Cirrus@Austlit

'This chapter will argue that Aboriginality is constructed in discourse. It will argue that whatever 'Aboriginality' is, it has never always been the same thing from one tribal group to another, from ancient times to the present, or even - according to some legal definitions - the same thing from one State of Australia to another.' (19)

'One of the main problems for Aboriginal history, as I see it, is to authenticate the appropriate discourse for its transmission, and this issue has been hotly debated. At one point the 'authentic' accounts of Aboriginal history were firmly locked in academic standard English. But going back to 1981 we find an Aboriginal working party for the Bicentennial History Project challenging the assumptions of historians that history and the language in which history is presented are somehow independent of each other: 'When the cues, the repetitions, the language, the distinctively Aboriginal evocations of our experience are removed from the recitals of our people, the truth is lost to us. (Langton, 1981)) (60)

'This chapter will have two interconnected themes. The first will deal with the theoretical problem of 'expression', as part of a literary aesthetic. The main question here will be posed in terms of Aboriginal literature. How can we determine to what extent it is the expression of political activity as has so often been claimed? What can we learn from the case of Aboriginal literature which may in some way contribute to ongoing literature/politics debates?

The second theme will examine on particular genre, autobiography, and two specific books. Out of what historical and social context did My Place and Wandering Girl emerge? What sort of political valency can be attached to them in their conditions of production and consumption?' (119)

'This chapter takes as a case study some translation work I did for the Law Reform Commission in 1981. The task was to phrase into spoken language - understandable by Aborigines in remote communities - a legal proposal for the incorporation of aspects of Aboriginal customary law into general Australian law. It was, thus, a translation from formal written English into spoken Aboriginal English.' (139)

'In this chapter I am going to advance the thesis that spatial movements, including landscape, everyday 'city spaces', writing and travel, are all closely interrelated, and that the extraordinary mobility of recent creative work by Aboriginal artists constitutes a strong movement towards post-colonisation as it carries a series of implications for the practice of perceiving the land.' (164)

'Mandawuy Ynupingu has led the Aboriginal rock band Yothu Yindi, from north-eastern Arnhem Land in the far north of Australia, to a position where, in 1991, their Treaty single hit the top ten. This section will examine the rhetoric of a video-clip of their earlier single, In the Mainstream. (179)