'On the periphery of the fast-moving city of Perth, Aboriginal teenagers eke out a living full of violence, sex, lawlessness and poverty.
'Every revolution needs a leader and there is no question in Alan's mind that he is that leader. For inspiration he goes to Noorak, the law holder of his people, and hears the heroic tales of Sandawara, the last of the warriors, who died defending his land and his people against the white man in the Kimberleys. So Alan names himself and becomes the new Sandwara and the rest of the unemployed teenage Aborigines of his mob take the names of Sandawara's followers. In his crash pad, a broken-down old house, the new Sandawara plots and schemes the revolution.
'The story of this mob of anti-heroes, of a farcical inefficient revolution, gives a vivid portrayal of the new and frightening world of rootless youth, who lack identity and purpose and shoot as easily as they love because neither act has meaning.' (Publication summary : 2020 edition)
'The article reviews the controversial 'Mudrooroo Affair' with reference to unpublished work by Mudrooroo in which he comments on the public debate about his rights to define himself as Aboriginal and, by extension, have his work credited as Aboriginal. Such work makes it pertinent to review Mudrooroo's creative output since 1965 as literary experiments with life writing and to reconsider Mudrooroo's many literary 'performances' from this perspective. They are not only explorations of Aboriginal identity politics over,- the last five decades, but may also be seen as a far more personal investment in exploring Aboriginal identity through a progressively shifting but interrelated series of subjectivities that reflect the writer's own experience and inform his claim to Aboriginality.' (Publication summary)
Mudrooroo : A Critical Study
Pymble
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1993
Z213563
1993
single work
criticism
