A Book with a Black Feller Who is the Hero? That’s a Book I’d Like to Read

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Texts with Aboriginal Characters

I’ve been teaching English in public education in NSW for over 22 years. When it comes to teaching texts to Years 7-11 I often struggle to find a text that portrays Aboriginal people in a way that isn’t stereotypical.

I’ve got my old favourites, films like ‘Ten Canoes’ and ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ and my go to poems ‘Municipal Gum’ and ‘We Are Going’ by Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Melissa Lukashenko’s ‘The Dreamers’ short story but I often struggle to find a decent novel to use.

My go-tos are ‘Jasper Jones’ and ‘Deadly Unna’, which are fine on one level, but… both Silvey and Gwynne portray their Aboriginal characters stereotypically: they’re poorly educated, thieves and are into alcohol.

Don’t get me wrong, ‘Jasper Jones’ is a great book and Jasper Jones is a great character. Jasper is an Aboriginal boy who is charismatic, loyal, athletic, honest, hardworking and compassionate.

But Jasper is not the protagonist of the book. A a white kid, by the name of Charlie Bucktin, is.

It’s got its merits though. It tackles all sorts of racist and sexist issues prevalent in rural Australia in the 1960s and the kids enjoy reading it.

Silvey’s protagonist clearly points a finger at the inherent biases of the white townspeople, which is seen fairly clearly in Charlie’s early description of Jasper’s character:

‘Jasper Jones has a terrible reputation in Corrigan. He’s a Thief, a Liar, a Thug, a Truant. He’s lazy and unreliable. He’s feral and an orphan, or as good as. His mother is dead and his father is no good. He’s the rotten model that parents hold aloft as a warning: This is how you’ll end up if you’re disobedient. Jasper Jones is the example of where poor aptitude and attitude will lead.’

Much of what Silvey’s protagonist highlights is not really rebutted though. The reader is still positioned to see Jasper as poorly educated, homeless, poor, coming from an abusive home life and being the scapegoat for every crime in town. Even the positive quality of him being exceptionally athletic is a stereotype associated with Indigenous boys. For all his positives, Jasper is still a marginalized minority in a very WHITE environment.

Phillip Gwynne’s ‘Deadly Unna’ is another of my favourites. It was a big hit as the film, ‘Australian Rules’. It’s another story with a white protagonist, ironically called ‘Blacky’, who befriends some Aboriginal characters. There’s a larger Aboriginal presence in this book and there’s a stark contrast between the white side of town and the black side of town.

The white side is heavily racist, generally. Like Silvey, Phillip Gwynne calls out the rampant racism prevalent in rural Australia at the time.

While Gwynne also provides a sympathetic portrayal of the Indigenous characters in the book, they are again viewed through the lens of a white character.

Gwynne’s Aboriginal characters, as sympathetically depicted as they are, also very much fit the stereotype. They live in a Mission and they’re poor. Gwynne even calls one character ‘Dumby’. This character is an exceptional athlete but is a thief who gets shot for trying to rob a pub.

Now, I know Gwynne is saying a hell of a lot about the racist attitudes that lead to the shooting of Dumby, but his portrayal of the Indigenous characters still reinforce stereotypes of Aboriginal people as thieves, unintelligent liars and outcasts.

So what’s an alternative?

How about something quite different?

Imagine a novel where the Aboriginal characters aren’t stereotypical. Where the cultural biases and the prejudices have been stripped away. Imagine a novel where Aboriginal characters get to tell the story. A novel with plenty of action and conflict and charismatic characters. A novel that has a subtext that presents Aboriginal culture in a positive light, a novel that is both educational and entertaining.

Well, it exists. It’s called, ‘The Magpie and the Snake’. Go check it out. It might just be the alternative narrative you’re looking for.

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