The Writing of Indigenous History - Essay Example

Name Student Affiliation Date Introduction Indigenous cultures have been passed on from one generation to the next and have continued against apparently impossible odds, through migration, integration and involvement. This cultural continuum can be attributed partly to the Indigenous history told in writing1. The Aboriginal history has encrypted messages of land, place, law, knowledge, survival and experience. It is the fundamental writing for Aboriginal cultural identity. Aboriginal stories are not just words, they mean a lot to the Aboriginal people as they are a cultural encryption, a tradition, assets and an identity for individuals who have experienced hardship2. It is therefore imperative that the writing of indigenous history to be accurate in order to protect their culture. In this line, the writing of indigenous history can be said to be a cultural risky endeavour as the writers need to write stories which they can associate with, connect to as well as be responsible for. This paper will argue that the writing of Indigenous people is both political and personal. The writing of Aboriginal people may be both an extremely political matter and a personal matter to those persons that are involved. The writing of indigenous people has always been influenced by political philosophies. Writing about Indigenous history always entails representation of the cultural stories of indigenous people. Societies have from time immemorial used cultural stories as a vehicle to pass their beliefs, values and tradition to the next generation3. Thus, writing accounts of these cultural stories of Indigenous people need authors to think beyond politics and consider getting personal. Indigenous people need to be consulted by authors who are interested in writing their stories and moreover, these authors need to acknowledge them as the source of information. A good example of an author who sought the consent of the aboriginal people when writing her book is Pat Mamanyjum Torres. In this book, Torres has documented the process she went through so as to obtain approval for her book titled ‘The Story of Crow4’. She state that got into a continuous dialogue with the story’s custodians so as to be allowed to make the story a book for educating all children concerning her culture. She kept on consulting with the indigenous people to develop the materials for the book until she completed the book. Non-indigenous authors should refrain from including components of Indigenous culture, especially those of a secret character, into their writing without the consent of the indigenous people. Jackie Huggins argue that non-indigenous authors should not write cultural stories meant for children as they are most likely to be misinterpreted and biased5. Indigenous people have attached great cultural importance to their traditional stories and hence indigenous writer should be given the privileged opportunity to pen these books. However, the problem here is that Indigenous writers usually do not like to claim copyrights for their cultural stories because they incorporate Indigenous knowledge that is considered a cultural asset by their people. They do not like to be held responsible for leaking the secret information of their community. This failure to claim copyright to the story makes it prone to theft. Hence, Indigenous writers need to be acknowledged as the right owners of their voiced traditional stories. Heiss, Minter and Jose argue claims that non-indigenous authors have tended to negatively misrepresent the Aborigines in their writing from time immemorial6. If non-indigenous authors are to portray a representative Australian culture, they need to write about Aboriginal characters from varied background, with moral and wicked attributes. Moreover, they need to seek their permission when referring to a cultural fact. When writing the history of Indigenous people, it is imperative for non-indigenous authors to think about how their writing will affect the indigenous people, whether it will empower them, expose their personal information or reinforce negative stereotypes. To achieve this, some non-indigenous authors collaborate with Aboriginal people to pen down their biographies. For example, Dr. Kerry McCallum, a non-Indigenous writer used Hazel McKellar to pen his book Woman from Nowhere7. In most cases in the past, the Aboriginal individual told the whole story while the non-indigenous individual claimed full copyright for the writing. However, this has changed in recent times as the Indigenous people have recognized their rights. Another ideal example of an author, who consulted the indigenous elders when writing her book, The Secret River8, is Kate Grenville. Grenville employed an Indigenous writer to review her drafts and she asserts that this process actually served to improve her book and enhanced her understanding of cultural issues. The first drafts of Grenville included a didgeridoo playing in the Indigenous camps nearby Sydney Cove; however, after consultation with the Aborigines she learnt that didgeridoos were not present at the time. The non-indigenous writer, Philip Gwynne, faced the wrath of indigenous people after his book the Deadly Unna9 was made into a movie called the Australian Rules as he had written the book without consulting the indigenous people. Gwynne is said to have written a story about the brutal death of an indigenous boy in a community within South Australia. The involved Indigenous community requested for consultation and the film producer considered it censorship as the indigenous historian, Attwood, proved that the frontier was not a place of brutishness, death or havoc10. Gwynne promised to never write about Aborigines again. Authors need to adopt an Aboriginal persona when writing the history of Indigenous people. The indigenous writer Leon Carmen submitted his book, My Own Sweet Time,11 to an Aboriginal publishing firm for publication. His book represented the genre of Aboriginal life writing which had been documented between the period 1970s and 1990s. During this period, Aboriginals writers began to have their stories published. Moreover, there was mushrooming of Aboriginals publishers with the aim of promoting the accurate Indigenous voice. It can be deceptive and misleading for an non-indigenous author to use an Aboriginal name to market and sell his/her story, especially if he/she submit it to an aboriginal publishing firm for publication. The writing of indigenous history has a political side that involves reconciling the past historical injustices and wrong doings with the aim of moving forward. The formal apology of Kevin Rudd in the federal parliament helped to achieve this goal12. Hence, the political side of the writing of indigenous history entails making up for the historical injustices and reconciling with the present for the sake of the future. Before the apology of Rudd, considerable past debate had turned out to be just like current debate taking place in Australia as regard forgetting. The most common pressing issue in these two debates has been identifying who is to be blamed for the past wrong doings13. The other issue has been apologizing for historical wrongs. Non-Indigenous historians argued that Aboriginals history was just a story concerning the well-ordered and civilized evolution of European civilisation14. According to them, the indigenous people were not brutally beaten as they claim and their children were not stolen, there was nothing like families disintegration and that any hardship or dislocation that the indigenous people experienced was not intended. The aboriginals reacted to the European settlement by branding the conformists as fibbers, and narrating an account of Australian history which has never been heard until recently. This version reads like a long series of human rights exploitations, with recurring acts of brutality against the peaceful Aboriginals people. The stolen Generation has led to heated argument between historians. There is continual debate about whether children were stolen so as to protect them and this further lengthens the discussion to whether the government really needed to apologize. A formal apology is a means of accepting responsibility for the suffering and harm caused as well as reconciling the wrongs that have occurred. The apology by Rudd served to acknowledge the suffering that the stolen generation endured15. The fact that the writing of indigenous people is both political and personal shows that the white blindfold historian hardly gave the Indigenous people proper involvement when writing their history. As a result, the white historians were not able to write the history of indigenous people accurately since they failed to adequately involve them in interpreting their own history. Thus, the Aboriginals history written by white historians is fundamentally blinded to the victims, blinded to the evidences and a misrepresentation of the truth as regards when Europeans settled in Australia16. Conclusion The writing of indigenous people may be deeply politicised as well as profoundly personal for the Indigenous people. The dominant political ideas, particularly linked to race and colonization have gone through some changes over years. At the present time, Aboriginal people in Australia have increasingly voiced the way their role in history needs to be represented in writing. Although, Indigenous Australians have told about their own stories, there are other white historians who have written Aboriginal histories and stories. Those histories that have been written without taking into consideration the input of indigenous people have resulted into a one-sided debate strengthening the ideas that are linked to the white blindfold strategy to history. Many Australia do not have good knowledge of the personal component of the Indigenous people’s history and hence it is imperative to involve the indigenous people when it comes to writing their history. Assuming such as approach when writing the history of Indigenous people can help cure the forgetfulness disease that has been prevalent in Australia. References Attwood, B., ‘Introduction’, Frontier conflict: the Australian experience 2003, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, pp. 1-30: 2003. Barry, A., ‘Equal to children of European origin: educability and the civilizing mission in early colonial Australia’, History Australia :journal of the Australian Historical Association, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 41.1-41.16: 2008. Barta, T, ‘sorry, and not sorry, in Australia: how the apology to the stolen generations buried a history of genoicde’, Journal of Genocide Research, vol 10, no. 2, 2008, pp. 201- 214. Curthoys, A, Gascoigne, J., ‘Making Australian history: perspectives on the past since 1788 - Readings’, Making Australian history : perspectives on the past since 1788 2008, Thomson Learning Australia, South Melbourne, Vic, pp. 1-4, 12-16, 88-94, 383-386, 454-467: 2008. Fourmile, H., ‘Who owns the past? Aborigines as captives of the archives’, terrible hard biscuits: a reader in Aboriginal history 1996, Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards, N.S.W, pp. 16-27: 1996. Grenville, K., The Secret River, Text Publishing, Melbourne Australia, 2005 Gwynne, P., Deadly Unna, Penguin, Victoria Australia, 1998. Heiss, A, Minter, P, Jose, N., ‘Macquarie PEN anthology of Aboriginal literature - Readings’, Macquarie PEN anthology of Aboriginal literature 2008, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, N.S.W, pp. 9-14, 15: 2008. Huggins, J., ‘Experience and identity: writing history’, Sister girl : the writings of Aboriginal activist and historian Jackie Huggins 1998, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Qld, pp. 120-130: 1998. Koolmatrie, W., My Own Sweet Time, Magabala Books, Broome Australia, 1994 McGuire, T., Reconciling (with) the Past: The Black Armband and White Blindfold Histories in and of Australia. Australian Policy and History. October 2012. McKellar, H., (as told to Kerry McCallum), Woman from nowhere: Hazel McKellar’s story, Magabala Books, Broome Australia, 2000 Torres, P., The story of crow, Magabala Books, Broome Australia, 1987. . Read More