An autobiography of Australia's first Aboriginal university graduate.
When Mary Ann Hughes complained in 1998 that critics were preoccupied with the process of editorial collaboration that shaped Australian Aboriginal texts, she argued that this focus led to the neglect of the literary merit of the work. While the collaboration of mainstream writers with editors primarily went unremarked, “in the case of an Aboriginal writer, the role of the editor in constructing the work is the issue which most readily springs to the fore.” Hughes remarked upon the then decade-long critical determination to materialize the traditionally invisible craft of editing. This critical preoccupation ran parallel with the second wave of Aboriginal life writing (Brewster, 44), which witnessed the transformation of Aboriginal publishing from marginal to mainstream, reaching beyond the local to global audiences (Haag, 12). The exponential increase in the publication of Aboriginal life writing was accompanied by the politicization of publication processes, including coproduction, that have conventionally been kept from public view. (Introduction)
'The Indigenous public servant is a relatively recent phenomenon — a product of the maturing of the programs of assimilation and the inception of the programs of self-determination. That the Indigenous administrative memoir is recent follows from this, but it is also relevant to point out that the genre Indigenous autobiography is itself not yet fifty years old. In this essay, I will tell you about three Indigenous autobiographies in which the authors (all male) have produced an account of themselves partly by reflecting on their times as a public servant. In each case, the theme ‘impersonality’ is prominent, but each time in a different way.' (Introduction)
'In February 1965 a group of young people, all but one members of Sydney University's Student Action for Aborigines, set off on a tour of a dozen New South Wales towns selected as places where Aborigines were notoriously ill-treated or segregated. The students' purposes were to conduct a sociological survey of conditions, and, where necessary, to hold demonstrations against particular examples of segregation. By the end of a fortnight, Australia's press was covering the daily confrontations, Charles Perkins was a national figure and conditions in rural towns were the subject of urgent debate amongst white citizens and administrators of Aboriginal affairs. Perhaps most important, young Koories in the towns had seen what was possible to achieve by demonstrations and publicity. Today the Freedom Ride is well known as an event, but little is known about the details. Perkins' autobiography A bastard like me is still the only published eye-witness account readily available.' (Introduction)
'In February 1965 a group of young people, all but one members of Sydney University's Student Action for Aborigines, set off on a tour of a dozen New South Wales towns selected as places where Aborigines were notoriously ill-treated or segregated. The students' purposes were to conduct a sociological survey of conditions, and, where necessary, to hold demonstrations against particular examples of segregation. By the end of a fortnight, Australia's press was covering the daily confrontations, Charles Perkins was a national figure and conditions in rural towns were the subject of urgent debate amongst white citizens and administrators of Aboriginal affairs. Perhaps most important, young Koories in the towns had seen what was possible to achieve by demonstrations and publicity. Today the Freedom Ride is well known as an event, but little is known about the details. Perkins' autobiography A bastard like me is still the only published eye-witness account readily available.' (Introduction)
'The Indigenous public servant is a relatively recent phenomenon — a product of the maturing of the programs of assimilation and the inception of the programs of self-determination. That the Indigenous administrative memoir is recent follows from this, but it is also relevant to point out that the genre Indigenous autobiography is itself not yet fifty years old. In this essay, I will tell you about three Indigenous autobiographies in which the authors (all male) have produced an account of themselves partly by reflecting on their times as a public servant. In each case, the theme ‘impersonality’ is prominent, but each time in a different way.' (Introduction)
When Mary Ann Hughes complained in 1998 that critics were preoccupied with the process of editorial collaboration that shaped Australian Aboriginal texts, she argued that this focus led to the neglect of the literary merit of the work. While the collaboration of mainstream writers with editors primarily went unremarked, “in the case of an Aboriginal writer, the role of the editor in constructing the work is the issue which most readily springs to the fore.” Hughes remarked upon the then decade-long critical determination to materialize the traditionally invisible craft of editing. This critical preoccupation ran parallel with the second wave of Aboriginal life writing (Brewster, 44), which witnessed the transformation of Aboriginal publishing from marginal to mainstream, reaching beyond the local to global audiences (Haag, 12). The exponential increase in the publication of Aboriginal life writing was accompanied by the politicization of publication processes, including coproduction, that have conventionally been kept from public view. (Introduction)
