Post-colonial Literature for Children EDU32PLC Week 5 - Lecture 9

1. Post-colonial Literature for ChildrenEDU32PLCWeek 5 - Lecture 9 European voices in Aboriginal History: Whose story is this anyway? © La Trobe University, David Beagley 2006

2. References Foster, J. (2005) White voices/black voices: indigenous children’s literature. in Bush, City, Cyberspace: the development of Australian Children’s Literature into the twenty-first century. Ed. John Foster, Ern Finnis and Maureen Nimon. Wagga: CIS, Charles Sturt University Ellingsen, P. (2002) Australian Rules. The Age. 10 August. Saturday Extra: 1-4 Daly, A. (2003) The rules of being Australian. Senses of Cinema [online]. Available: http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/03/25/australian_rules.html

3. Is it a story or history? The historian starts with a provisional selection of facts, and a provisional interpretation in the light of which that selection has been made - by others as well as by himself.  As he works, both the interpretation and the selection and ordering of facts undergo subtle and perhaps partly unconscious changes, through the reciprocal action of one or the other … [History] is a continuous process of interaction between the historian and his facts, an unending dialogue between the past and the present. Carr, EH (1987)What is history? 2nd edn. Ringwood VIC: Penguin. p.30

4. Deadly, Unna? • Focus is on the injustices of the present, rather than events of the past • Modern Europeans are active participants in the story … • … especially as it is based on real events. • This makes them active participants in both the positive and negative aspects of the situation • This has also led to considerable controversy as different people claim ownership of the events and the right to tell (or not tell) the story

5. Deadly, Unna? Several themes in European story • Interpretations of social right and wrong – public achievement and recognition, winners and losers, breaking & entering vs shooting, parent/child relations, etc. • Separation of communities, unless convenient for dominant group - cf. Apartheid • Ultimate success or failure determined in European terms, by European values

6. Deadly, Unna? Several themes in Aboriginal story • Dispossession, racism, colonization, continuing into present day – separation of cultures • Respect for dead and family • Authority of community over individual

7. Deadly, Unna? Blacky as narrator (whose story is it?): • Is he just telling the story or interpreting the issues? • His closeness and distance from the Aboriginal characters and situation • Is the focus of the book white racism or Aboriginal suffering?

8. Deadly, Unna? Dumby Red as key character (whose story is it?): • Deliberate choice of name • Post-colonial representation as marginalised, as outsider, as victim • Is the focus of the story his death or Blacky’s reaction to it?

9. Deadly, Unna? Book -> Movie Australian Rules: The issue of ownership • Is it Gwynne’s story (based on his personal experiences) or is it the story of the community who lost someone? • Consultation or creative integrity • Or is it simply a work of imagination - a fiction? • Who can control a work of fiction? • How much of a fiction is still fact – a story or history?

10. Both novels Children of Mirrabooka and Deadly, Unna? • Is each a European story or an Aboriginal story? • Is there a difference?