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y separately published work icon Born a Half-Caste single work   autobiography  
Issue Details: First known date: 1985... 1985 Born a Half-Caste
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Marnie Kennedy's story begins with her birth in 1919 on the banks of Coppermine Creek in Western Queensland. She tells of her journey to Palm Island where she grew up 'under the act' which dominated the lives of Aboriginal people in Queensland.

The book includes descriptions of Kennedy's hard working life on the cattle stations throughout the north and the people she encountered there. She wrote her story so that white people would come to know and understand the plight of her people by reading of her own life as a 'half-caste'.' Source: Publisher's blurb

Exhibitions

6939401
9428942

Notes

  • Dedication: Dedicated to my mother, my children and grandchildren, and my people.
  • Epigraph: Hearts can break, Hearts can cry, And we know the reason why.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Remediating Australia’s Cultural Memory : Aboriginal Memoir as Social Activism Helen A. Fordham , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies , vol. 32 no. 1 2018; (p. 42-51)

'During the 1980s Aboriginal Australians experienced setbacks in their quest for the restoration of their land rights. Neoliberal politics reframed such demands as special interests seeking to gain a material advantage at the expense of the general community and as a threat to the economic security of the nation. As a consequence, politicians failed to pass legislation that would formalize the national land rights system that would guarantee Aboriginal economic self-sufficiency. This paper argues that it was in this context that Aboriginal memoir emerged to prompt social action by recounting experiences of discrimination and exploitation erased by official history and by challenging the imposed racist stereotypes used to marginalize Aboriginal claims. These memoirs prompted sympathy and understanding among a broad readership, which enabled the formation of a political solidarity over the recognition of Aboriginal land rights. These memoirs also expressed a commonality of Aboriginal experience that served to unite an increasingly frayed Aboriginal activist movement eroded by neoliberal policies.' (Publication abstract)

Ned Kelly Died for Our Sins Deborah Bird Rose , 1994 single work criticism
— Appears in: Oceania , December vol. 65 no. 2 1994; (p. 175-186)

'From time to time scholars have posed the question: why have Australian Aborigines not developed cargo cults with the same intensity and flamboyance as their Melanesian neighbours? This discussion evades the implications that Aborigines may have been negligent in their cultural production of responses to colonisation, and seeks to engage with some of the responses some Aboriginal people actually have made to colonisation. Focussing on stories of Ned Kelly, and contrasting them with stories of Captain Cook, the suggestion here is that Aboriginal people's search for a moral European communicates the challenging and provocative possibility that coloniser and colonised can share a moral history and thus can fashion a just society. ' (Publication abstract)
 

Firing on in the Mind Jackie Huggins , 1987 single work criticism
— Appears in: Hecate , vol. 13 no. 2 1987; Sister Girl : The Writings of Aboriginal Activist and Historian Jackie Huggins 1998; (p. 1-24)
'This article examines the life experiences of Aboriginal women domestics during the inter-war years of the the 1920s and 1930s. [...] Interviews were conducted in Brisbane in June and July 1987 with the late June Bond, Rita Huggins, Margaret Pickering and Agnes Williams of Cherbourg Aboriginal Settlement, Daphne Lavelle from Hervey Bay and Annie Hansen from Lake Nash.' (p. 3).
[Review Essay] Born a Half-Caste Alex Barlow , 1986 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Aboriginal Studies , no. 1 1986; (p. 89-90)

'This is a very short book, just 68 pages and well illustrated. That was not the reason that I read through it, without pause, in one session. Marnie Kennedy's story absorbed me to the end. The story is told in a straight-forward style that reflects the open honesty of the writer. She comments several times in her story that she successfully managed many jobs on the stations where she worked, even though she wasn't trained for them, because she worked to a system. The system she made for writing this book worked well too.' (Introduction)

Firing on in the Mind Jackie Huggins , 1987 single work criticism
— Appears in: Hecate , vol. 13 no. 2 1987; Sister Girl : The Writings of Aboriginal Activist and Historian Jackie Huggins 1998; (p. 1-24)
'This article examines the life experiences of Aboriginal women domestics during the inter-war years of the the 1920s and 1930s. [...] Interviews were conducted in Brisbane in June and July 1987 with the late June Bond, Rita Huggins, Margaret Pickering and Agnes Williams of Cherbourg Aboriginal Settlement, Daphne Lavelle from Hervey Bay and Annie Hansen from Lake Nash.' (p. 3).
[Review Essay] Born a Half-Caste Alex Barlow , 1986 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Aboriginal Studies , no. 1 1986; (p. 89-90)

'This is a very short book, just 68 pages and well illustrated. That was not the reason that I read through it, without pause, in one session. Marnie Kennedy's story absorbed me to the end. The story is told in a straight-forward style that reflects the open honesty of the writer. She comments several times in her story that she successfully managed many jobs on the stations where she worked, even though she wasn't trained for them, because she worked to a system. The system she made for writing this book worked well too.' (Introduction)

Ned Kelly Died for Our Sins Deborah Bird Rose , 1994 single work criticism
— Appears in: Oceania , December vol. 65 no. 2 1994; (p. 175-186)

'From time to time scholars have posed the question: why have Australian Aborigines not developed cargo cults with the same intensity and flamboyance as their Melanesian neighbours? This discussion evades the implications that Aborigines may have been negligent in their cultural production of responses to colonisation, and seeks to engage with some of the responses some Aboriginal people actually have made to colonisation. Focussing on stories of Ned Kelly, and contrasting them with stories of Captain Cook, the suggestion here is that Aboriginal people's search for a moral European communicates the challenging and provocative possibility that coloniser and colonised can share a moral history and thus can fashion a just society. ' (Publication abstract)
 

Remediating Australia’s Cultural Memory : Aboriginal Memoir as Social Activism Helen A. Fordham , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies , vol. 32 no. 1 2018; (p. 42-51)

'During the 1980s Aboriginal Australians experienced setbacks in their quest for the restoration of their land rights. Neoliberal politics reframed such demands as special interests seeking to gain a material advantage at the expense of the general community and as a threat to the economic security of the nation. As a consequence, politicians failed to pass legislation that would formalize the national land rights system that would guarantee Aboriginal economic self-sufficiency. This paper argues that it was in this context that Aboriginal memoir emerged to prompt social action by recounting experiences of discrimination and exploitation erased by official history and by challenging the imposed racist stereotypes used to marginalize Aboriginal claims. These memoirs prompted sympathy and understanding among a broad readership, which enabled the formation of a political solidarity over the recognition of Aboriginal land rights. These memoirs also expressed a commonality of Aboriginal experience that served to unite an increasingly frayed Aboriginal activist movement eroded by neoliberal policies.' (Publication abstract)

Last amended 15 Jan 2014 14:33:17
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  • Western Queensland, Queensland,
  • Palm Island, Ingham area, Ingham - Cairns area, Queensland,
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