image of person or book cover 4433252537316021513.jpg
This image has been sourced from online.
y separately published work icon An Aboriginal Mother Tells of the Old and the New single work   autobiography  
Issue Details: First known date: 1984... 1984 An Aboriginal Mother Tells of the Old and the New
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Elsie Roughsey was born into the Lardil tribe on Mornington Island in 1923 soon after the first missionaries arrived. Raided in a dormitory mission and in the traditional life of her tribe, she writes about power, religion, love and marriage, childbirth, medicine, education, crime and punishment across both worlds.'

'This is a book of great charm - and a rare and significant portrait of an Aboriginal life during a period of acute and often traumatic change.' (Source: Back cover)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Fitzroy, Fitzroy - Collingwood area, Melbourne - North, Melbourne, Victoria,: McPhee Gribble , 1984 .
      image of person or book cover 4433252537316021513.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 245p.
      Description: illus. (b & w), 1 map
      Written as: Labumore : Elsie Roughsey
      Note/s:
      • Preface by Paul Memmott and Robyn Horsman.
      ISBN: 0140072446

Other Formats

  • Also sound recording.
  • Also e-book.

Works about this Work

Between Celebration and Mourning : Testimonial Subjects in Ruby Langford Ginibi's 'Don't Take Your Love to Town' and Elsie Roughsey Labumore's 'An Aboriginal Mother Tells of the Old and the New' Eleanor Hogan , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Ngoonjook , no. 30 2007; (p. (63)-79)
Troubled Canadian Gazing : Aboriginal Women's Lifestorytelling, Multicultural Nationalism, and the Australian-Canadian Comparative Model Jennifer Kelly , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Balayi , vol. 2 no. 1 2001; (p. 137-167)
In this article, Jennifer Kelly is 'concerned in particular with how the Australian-Canadian comparative model constrains the analysis of the diverse nationalist aspirations of the multiple Aboriginal nations whose territories are overlain by Canada and Australia' (138). In her analysis, Kelly draws on numerous Aboriginal women's life writing texts from both Australia and Canada.
y separately published work icon Life Writing : Literarische Identitatskonstruktion in schwarzaustralischen Autobiographien und Lebensgeschichten Heinz Schurmann-Zeggel , Berne : Peter Lang , 1999 Z1093511 1999 single work criticism The study Life Writing: Literarische Identitätskonstruktion in schwarzaustralischen Autobiographien und Lebensgeschichten [Life Writing: Literary construction of identity in black-Australian autobiographies and life stories] looks at 50 autobiographical texts by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers, published up to 1992. It examines in more detail some representative works, focussing on the subject of identity. Moreover, it discusses problems surrounding the European representation of indigeous peoples predominant in previous studies of black Australian writing. Includes short biographies of writers discussed.
Autobiographical Storytelling by Australian Aboriginal Women Kateryna Olijnyk Longley , 1992 single work criticism
— Appears in: Decolonizing the Subject : The Politics of Gender in Women's Autobiography 1992; (p. 370-384)
'It is only very recently that the written autobiographies of Aboriginal people have begun to be published in Australia. So extreme has been the degradation and virtual erasure of Aboriginal culture that it is impossible for white readers to imagine the scale of obstacles that have to be negotiated and compromises that have to be made in order for Aboriginal people to offer their personal stories to a white reading public, and to do so in genres and modes that are not only foreign to Aboriginal culture but have been brutally efficient agents of its destruction for two hundred years. Much Aboriginal history is difficult to relate because it is literally unspeakable. For white readers there are also difficulties that go well beyond the challenges of cross-cultural comprehension. Even the most sympathetic white observers and promoters of Aboriginal culture face the now familiar risk of consolidating the old patterns of domination each time they attempt to act as interpreters of Aboriginal production. It can be argued, however, that there is a much more serious risk of perpetuating the negation of Aboriginal culture by ignoring the new work and remaining silent, and it is from this position that this essay is written. Further, Aboriginal autobiography offers much more than a window for viewing authentic "first-hand" presentations of black experience; it also contributes to a more understanding of the genres by which cultures tell their personal and communal stories and so define themselves. In other words, the window enables vision and reflection both ways, upon fundamentally different worlds and their representations.' (Author's introduction, 370-371)
Through Their Own Eyes: An Interpretation of Aboriginal Women's Writing Justine Larbalestier , 1991 single work criticism
— Appears in: Intersexions : Gender/Class/Culture/Ethnicity 1991; (p. 75-91)
Untitled Derek Holroyde , 1984 single work review
— Appears in: Fremantle Arts Centre Broadsheet , March - April vol. 3 no. 2 1984; (p. 6)

— Review of An Aboriginal Mother Tells of the Old and the New Elsie Roughsey , 1984 single work autobiography
Two Cultures Make One Self Two Rosemary Block , 1984 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 10 March 1984; (p. 40)

— Review of An Aboriginal Mother Tells of the Old and the New Elsie Roughsey , 1984 single work autobiography
Lament for a Lost Past... Billy Marshall-Stoneking , 1984 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 1 April 1984; (p. 13)

— Review of An Aboriginal Mother Tells of the Old and the New Elsie Roughsey , 1984 single work autobiography
"The Old Order of Things" : Women and Anthropology Reconsidered Kay Saunders , 1984 single work review
— Appears in: Hecate , vol. 10 no. 1 1984; (p. 68-73)

— Review of An Aboriginal Mother Tells of the Old and the New Elsie Roughsey , 1984 single work autobiography
y separately published work icon Life Writing : Literarische Identitatskonstruktion in schwarzaustralischen Autobiographien und Lebensgeschichten Heinz Schurmann-Zeggel , Berne : Peter Lang , 1999 Z1093511 1999 single work criticism The study Life Writing: Literarische Identitätskonstruktion in schwarzaustralischen Autobiographien und Lebensgeschichten [Life Writing: Literary construction of identity in black-Australian autobiographies and life stories] looks at 50 autobiographical texts by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers, published up to 1992. It examines in more detail some representative works, focussing on the subject of identity. Moreover, it discusses problems surrounding the European representation of indigeous peoples predominant in previous studies of black Australian writing. Includes short biographies of writers discussed.
Troubled Canadian Gazing : Aboriginal Women's Lifestorytelling, Multicultural Nationalism, and the Australian-Canadian Comparative Model Jennifer Kelly , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Balayi , vol. 2 no. 1 2001; (p. 137-167)
In this article, Jennifer Kelly is 'concerned in particular with how the Australian-Canadian comparative model constrains the analysis of the diverse nationalist aspirations of the multiple Aboriginal nations whose territories are overlain by Canada and Australia' (138). In her analysis, Kelly draws on numerous Aboriginal women's life writing texts from both Australia and Canada.
Through Their Own Eyes: An Interpretation of Aboriginal Women's Writing Justine Larbalestier , 1991 single work criticism
— Appears in: Intersexions : Gender/Class/Culture/Ethnicity 1991; (p. 75-91)
Between Celebration and Mourning : Testimonial Subjects in Ruby Langford Ginibi's 'Don't Take Your Love to Town' and Elsie Roughsey Labumore's 'An Aboriginal Mother Tells of the Old and the New' Eleanor Hogan , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Ngoonjook , no. 30 2007; (p. (63)-79)
Thoughts on Aboriginal Literature Jim Kable , 1985 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Aboriginal Child at School , February/March vol. 13 no. 1 1985; (p. 31-52)
Last amended 30 Mar 2016 14:52:59
Subjects:
  • Coast,
  • Mornington Island, Gulf of Carpentaria area, Far North Queensland, Queensland,
  • 1920s
  • 1930s
  • 1940s
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X