85213 Representing Aboriginal People, History and Place

Subject level: Undergraduate

Handbook description

Over the last 20 years there has been notable growth in Aboriginal creation and control of their own cultural representations through various mediums (autobiography, life stories, documentary and feature films, poetry, painting, the media, music and dance). This subject analyses and compares Aboriginal people's representation in the public arena to develop an understanding of Aboriginal culture, cultural continuity and change, contemporary identity and Indigenous people's rights and aspirations in modern Australia. The subject draws upon a range of intellectual disciplines, including history, anthropology and cultural studies alongside emerging Indigenous knowledge systems to develop an understanding of Indigenous Australian perspectives and expression. Critical consideration of images and representations provides a framework for engaging with Indigenous issues. Underpinning this approach to studying representations of Aboriginal people are social theories that provide a broad understanding of the nature of racism in the reproduction of unequal power relations in society.

Subject objectives/outcomes

At the completion of this subject, students are expected to be able to:

• critically analyse and engage with representations in film and text of Aboriginal people as historical and cultural constructions
• critically analyse contemporary Indigenous forms of representation and knowledge systems across different text (film, images, literature, the media)
• at the level of Professional Practice, develop critical skills to represent more appropriately Aboriginal issues and perspectives in their professional fields
• develop appropriate practices and confidence for interacting with local Aboriginal communities
• critically examine the ways racism constructs typical representations of Aboriginality, the nation and race relations in the Australia
• be able to negotiate the plurality and diversity of both the theoretical perspectives studied and the ways that you, your teacher and your peers engage differently with the subject.

Teaching and learning strategies

The subject provides you with access to a wide range of intellectual resources and seeks to create an environment that supports lively, intellectually challenging and stimulating debate. The subject aims to be student-learning focused.

The lectures / tutorials will incorporate a range of teaching and experiential learning strategies including readings, case studies, structured small group discussion and student presentations. You will be required to participate in film screening and attend two field trips as part of this subject. You will also be encouraged to attend other performances where appropriate.

This subject provides you with a wide range of learning experiences that will facilitate your knowledge of the social theory field and how this can be advanced or challenged through its application to the area of Indigenous Australian critical studies.

You will be encouraged to develop your practical skills in liaising with Aboriginal communities or organisations and your participation in relevant professional, industry or community-based projects. This approach is consistent with UTS's commitment to practice-based learning.

Assessment

Assessment item 1: Analysis of key texts

Assessment item 2: Tutorial Presentation and written paper based on presentation

Assessment item 3: Negotiated Independent Project

Minimum requirements

Students are expected to read the subject outline to ensure they are familiar with the subject requirements. Since class discussion and participation in activities form an integral part of this subject, you are expected to attend, arrive punctually and actively participate in classes. If you experience difficulties meeting this requirement, please contact your lecturer. Students who have a reason for extended absence (e.g. illness) may be required to complete additional work to ensure they achieve the subject objectives.

Indicative references

Section one – Introduction: Weeks 1-3

This subject explores social cultural political and economic relations through an investigation of the ways in which these relations are represented. In the field of Aboriginal culture and history this is a compelling lense through which to understand how meaning is produced. Over the first three weeks we will develop an understanding of the social, cultural and political life of Aboriginal people in NSW and the changing relationships and practices following colonisation. In doing this we will consider the particular intellectual traditions that have documented this process. We will then consider the some key work in the area of representation. We will develop an understanding of how meaning is produced 'across larger units of analysis' that is, as narratives, groups of images and discourses across texts. We will consider how the production of social knowledge connects with social practices and power. We will give this some application by critically analysing the different ways 'Aboriginality', the nation and race relations have been constructed. This is approached through some introductory reading in the field of 'representation' to develop familiarity with language and strategies for critically analysing constructions of race and identity. This will be achieved through class based facilitated discussion and a brief assessment task (Assessment Task #1).

Readings — week 1:

Cowlishaw, G., (1988) Black, White or Brindle: race in rural Australia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp13-52.

Goodall, H., (1995) 'New South Wales' in McGrath, A., Contested ground: Australian Aborigines under the British Crown, St. Leonards, NSW, Allen & Unwin, pp 55-120.

Morris, B., (1989) Domesticating Resistance: The Dhan-Gadi Aborigines and the Australian State, Berg Publishers, Oxford, pp 6-30.

Rowley, C.D., (1970) Eastern frontiers: New South Wales in The Destruction of Aboriginal Society, Penguin, Australia, pp 27-63.

Ryan, L., (2003) Waterloo Creek: northern New South Wales, 1838, in Bain Attwood and S G Foster, Frontier conflict: the Australian experience, Canberra, National Museum of Australia, pp 33-43.

Readings — weeks 2-3 (and for assessment task # 1):

Beckett, J (1988) Past and Present: The Construction of Aboriginality, The past in the present; the present in the past: constructing a national Aboriginality, Aboriginal Studies Press for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra.

Hall, S (ed) (1997) Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, Discourse, Power and the subject, pp 41- 62 and Chapter 4: The Spectacle of the 'Other', Sage, in association with The Open University, London.

Langton, M (1993) "Well, I heard it on the radio and I saw it on the television -" : an essay for the Australian Film Commission on the politics and aesthetics of filmmaking by and about Aboriginal people and things, The politics of Aboriginal Representation, pp 23-41, Australian Film Commission, North Sydney.

Dodson, M. in Grossman, M. (Ed) (2003) Blacklines: contemporary critical writing by indigenous Australians, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria, pp 25-42.

Muecke, S., Lonely Representations: Aboriginality and Cultural Studies, in Attwood & Arnold (Eds) Power Knowledge and Aborigines, Bundoora, Vic. La Trobe University Press in association with the National Centre for Australian Studies, Monash University, pp32-44.

Russell, L., (2001) Australian Modernity, Post-colonialisms and Discourses of Aboriginality, in Savage Imaginings: historical and contemporary constructions of Australian Aboriginalities, pp1-22, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne.

Further reading:
Cowlishaw, G., (1992) Studying Aborigines: Changing Canons in Anthropology and History, in Attwood & Arnold (Eds) Power Knowledge and Aborigines, Bundoora, Vic. La Trobe University Press in association with the National Centre for Australian Studies, Monash University.

Grossman M., (2003) Blacklines: contemporary critical writing by indigenous Australians, Carlton, Vic. Melbourne University Press. Introduction pp.1-14.

Muecke, S. (2004) Ancient & modern: time, culture and indigenous philosophy, Sydney: University of NSW.

Muecke, S. (2005) Textual spaces: aboriginality and cultural studies, Perth, W.A. API Network, Australian Research Institute, Curtin University of Technology.

Section two – Colonial imaginings: Weeks 4-6

Week 4

This week we will be studying Charles Chavel's 1955 feature film Jedda.

Ian Anderson (1997) in his discussion of 'hybridity', describes Chauvel's Jedda (1955) as an, 'assimilationist text'. He says that 'the dramatic tension in these texts centres on the transgression of reified constructs of 'authenticity' and its problematic relation with white Australia. (Anderson, 1997:8)

Marcia Langton (1993) argues that Chauvel's Jedda (1955) 'expresses all those ambiguous emotions, fears and false theories which revolve in Western thought around the spectre of the 'primitive'. (Langton, 1993:45) Langton says Chauvel 'inverts' the truth about the brutality, violence and acquisition of land on the Australian frontier.

How do you understand these different but related readings of Chauvel's Jedda?

This class, through a focus on Jedda and Australian films in general, is an opportunity to consider how the policy era of assimilation is represented, how particular narratives about Aboriginality and Australian history are represented in film and how we can frame and critically discuss these modes of representation.

Readings and resources:

Film Screening of Jedda, Charles Chauvel Productions, Jedda [videorecording], (1955) [Australia].

Baron, C. (2002) Films by Tracey Moffatt, Women's Studies Quarterly, Spring/Summer 2002, Vol. 30 Issue 1/2, p 151, 27p, 1bw.

Brown, K. (1988) Racial referents: images of European/Aboriginal relations in Australian feature films, 1955-1984, Sociological Review, August 1988, Vol. 36, pp 474-502.

Brown, C. (2003) The Representation of the Indigenous Other in Daughters of the Dust and The Piano, NWSA Journal, Vol. 15 No. 1, Spring.

Daly, A The Rules of Being Australian, Senses of Cinema, Accessed on-line 20/07/04 @

Krausz, P. (2003) Screening Indigenous Australia: an overview of Aboriginal representation on film, Australian Screen Education, Spring 2003, i32 p90 (6).

Langton, M. (1993) 'Well I heard it on the radio and I saw it on the television…: an essay for the Australian Film Commission on the politics and aesthetics of filmmaking by and about Aboriginal people and things, Australian Film Commission, Wooloomooloo. Pp 45 – 49.

Langton, L. (1994) Aboriginal Art and film: the politics of representation, Race and Class, April-June 1994 v35 n4 p89 (18).

Week 5: Literature

If we accept, as Anderson (1997) says, that Jedda is an 'assimilationist text' and as Langton (1993) says, that Chauvel inverts the truth about violence and dispossession on the frontier, then how can we 'read' the Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972)? Is it 'assimilationist'? Is it an inversion of history? Does the text present a true account of race relations in north western NSW?

Recently Thomas Keneally said that he is 'uncomfortable' with his writing position in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and that if he had his time again he would write from the perspective of one of the non-Indigenous characters, or possibly, that he would not have written it at all. How can we understand this sentiment? Could we understand this as a shift in 'political consciousness' or a change of understanding of race relations and colonial history?

Readings:

Keneally, T. (1972) The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Sydney, Angus & Robertson.

Moore, L. & Williams S., (2001) The True Story of Jimmy Governor, Crows Nest, NSW, Allen & Unwin.

Further reading:
Coe, Mary, (1989) Windradyne: a Wiradjuri Koorie, Canberra, Aboriginal Studies Press. [available @ Sydney University library]

Cowlishaw, G., (1988) Black, White or Brindle: race in rural Australia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp13-52.

Goodall, H., 'New South Wales' in McGrath, A., (1995) Contested ground: Australian Aborigines under the British crown, St. Leonards, NSW, Allen & Unwin, pp 55-120.

Morris, B., (1989) Domesticating Resistance: The Dhan-Gadi Aborigines and the Australian State, Berg Publishers, Oxford, pp 6-30.

Rowley, C.D., (1970) Eastern frontiers: New South Wales in The Destruction of Aboriginal Society, Penguin, Australia, pp 27-63.

Ryan, L., Waterloo Creek: northern New South Wales, 1838 in Bain Attwood and S G Foster, (2003) Frontier conflict: the Australian experience, Canberra, National Museum of Australia, pp 33-43.

Week 6: Colonial imaginings – the 'captivity' of Eliza Fraser

Schaffer (1995) argues 'In the Wake of First Contact – the Eliza Fraser Stories' that the 'captivity narrative' is central to Australian and international imaginings of nation and empire.

There has been a great deal of material across a range of texts and genres relating to the Eliza Fraser 'captivity'. From Eliza Fraser's first accounts and public speaking tours, Patrick White's (1976) A Fringe of Leaves, Sidney Nolan's Mrs Fraser series of paintings, contemporary artist Fiona Foley's renderings and most recently stage plays.

The many stories convey accounts of primitivism and cannibalism alongside themes of captor and sexual oppressor of a white woman. Yet none of the accounts, beyond Fraser's own representations, portray her in a sympathetic light. These representations are complex interactions across race, class and gender in conjunction with broader accounts of nation and empire.

Schaffer (1991) says:

Eliza Fraser was the first white woman to encounter Aborigines on the present continent Australia and to tell her tale. Her narratives, embellished by nineteenth century myths of white racial superiority, and of native savagery and cannibalism, fostered the British imperial presence and nourished the mission movement in nineteenth century Australia…'. (p2)

How does Schaeffer understand the Eliza Fraser captivity narratives? Have these stories changed over time? How might we otherwise read Eliza Fraser's 'captivity'? Are these 'counter narratives'? How might we understand shifts from colonial to post-colonial representations? What do you think Schaffer means when she says 'there is no real Eliza'?

Readings:

Schaeffer, K., (1991) The Eliza Fraser Story and Constructions of Gender, Race and Class in Australian Culture, Hecate, St. Lucia, Vol. 17, Iss. 1, p 136.

White, P., (1976) A fringe of leaves, London, Cape.

Further reading:
McNiven, I.J, Russell, L. & Schaffer, K. (eds) (1998) Constructions of colonialism: perspectives on Eliza Fraser's shipwreck, London; New York, Leicester University Press.

Miller, O., (1994) Legends of Fraser Island, Port Melbourne, Rigby Heinemann.

Schaffer, K., (1995) In the wake of first contact: the Eliza Fraser stories, New York, Cambridge University Press.

Section three – Colonial appropriations: Weeks 7-8

In this section we will explore some examples of appropriation of Indigenous culture and history. Two examples of appropriation of Indigenous identity, culture and traditions will form the basis for presentations and to open critical discussion about this practice.

Elizabeth Durack's 'creation' of the character Eddie Burrup and Marlo Morgan's (1994) Mutant Message Downunder.

The questions we might like to consider are:

What are the politics of (mis?) representing Aboriginal voices, perspectives and experience? How has Aboriginal society and culture been represented in these appropriations? Are they similar? Are they different? How can we 'read' these texts?

Are they appropriations? Are they mis-representations? What are the effects of these particular kinds of representations that have been made?

We might like to consider issues of legitimacy and authenticity as well as the ethics and legality of these representations.

Readings:

Welch, C. Appropriating the Didjeridu and the Sweat Lodge: New Age baddies and Indigenous Victims in, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol 17, No 1, 2002.

Elizabeth Durack interview 'Australian Biography' @ http://www.australianbiography.gov.au/subjects/durack/videos/4/

Morgan, M., (1994) Mutant message Downunder: A Woman's Journey into Dreamtime Australia, Harpercollins Publishers, New York.

Morrissey P. (2003) Stalking Aboriginal culture: the Wanda Koolmatrie affair, Australian Feminist Studies, November 2003, vol. 18, no. 42, pp. 299-307(9).

Section four – 'Talking back'

Week 10

There has been considerable growth in Indigenous writing. This week we will each read and research an agreed Indigenous authored text. We will come together after the mid semester break and engage in critical discussion on Indigenous writing, style and themes.

Readings:

Davis J. Muecke, S. Narogin, M, & Shoemaker, A., (eds) (1990) Paperbark: a collection of Black Australian writings, St. Lucia, Qld. University of Queensland Press.

Heiss, A. & Minter, P., (eds) (2008) Macquarie PEN anthology of Aboriginal literature, Crows Nest, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin.

Huggins, J, Always was always will be, in Blacklines: contemporary critical writing by indigenous Australians, Carlton, Vic. Melbourne University Press, pp 60-65.

Van Toorn, P., (2006) Writing Never Arrives Naked; Early Aboriginal Cultures of writing in Australia, Canberra, Aboriginal Studies Press, pp206-230.

Week 11: Aboriginal music

This week we will examine Indigenous engagement and modification of particular music traditions. In class we will watch the documentary 'B.L.A.C.K' by Aboriginal artist Grant Saunders and the study of Aboriginal country music. In this we will consider the place of music and particular genres in the maintenance and reproduction of culture.

Buried country (2000) [videorecording], Film Australia National Interest Lindfield, NS.W. Film Australia.

Notarpietro-Clarke. C., Blackfella Beats and New Flows in 'Arena: the website of left political, social and cultural commentary', available @ http://www.arena.org.au/ARCHIVES/Mag%20Archive/Issue%2087/features87.htm

Mitchell, T., (2006) Blackfellas rapping, breaking and writing: a short story of Aboriginal hip hop, in Aboriginal History, Vol. 30, Canberra, ANU Printing.

Mitchell, T., (2006) The New Corroborree: Aboriginal Hip Hop is acquiring its own distinctive style, Meanjin, (Melbourne), v.65, no.1, pp20-28.

Saunders, G., (2006) B.L.A.C.K. - an Aboriginal song of hip hop, [videorecording] Australian Film and Television School.

Walker, C., (2000) Buried country: the story of Aboriginal country music, Sydney, Pluto Press.

Week 12: Aboriginal film making

Ivan Sen's film 'Beneath Clouds' (2001) captures some critical issues faced by young Indigenous people. He explores themes of identity and place along with police surveillance and country (or landscape). It is a film that engages with these themes in a way that leaves room for complexity. The film presents complex accounts of history and the lived realities that result.

Ivan Sen's film might be read as an example of post-colonial film-making. His film captures the voice and authenticity of Aboriginal film-making. Do you agree? How does Sen's film, and the representations he has made differ to those we have previously studied?

Readings:

Walker, R., 'Blood on The Tracks', Metro Magazine, No. 133 pp12-15.

Probyn, F & Simpson, C. (2002) 'This land is mine/ this land is me': Reconciling Harmonies in One Night the Moon, Sense of Cinema, Issue No. 19, March-April, 2002, Accessed on-line 20/06/05, available @ http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/19/this_land.html

Spark, C. (2001) Gender and Radiance, Hecate, Vol 27, Issue 2, pp38-49.

Paul Goldman (Director), Mark Lazarus (Producer) Australian rules (c2003) [videorecording], screenplay by Phillip Gwynne and Paul Goldman, Moore Park, NSW, Palace Films, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Week 13: North American comparison / case study:

If we consider, at the level of historical and cultural construction, the 'Cowboys and Indians' Western film genre, and prevalence of this 'acting out' of history as a game, in popular music (The Village People), as names of cars, sports teams (Washington Redskins, Rebels) and popular culture (eg. smoking the peace pipe) it seems there is greater familiarity of first nations and native American peoples. Many Australians might be able to name Indigenous nations / language groups from North America, and not for Australia. Similarly, it would seem inconceivable for Australians to 'act out' similar histories as child play or in other forms. For example a game, such as 'Convicts and Aborigines', or 'Farmers and Aborigines' would be inconceivable in Australia.

Does the level of 'visibility' of forms of representation change the forms that that representation takes? What issues do Indigenous people raise about their representation in popular culture?

Readings:

Garroutte, E.M., (2003) Real Indians: Identity and the survival of Native America, California, University of California Press. (Long Lance's Ghost and the Spirit of Future Scholarship, pp141-152)

Owens, L., (1998) Mixedblood Messages: Literature, Film, Family, Place, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman. (Columbus Had It Coming, pp 3-47 & The Invention of John Wayne pp. 99- 112).

'Native Networks' is an online resource with information about film, video and radio produced by Indigenous peoples of the Americas and Hawaii available @ http://www.nativenetworks.si.edu/nn.htm

Week 14: Future Imaginings

In our final class we will reflect upon new possibilities for representing Aboriginality. This will provide us with an opportunity to 'problematise' the notion of 'talking back' and consider different ways to critically engage with Indigenous film and literature with a view to developing new intellectual resources and frameworks for studying representations of Indigenous people, history and place.

We will also reflect on our professional practice as we consider ways to better represent, advocate and engage with Indigenous Australian issues and perspectives.

References:

Grossman M., (2003) Blacklines: contemporary critical writing by indigenous Australians, Carlton, Vic. Melbourne University Press.

Langton, M., (1993) "Well, I heard it on the radio and I saw it on the television -" : an essay for the Australian Film Commission on the politics and aesthetics of filmmaking by and about Aboriginal people and things, Australian Film Commission, North Sydney.

Rose, D., (2004) Reports from a wild country: ethics for decolonisation, Sydney, University of New South Wales Press.

Schlunke, K, (2005) Bluff Rock: autobiography of a massacre, Perth WA, Curtin University Books in partnership with Fremantle Arts Press.