Basil Sansom Basil Sansom i(A113881 works by)
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 Bony : A White Man's Half-Caste Hero Basil Sansom , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Investigating Arthur Upfield : A Centenary Collection of Critical Essays 2012; (p. 19-27) Summary of the Presidential Address to the Annual General Meeting of the Anthropological Society of Western Australia on 14 July 1980.
1 1 Looter of the Dreamings: Xavier Herbert and the Taking of Kaijek's Newsong Story Basil Sansom , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Oceania , March vol. 76 no. 1 2006; (p. 83-104) In his novels and stories of the Australian frontier, Xavier Herbert distances himself from anthropologists whom he resents because they have professional licence to act as looters of the Dreamings. Yet, as 'artist', Herbert is unable to admit the extent to which his own story-forms are taken from Aboriginal productions. In those writings completed after Capricornia and before he finally turns to compose Poorfellow My Country, he keeps much of his borrowing secret and his deceptions lead both to a guilty preoccupation with looting as a theme and to the production of stories with missing middles. (Interventions of the Dreamings are left out of the printed versions.) While he acts as cultural broker, honest broking is impeded by Herbert's Romantic self-vision (portrait of the 'creative artist' as a young dog) and by the universalisation that denies cultural difference spuriously to assert the unity of human artistic experience in its stead. I show how Herbert's authorial practise makes him the very semblance of the anthropologist. He, likewise, is a looter of the Dreamings. - Author's abstract
1 Irruptions of the Dreamings in Post‐Colonial Australia Basil Sansom , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Oceania , September vol. 72 no. 1 2001; (p. 1-32)

'This essay is written round four ‘funny stories’ from Northern Australia. Metamorphosis instigated by a Dreaming is central to all four stories and this is why the stories are counted as ‘funny,’ and received with glee. The analysis illuminates a topic that has been attracting attention in recent contributions to Aboriginal ethnography: how Dreamings irrupt into contemporary histories and act in ways that have political significance, contesting whitefella paradigms and re‐asserting the world‐view of the original Australians.' (Publication abstract)
1 A Grammar of Exchange Basil Sansom , 1988 single work criticism
— Appears in: Being Black: Aboriginal Cultures in 'Settled' Australia 1988; (p. 159-177)

'The modality for exchange, which Aborigines promote in the fringe camps of Darwin and in camps of that city's hinterland, is no new creation. It belonged to the hunter-gatherer forebears of the fringe dwellers of today. Handed down through generations, the modality is a heritage preserved intact. Hence I deal with cultural continuities in a world of material change. Furthermore, the Aborigines I know are well acquainted with whitefella notions that govern the use of cash, promote the work ethic and turn labour into a creature of the market. I have taped long conversations in which speakers take turns to produce a recitative of comparison, dealing point by point with differences between whitefella practice and their own. Well supported by argument, the conclusion to one such conversation was issued thus: 'You see Basil, you jus work for wages. You always jus workin for wages. We fella got that money blackfella style:'  (Introduction)
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