I’m not actually working today (insert hollow laughter) but I just wanted to put a post up about the article ‘How to Write About Aboriginal Australia’ which is on the ABC and Overland this week. Yes, it is definitely based on this fantastic essay from Granta 92 by Binyavanga Wainaina, and the idea came out of a conversation with OL eds about it on Twitter.
Both sites should have acknowledged that cultural reference point; OL is correcting the omission. So thanks to everyone who pointed it out, you can stop now.
There is also a related Sherman Alexie poem here which is awesome.
Now I am going back to chainsawing my way through some dead wood*.
Also, Melbourne people who wanted to see the wonderful show by my namesake for which I wrote a catalogue essay, it’s on at West Space right now. Do go.
*not a metaphor
4 responses to “namin’ names”
Ah! So jenjen is not a pseudonym for Nicolas Rothwell?
When I started reading your article I felt some discomfort, like, she cannot write that, it’s really discouraging for white people’s interest of Aboriginal people. Then I thought about coverage of Aboriginal people in the media and how that interest can be condescending and discouraging to me. And I read on. And looked at this blog, and read Sherman Alexie’s awesome poem.
And I think the discomfort is really caused by something bigger, something I try to ignore. History. Present. Recent history, colonisation and policies of assimilation. Intervention and the gap. When I’m caught staring at a homeless alcoholic, distant relative on a bus in Darwin she asks me, “you got a problem?”, I nod and cry inside. I got a problem.
Your article beat some of my conditioned responses. Thank you for writing it.
Thank you so much for your feedback. It’s going to take a lot more than the occasional article from a white smartarse to unpick the racism at the heart of white australian narratives – but great to see so many willing to think hard about it.
and no, i am not one of Rothwell’s inventions! how terrifying.
The ABC site says nothing of the Granta original.