Alternative (hi)stories in stolen generation and residential school narratives : reading indigenous life writings by Doris Pilkington and Shirley Sterling

Název: Alternative (hi)stories in stolen generation and residential school narratives : reading indigenous life writings by Doris Pilkington and Shirley Sterling
Zdrojový dokument: Brno studies in English. 2007, roč. 33, č. 1, s. [143]-156
Rozsah
[143]-156
  • ISSN
    1211-1791
Type: Článek
Jazyk
Licence: Neurčená licence
 

Upozornění: Tyto citace jsou generovány automaticky. Nemusí být zcela správně podle citačních pravidel.

Abstrakt(y)
The article analyzes two life writing narratives by Indigenous women writers from Australia and Canada in order to demonstrate the ways in which they present alternative (hi)stories of removed Indigenous children. Doris Pilkington's Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence (1996) and Shirley Sterling's My Name is Seepeetza (1992) formulate an effective counter-discourse which undermines the power of the Australian and Canadian authorities to exercise absolute control over the lives of Indigenous children and their families. In her account, Pilkington celebrates active resistance in the form of a seemingly impossible escape from the River Moore Native Settlement, and records the symbolic journey home. Her alternative (hi)story consists in interweaving the pre-contact/early-contact history of Indigenous people in Western Australia and the nationally accepted history of European settlement in Australia, as well as in appropriating official archival materials and creating a counter-archive of traditional Aboriginal knowledge. Similarly, Sterling's narrator asserts her cultural identity through a series of juxtaposed contrasts between the abusive residential school regime and the harmonious, functional family environment at home, contrasts that bring to the foreground the memories of times spent with the extended family, the daily activities ensuring the survival of the community, and generally the happy moments outside the range of state intervention.
Reference
[1] Attwood, Bain, and Fiona Magowan (eds) (2001) Telling Stories: Indigenous History and Memory in Australia and New Zealand. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin.

[2] Brewster, Anne (2002) 'Aboriginal Life Writing and Globalisation: Doris Pilkington's Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence'. Australian Humanities Review 25. Accessed 6 Jan. 2007 http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/AHR/archive/Issue-March-2002/brewster.html.

[3] Brewster, Anne (1996) Reading Aboriginal Women's Autobiography. Sydney: Sydney UP.

[4] Damm, Kateri (1993) 'Dispelling and Telling: Speaking Native Realities in Maria Campbell's Halfbreed and Beatrice Culleton's In Search of April Raintree'. In Armstrong, Jeannette (ed) Looking at the Words of Our People: First Nations Analysis of Literature. Penticton: Theytus Books, 93–114.

[5] Grant, Agnes (1994) 'Reclaiming the Lineage House: Canadian Native Women Writers'. SAIL 6.1: 43–61.

[6] Grossman, Michele (1998) 'Out of the Salon and into the Streets: Contextualizing Australian Indigenous Women's Writing'. Women's Writing 5.2: 169–92. | DOI 10.1080/09699089800200058

[7] Hodge, Bob, and Vijay Mishra (1991) Dark Side of the Dream: Australian Literature and the Postcolonial Mind. North Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

[8] Kuokkanen, Rauna (2003) '"Survivance" in Sami and First Nations Boarding School Narratives: Reading Novels by Kerttu Vuolab and Shirley Sterling'. American Indian Quaterly 27.3/4: 697–727. | DOI 10.1353/aiq.2004.0080

[9] Pilkington, Doris (Nugi Garimara) (2002) Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence (1996). St Lucia: U of Queensland P.

[10] Reder, Deanna. 'Shirley Sterling'. Accessed 6 Jan. 2007 http://research2.csci.educ.ubc.ca/indigenation/Indian_ReACTions/Indian_ReACTions/ShirleySterling.htm.

[11] Schaffer, Kay, and Sidonie Smith (2004) Human Rights and Narrated Lives: The Ethics of Recognition. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

[12] Smith, Linda Tuhiwai (1999) Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. London: Zed Books.

[13] Sterling, Shirley (1992) My Name Is Seepeetza. Toronto: Groundwood Books.