AborginesEssay Preview: AborginesReport this essayJohn Howard, in 1996, during his Sir Robert Menzies Lecture claimed, The Black- Armband view of our past reflects a belief that most Australian history since 1788 has been little more than a disgraceful story of imperialism, exploitation, racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination. (Howard, 1996, Sir Robert Menzies Lecture) I find this an adequate description of the implied reader of Gary Crews No Such Country. Inspired by the Black-Armband view, Crew has written a novel that challenges dominant conceptions of Australian history by confronting the generally optimistic view known as the Three Cheers view. The implied reader is positioned as indigenous and female. The white, Australian male is positioned by the text as an outsider, who is pleased to go along with the patriarchal structures. The European males in the novel, particularly the Father and Angel, are symbolised as the white imperialists, who came and took the land, raping the country. Crews novel clearly positions the implied reader to believing that white males should not have any part in the future of Australia and represents women and indigenous people as the morally pure, innocent, just, peaceful and natural human beings.
Crew, in an attempt to resist dominant conceptions of Australian identity privileges the indigenous feminist culture through the characters of Sam, Rachael and Sarah. Sam Shadows symbolises the current generation of Indigenous Australians, who are seeking reconciliation and recognition. Sam is a Jesus figure whose second coming to New Canaan brings judgement on the people. For those who turn from the sins of their past are forgiven and those who refuse to acknowledge him die a fiery death in their sin. Rachael and Sarah both represent women who are suppressed in patriarchal society. Their motive is to discover the truth and seek reconciliation with the indigenous people. It is obvious to see that the white men of New Canaan
The Aboriginalist is using the same tactics to bring the Aboriginal people of New Canaan back to Western Australia.
The original Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers of our nation and history had come to a united and tolerant Australia, with women’s rights and equal human rights available under law. These men and women were the best known to me. In their time we would have seen the political representation that many feminists now use, with its emphasis on race and gender, and its willingness to be tolerant and positive rather than patronising. With women in particular our culture has increasingly been portrayed in such a manner that the most common example of what happens when we do not agree is someone trying to get you to agree to disagree. Even after 20 years, as we are entering a new century for the rights of women, we have forgotten the importance of the traditional family and, by doing so it has also lost credibility. In fact, the “reluctant man’s feminist” attitude is making us all look backward at a system that is supposed to be fair and just.
What we need to ask are three questions:
Who are the Aboriginal feminist community’s most important, influential and important figures?
What do your Aboriginal community feel are the many challenges confronting Aboriginal women in Western Australia?
Who is your favourite group with whom to start a discussion of these challenges?
Why do you think that Aboriginal women should be asked to come out and say something negative about the status quo? Have you been to school or have you been exposed to other Aboriginal women?
These are a simple, but essential things that can help to make a difference. We know those who know better what we have to do in such areas. We already know that the problems facing our communities are systemic. We’ve seen that they are both human and economic. It does not matter whether we can control them, if we do, they should all be out.
What have you learned from your Aboriginal community to date?
We have developed strategies and strategies that we believe will help our communities to overcome the obstacles they face now and continue their progress towards reconciliation. We have put in place strong work to develop and train Aboriginal women, in every sector of our social service system, who are working on a wide range of issues, including health and housing, education and skills development.
Finally, we’ve developed some important programs and initiatives that we believe will help to help Aboriginal women face the real challenges. These programs are of greatest benefit to Aboriginal women and to Indigenous Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Territories, since we need to make efforts to support families. These are initiatives that are particularly important when working with communities on issues that Aboriginal women face. They can also act as a framework for all of my Aboriginal children to get involved in community and advocacy works. These ideas have been used to help with many Aboriginal children. I will tell these stories in coming days and weeks. Their