Bruce Elder is not an academic, but a journalist, and he suggests that this might be the reason why he and this book were largely spared the attacks that the so-called 'black armband' historians received in the 1990s. There is a chapter included in this edition where Elder explains why the objections of the anti-black armband crew don't stand up; it beggars belief that all these stories, passed down through oral history in First Nations communities, should be invented or exaggerated, especially when there is plenty of other proof to be found, as David Marr's Killing For Country demonstrates.
There is no real central thesis or narrative here, it is a painful list of events which do start to almost blur together. Blood on the Wattle is not as beautifully written as Killing For Country, and Elder makes no attempt to pretend he is being 'objective' -- he is sickened and ashamed, and rightly so. Blood on the Wattle has been used as a school text for decades, and yet it does seem that the average white Australian is still ignorant of this basic history, or worse, knows about it and doesn't care.
Feeling depressed.
I know exactly what you mean. An intense feeling of shame. And especially since many Aboriginal people persist, with unbelievable generosity, in trying to share with us, and help us to understand culture, country, language. I rang an elderly Canadian friend recently, and all he wanted to talk about was the Voice referendum. Apparently it got a lot of coverage in Canada. What could I say? Oh, dear.
ReplyDelete'Oh dear' just about sums it up. Though Canada has its own not-so-great history in this area. It's just that we seem determined to take a step backward for every step in the right direction -- so frustrating. I suppose things are slowly getting better, but if I were a First Nations person I would have run out of patience by now. It helps me understand where people like Lydia Thorpe are coming from.
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