit, I joined most of the Aboriginal Political History student cohort in an excursion that almost felt like a walk back in time. With the purpose of gaining a larger understanding of Aboriginal occupation and use of the land which we use so regularly. That land being Victoria Park. A place that I was amused to feel a strange sense of nostalgia by the way we navigated the landscape.

The reality of remembrance in Camperdown Memorial Rest Park

Hannah Robinson — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 12:01:07 +1100

Nestled at the back of Newtown, behind the bustling King St and amongst the Camperdown suburbia, lies Camperdown Memorial Rest Park, a frequent spot for gatherings with friends, and a beloved dog hang-out for owners and canines alike. However, not many people know of the deep cultural significance that this park holds for Aboriginal people. The strong historical importance that lies beneath the surface of the park and within the park’s closed off section are found within Camperdown Cemetery.

Waraburra Nura

Manning Nolan-Laykoski — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 12:09:49 +1100

My visit to the UTS’s Indigenous Art Collection and the Waraburra Nura (the Happy Wanderers place) Indigenous garden afforded me the opportunity to re-engage once again with the knowledge that my white privilege has a black history. As a member of the Munnungali clan and Yugambeh Nation-Language people who reside in the Bouedesert area of the Gold Coast Hinterland, I am already deeply connected and sensitive to issues of Colonial representations of history, the role of Indigenism in contesting Western knowledge orthodoxies, the importance of pushing back against the reproduction of the colonised as fixed identities and why under-theorizing the deprived and disadvantaged Australian Indigenous human condition, allows it to proliferate. As a whole, Jennifer Newman’s and Alice McAuliffe’s talk and the artwork on display reflected Indigenous survival, resilience and thriving. It also reflected the relationship between art and politics, not only because it represented both Western and Indigenous political ideology, through an account of political events of historical moments in time, but also because it illustrated how the artist themselves (since their art production is a commitment to a political stance) belong to the political realm.

The Australian National Maritime Museum’s view from the ship and view from the shore

Freya Smail — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 12:17:22 +1100

Next year, the Australian National Maritime Museum’s replica of Captain Cook’s ship, HMS Endeavour, will circumnavigate Australia to commemorate 250 years of Cook landing on Australian shores. I was excited to visit the museum to hear their rationale behind this – something that I have heard very mixed responses to, and which I myself thought sounded inconsiderate (and ignorant) of Australia’s Indigenous history prior to my visit.

First Footprints

Erin Buechele — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 12:25:43 +1100

History should be written to inform the present and honour the past. In order to successfully meet this criteria history needs to be retold, above all else, truthfully. This truthfulness requires a brazen acknowledgement of past actions and events no matter how they reflect on the nation. In the case of Australian history, and any other colonizing nation, that truth contains harmful realities of oppression. Because of this, history is often reconstructed in a form that is easier to swallow or in a way that benefits those leading the nation. Because records are largely made by white people, they have far too often become subjective retellings of history used to justify actions made by white administrators and political leaders of the past and present.

The Battlefield of Australian History

Rachel Nasr — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 12:45:19 +1100

One question that has permeated throughout history and continues to persist today, attracting much controversy amongst academics seems to be whether or not historians have provided an accurate account of Aboriginal history. This week 2 topic, The Battlefield of Aboriginal History, particularly offers valuable insights as individuals continue to wrangle this question, paving the way for reconciliation by proposing alternate methods of Aboriginal representation that promote authenticity.

The Gweagal Shield

Kathryn Lawn — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 12:50:20 +1100

Recounts of Aboriginal Australian history stand as a jarring reminder of the dissonance at the heart of the modern Australian autonomy. Failing to comprehend the truth in a battle of power and knowledge, the Aboriginal story is partly lost, and the modern narrative found, in a tale of coercion and misrepresentation. The colonial process in Australia decimated the original inhabitants, expropriated their lands and dislocated them from their culture (Morris 1989), the systematic consequences of which would continue to be felt through generations. Narration of this discourse masqueraded as fact for many years, insinuated a complicity on the part of Aboriginal Australians in their own demise. As Morris notes, it was as if they had ‘simply faded away’ (1989, p.6). Few clues remain of the ‘other side’ of the frontier, of those who stood in guard of their Australia at the site of first contact with the colonisers.

Constitutional Recognition: reflecting on the prospect and direction in the 46th Parliament

Ashley Cleavin — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 12:54:53 +1100

In an election campaign that spent much time around esoteric ideas like dividend imputation credits and electric vehicle targets, it is strange that little time was spent discussing Labor's proposal to enshrine a Voice to Parliament for First Nations people in the constitution, via referendum. Unlike nations such as New Zealand or Norway, Australia lacks a specified mechanism for First Peoples’ political representation. As with our decades of inaction on constitutional recognition of Australia's Indigenous peoples, this can also be seen manifesting in our inability to improve educational, health, and justice outcomes for Indigenous Australia. Individuals like newly appointed Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Ken Wyatt, and Member for Barton, Linda Burney, can and do break through this glass ceiling. But such examples serve as outliers rather than the norm, as Indigenous Land Rights leader Galarrwuy Yunipingu noted, ‘I have had a place at the table of the best and the brightest in the Australian nation - and at times success has seemed so close, yet it always slips away’ (Yunipingu 2008, para. 20). The Uluru Statement from the Heart sought to show a path forward from the ‘torment of our powerlessness’ and for ‘reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country’.

Constitutional Recognition: a vital human need, not a courtesy

Stephanie Roberts — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 13:00:01 +1100

Without constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians, Australia cannot adequately recognise, respect and protect Indigenous rights to self-determination, culture, sovereignty and development (Bellier and Préaud 2011). The Commonwealth has a long history of disenfranchising, silencing and othering Indigenous Australians and this vision of constitutional recognition is constrained by a number of factors, primarily the need for a referendum. Indigenous Australians are only 3.3 percent of the total Australian population (ABS Census 2016). With this in mind, in accordance with the 2012 Expert Panel recommendation and the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart, my opinion is that a successful and consequential referendum relies on a thorough, government-funded but Indigenous-led educational campaign to promote visibility, conversation and learning between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians (Newman 2019). Often excluded from writing their own narrative, with ‘substantive constitutional change and structural reform’ (1 Voice Uluru 2019) provides the circumstances vital for providing Indigenous Australians with deserved respect, sovereignty and self-determination as Taylor explains ‘due recognition is not just a courtesy we owe people. It is a vital human need’ (1992).

Constitutional Recognition: within a colonial framework

Diane Songco — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 13:35:02 +1100

Constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians has been a longstanding national movement reflective of the international struggle of Indigenous communities within a colonial framework. The Uluru Statement from the Heart, delivered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention, addressed to the Australian public, called for support in the creation of constitutional reforms to build on changes made in the 1967 Referendum. Glen Sean Coulthard’s Red Skin, White Masks takes a difference stance on recognition for Indigenous peoples, specifically citing First Nations peoples in North America. In understanding the goals of the Uluru Statement and the arguments raised in Red Skin, White Masks, constitutional recognition may begin to address vital problems such as the dispossession of Indigenous land and lack of inclusion in state politics, but its existence as part of the settler-colonial governance will always act as a deterrent for true decolonization.

Constitutional Recognition: retiring from the hamster wheel

Grace Hartley — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 13:39:14 +1100

The process of realising constitutional recognition for Australia’s Indigenous population can be characterised as a cycle: the government commissions a group of experts to give recommendations, that group presents their recommendations, the government either rejects or fails to act on said recommendations and so, the government commissions a new group of experts and the cycle starts again. Each time the government will commission a similar group of experts, with a similar aim, bestowing upon the group a unique title in an attempt to mask the hamster-wheel that is the constitutional recognition debate.

Constitutional Recognition or treaty?

Carla Sullivan — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +1100

In 2017, the Uluru Statement from the Heart was released during the Uluru First Nations Convention. In it, 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates made a powerful statement endorsing constitutional reform to enshrine an Indigenous voice in Australian Parliament and in the Australian Constitution, as well as the establishment of a Makaratta Commission to supervise the subsequent legislative change and ‘truth-telling’ that would enshrine a First Nations Voice in Australia’s Constitution. While the Uluru Statement from the Heart was a culmination of many years of grassroots campaigning and activism, there remains dissent over whether constitutional recognition could be as effective as a treaty.