Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Bc. Lucie Wanderburgová The Depiction of the Stolen Generation in My Place and Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Mgr. Martina Horáková, Ph.D. 2009 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. 2 Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor, Mgr. Martina Horáková, Ph.D., for her kind help, valuable advice and guidance of my work. 3 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 5 2. An Outline of Aboriginal Life Writing 9 3. General Questions after Publishing of the Works 14 3.1 Readership 14 3.2 Motives of Narration 17 3.3 Reasons for Success 20 4. Aboriginal Situation in Past Decades 25 4.1 Aboriginality 25 4.2 Historical and Political Background 28 4.2.1 Stolen Generation 30 5. Aboriginal Identity and the Stolen Generation in the Books 44 5.1 My Place 44 5.2 Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence 53 5.3 A Brief Comparative Study 58 6. Perception of the Works 63 6.1 Common Readership 66 6.2 Critics, Historians and Theorists 69 7. Conclusion 79 Abstract 83 Resumé 84 Bibliography 85 4 1. Introduction In my Master‘s Diploma Thesis, I will analyze two works by Aboriginal women writers, namely My Place (1987) by Western Australian writer and artist Sally Morgan, and Doris Pilkington Garimara‘s Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence (1996). I will especially concentrate on the concept of the Stolen Generation, which applies to both books. I will look at this issue not only from the point of books‘ analyses but I will also consider the historical background to the encounter of settler Australian citizens with Aboriginal people. The aim of my thesis is an insight into how Sally Morgan and Doris Pilkington perceived this dark period in Australian history and portrayed it in their works. I will base the research on reading various critical essays and articles published by cultural and literary theorists and historians who have treated either My Place or Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence. I will also take into account the reception of the works by both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal common readers. I will attempt to examine if there is any consequence regarding the books‘ readership, genre and date of publishing the novels. In other words, if the cultural, political and historical situation of particular periods influenced the authors‘ style of writing and ideas they decided to present in their works. As I have already mentioned, the concern of the present thesis is to show how the official Australian history and the concept of the Stolen Generation are depicted in Aboriginal literature that is represented, among others, by Morgan‘s and Pilkington‘s works. It has struck me that there were such cruelties practised on innocent children who were completely discouraged from the family contact, educated only on the elementary level, and severely punished for breaking the rules. Many Aboriginal memoirs tell stories of a forcible child removal from their families by government 5 officials from the early 1930s until the late 1970s. For my research on the Stolen Generation, I have chosen My Place and Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence particularly because they have much in common. Both works share the genre of an auto/biographical narrative or life writing, which means that they fulfil the function of both the historical and literary textual discourses. What is important for all the protagonists in both books are questions of national identity and the sense of belonging, both to a place and to people. The place in the title of Morgan‘s book refers both to her place in her extended Aboriginal family and to the place of Aboriginal people in Australian history which they have been previously denied on the familial and social level (Brewster, ―Aboriginality and Sally Morgan‘s My Place‖ 25). The sense of belonging and a search for identity are ideas that have captured readers‘ imaginations all over the world. The simple and direct telling of the stories has affected almost everyone who read the books. Both works are filled with the spirituality of Aboriginal culture, its most common aspects, its ways of representing the world, and its traditional concern with storytelling, a deliberate technique within the Aboriginal literary production. Both Aboriginal writers under consideration in this thesis choose to explore themes such as family bonds, courage and determination, and relationships with the land. The last but not least thing shared by both works is the search for meaning and emotional elements of experience like love, suffering and displacement. Of course, the main theme of the works differs in several points. Briefly to say, whereas the topic of My Place is the author‘s discovery of her Aboriginal ancestry, Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence deals with the harsh fate of being an Aboriginal child. More specifically, the argument of my thesis is that the works comprise a slightly different view on the issue of the Stolen 6 Generation, with a different impact, but still rising from the same source―a forcible child removal from their families by government officials. My thesis starts with the chapter on the overview of Aboriginal life writing in general. I will consider Stolen Generations narratives today and their absence in earlier Australian literature. Until recently, Aboriginal people had a limited ability to influence the writing of Australian history and literature. It has not been public knowledge how Australia was invaded and how Indigenous people were treated because such facts were simply not included in Australian histories. The thesis continues with the chapter dealing with the most important issues that have appeared after the publishing of My Place and Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence. Firstly, there is a question of the readership which is divided between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Then I will discuss the authors‘ reasons for retelling such life stories and finally, I will be interested in the widespread success of both books and their influence on other Aboriginal writers. The next extensive chapter is, according to me, very important since it gives us an awareness of historical and political background of Australia. Because both works are set in the context of Western Australian history and deal with the relationship between Aboriginal Australians and European settlers, some insights into this topic should be given. In this part of the thesis, I will also examine what the term Aboriginality meant for European colonisers at the beginning of the twentieth century and for government officials from the 1930s until the 1970s, and how Aboriginality is understood today. However, the fundamental section of this chapter is devoted to the explanation of the Stolen Generation and its impacts on the population of Aboriginal origins. Both these aspects—Aboriginality and the Stolen Generation—occur widely in 7 the books I am analyzing and discussing. Only when we have a clear concept of these terms and have a general idea about the historical and political context can we understand their portrayal in Morgan‘s and Pilkington‘s books. In the following chapter, I will be engaged in the analyses of both My Place and Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence considering the content of the books. I will take into account the protagonists‘ experience with the assimilation policies and the ways the concept of the Stolen Generation is depicted in them. Furthermore, I will provide a brief comparative study of these works and emphasize the most important differences and similarities between the books. In the sixth chapter, I will be occupying myself with the impacts both books had on the future debates across the whole continent. I will discuss the affirmative perception of My Place and Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence provided by common readership. However, the criticisms about the books have not always been positive. I will mention what literary, history or cultural critics have argued about the content and style of the books, and what they have condemned about the works. It is important to note that in the present thesis, I will focus my attention primarily on My Place because Morgan‘s text was published earlier than Pilkington‘s Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence and is regarded as a landmark in Aboriginal literature. 8 2. An Outline of Aboriginal Life Writing First of all, it is suitable to remark that Aboriginal stories were being created long before they became worldwide known due to the increased interest of the readers in injustices practiced on Aboriginal people in the twentieth century. Philip Morrissey expands this idea by claiming that Aboriginal life stories give Indigenous people a sense of their own history: The psychological and physical brutality which attended the expansion of European interests in Australia into the 20th century is being documented in increasing detail and thoroughness in contemporary histories . [They] not only depict the events which accompanied the subjugation of a nation but also . introduce ‗history‘ into Aboriginal life (Morrissey 11). Aboriginal history, accounts of the treatment of Aboriginal people and the concept of the Stolen Generation have not always been included in Australian literature and have been long hidden from public awareness. Historian Peter Read attempts to explain the presence of Stolen Generations narratives today and their absence earlier. In the first two thirds of the twentieth century, according to Read, the removal of children was ―neither the subject of many stories told in Aboriginal communities nor central to their historical consciousness‖ (Read qtd. in Attwood 185). One of the most important reasons for that is a lack of historical knowledge because Aboriginal history was commonly not included in official Australian histories that attempted to erase Aboriginal memory and identity on both individual and communal levels.