'This is a narrative paper that tracks a story of Aboriginal representation and the concept of nation across the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries through some important Australian texts. I read this assemblage of settler literature through the cultural metaphor of tracking, because tracking is as much about anticipation as it is following. Tracking is about reading: reading land and people before and after whitefellas. It is about entering into the consciousness of the person or people of interest. Tracking is not just about reading the physical signs; it is about reading the mind. It is not just about seeing and hearing what is there; it is as much about what is not there. Tony Morrisson [sic] wrote of mapping ‘the critical geography’ (3) of the white literary imagination in her work on Africanist presence in American Literature, Playing in the Dark. This paper tracks the settler imagination on Aboriginal presence in Australian literature in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. ' (Author's introduction)
Epigraph: ‘Tracking for Blackfellas is like reading for whitefellas.’
(Aunty Lil Smart nee Croker 1887–1980)
Author's note: Aunty Lil was my Grandmother with whom I grew up.
'The subject of English offers a unique context to embed Indigenous perspectives for the benefit of all students through its availability and variety of text choices. Currently, the New South Wales (NSW) English Syllabus requires teachers to include texts which provide 'insights into Aboriginal experiences in Australia' (NESA, 2012). With no structured auditing method for this inclusion, there is room to further understand how teachers select texts to include Indigenous perspectives. This paper will present some factors influencing text selection when including Indigenous perspectives through four teacher profiles. It presents four teacher profiles to explore some influences on their text selections when including Indigenous perspectives. It is a snapshot of decision-making for class texts identified from semi-structured qualitative conversations with four Western Sydney English teachers. The study aims to provide some insight into the process of embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives through text selection in Years 7-10 English.' (Publication abstract)
'The subject of English offers a unique context to embed Indigenous perspectives for the benefit of all students through its availability and variety of text choices. Currently, the New South Wales (NSW) English Syllabus requires teachers to include texts which provide 'insights into Aboriginal experiences in Australia' (NESA, 2012). With no structured auditing method for this inclusion, there is room to further understand how teachers select texts to include Indigenous perspectives. This paper will present some factors influencing text selection when including Indigenous perspectives through four teacher profiles. It presents four teacher profiles to explore some influences on their text selections when including Indigenous perspectives. It is a snapshot of decision-making for class texts identified from semi-structured qualitative conversations with four Western Sydney English teachers. The study aims to provide some insight into the process of embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives through text selection in Years 7-10 English.' (Publication abstract)