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The Feed Youtube: Black Enough-Living as a fair-skinned Aboriginal person

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The Feed Youtube: Black Enough-Living as a fair-skinned Aboriginal person

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Research Paper: 'How do light-skinned Aboriginal Australians experience racism?'

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Research Paper: 'How do light-skinned Aboriginal Australians experience racism?'

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Bullying to exemplify racism toward Aboriginal people with light skin pigmentation, and to highlight the effects on social work. Participants experienced bullying from a diverse range of people, including other Aboriginal people (Bennett 2014, pp.183-185). Examples of lateral violence are included in the paper. Participants documented a lack of blatant or daily forms of racism due to having few physical characteristics associated with Aboriginal heritage (Bennett 2014, p.184). Participants provided solutions to racism; stating future acceptance of fairer skin colour and diversity (Bennett 2014, p.188). The need for the implementation of an anti-racist social work practice on negating racism against minorities and marginalized Australians is identified (Bennett 2014, p.189).

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How do Light-Skinned Aboriginal Australians Experience Racism?: Implications for social work - Bindi Bennett, 2014

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There has been little discussion in Australia about the different experiences of racism directed towards light-skinned Aboriginal people. Research on racism in Australia has tended to incorporate all Aboriginal people and has not examined in detail the experiences of lighter-skinned Aboriginal people.

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Academic Article: 'Moorn (Black)? Djardak (White)? How come I don’t fit in Mum? Exploring the racial identity of Australian Aboriginal children and youth'

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Academic Article: 'Moorn (Black)? Djardak (White)? How come I don’t fit in Mum? Exploring the racial identity of Australian Aboriginal children and youth'

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Erin Miller , Vana Webster , Jennifer Knight , Elizabeth Comino . (2014) The use of a standardized language assessment tool to measure the language development of urban Aboriginal preschoolers. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 16:2, pages 109-120.

Rhonda Povey , Michelle Trudgett . (2019) There was movement at the station: western education at Moola Bulla, 1910-1955. History of Education Review 48:1, pages 75-90.
Crossref

Cheryl Kickett-Tucker , Shaouli Shahid . 2019. In the Nyitting Time: The Journey of Identity Development for Western Australian Aboriginal Children and Youth and the Interplay of Racism. Handbook of Children and Prejudice, pages 193-211.

Marnee Shay . 2018. More than cultural celebrations: Indigenous identities in school settings. Understanding Sociological Theory for Educational Practices, pages 102-120.

Elizabeth Benninger , Shazly Savahl . (2017) A Systematic Review of Children's Construction of the Self: Implications for Children's Subjective Well-being. Child Indicators Research 10:2, pages 545-569.
Crossref

Marnee Shay , Judi Wickes . (2017) Aboriginal identity in education settings: privileging our stories as a way of deconstructing the past and re-imagining the future. The Australian Educational Researcher 44:1, pages 107-122.
Crossref

Brenda Dobia , . 2017. Respect for Culture?Social and Emotional Learning with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Youth. Social and Emotional Learning in Australia and the Asia-Pacific, pages 313-334.

Karen L. Martin . 2017. Culture and Identity: LSIC Parents? Beliefs and Values and Raising Young Indigenous Children in the Twenty-First Century. Indigenous Children Growing Up Strong, pages 79-99.

Katrina D. Hopkins , Stephen R. Zubrick , Catherine L. Taylor , Kimmo Eriksson . (2014) Resilience amongst Australian Aboriginal Youth: An Ecological Analysis of Factors Associated with Psychosocial Functioning in High and Low Family Risk Contexts. 9:7, pages e102820.
Crossref

Gawaian H. Bodkin-Andrews , Anthony Dillon , Rhonda G. Craven . (2010) Bangawarra'gumada - Strengthening the Spirit: Causal Modelling of Academic Self-Concept and Patterns of Disengagement for Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australian Students. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education 39:1, pages 24-39.
Crossref

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Moorn (Black)? Djardak (White)? How come I don't fit in Mum? Exploring the racial identity of Australian Aboriginal children and youth

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Erin Miller , Vana Webster , Jennifer Knight , Elizabeth Comino . (2014) The use of a standardized language assessment tool to measure the language development of urban Aboriginal preschoolers. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 16:2, pages 109-120. Rhonda Povey , Michelle Trudgett .

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Article: 'The politics of identity and who gets to decide who is – and isn’t – Indigenous'

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Article: 'The politics of identity and who gets to decide who is – and isn’t – Indigenous'

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My name is Bronwyn Carlson and I am an Aboriginal woman who was born on and lives on Dharawal Country on the South Coast of NSW. I am an associate professor of Indigenous studies at the University of Wollongong

I have been talking about the politics of identity on IndigenousX and it has been an amazing experience having such a significant audience to talk with about my research on identity.

The majority of IndigenousX followers have been interested and have wanted more information. However, there were a few that made some pretty interesting comments - I highly doubt whether they are dedicated followers of IndigenousX. One person suggested my name was not Aboriginal enough and another suggested I leave writing books to "real" Aboriginal people.

These are interesting comments given the topic we have been discussing. They reveal a deeper level of racism and ignorance about Australian history and Indigenous peoples. They also demonstrate that colonial violence, in its many forms, is still being perpetrated against Indigenous people.

It seems that there are always comments made that reference the lightness of some Aboriginal people's skin colour. I refer to this as wedge politics and it is primarily about emphasising the differences between remote and urban Aboriginal people.
We are trapped in the imaginations of white Australians | Stan Grant
The suggestion is always that "the real Aboriginal people" are the ones still on the land and urban "white" Aboriginal people are somehow fraudulently passing as "Aboriginal" to receive benefits denied to other Australians. Sadly a lot of mainstream media love this kind of headline, but for me it only reveals their attempts to sensationalise issues without having any real knowledge of the history in relation to Indigenous identity or the impact it can have.

We have had a bit of a laugh on IndigenousX thinking about all those "benefits" that Indigenous people get. As ludicrous as they sound, people hold on to these ideas as facts. They do so, as it justifies to themselves, their deeply held racist ideas about Indigenous Australians. Apparently, according to such ridiculous commentators, Indigenous people get a "free dog" and "free wedding dresses" and even "free home loans". It is a commonly held belief that we all get to go to university for free and with that logic we don't have to actually do any work as our degree is a given. I need to pause for a moment to stop laughing!

All week I have been posting historical quotes about Indigenous people and specifically those related to our identity. Many have never had access to such content and have been shocked by the depth of information that has been written about Indigenous people. Here are a few examples:

The problem is not one of finding ways in which two ... societies can live side by side ... but of finding the way in which the remnants of the Aboriginal race can best become members of a single Australian society ... The more it crumbles, the more readily may its fragments be mingled with the rest of the people living in Australia. (Federal Minister of External Affairs, Paul Hasluck cited Aborigines and Activism, by J Clark, 2008)

Assimilation means that the Aborigines must lose their identity, cease to be themselves, become as we are. Let us leave aside the question that they may not want to, and the possibility - I would myself put it far higher than a possibility - that very determined forces of opposition will appear. Suppose they do not know how to cease being themselves? (Whiteman Got No Dreaming: Essays 1938-73, by WEHStanner, 1979)

These 'true' Aborigines are not going to become 'white' in the foreseeable future, though they can and will become worthy Australian citizens (The Australian Aborigine: How to Understand them, by APElkin, 1964)

The 'solution' of the Aboriginal problem would come when he disappeared altogether into a 'white' community without 'coloured' enclaves. (Outcasts in White Australia, by CDRowley 1971)

Many followers were amazed at how many definitions of Indigenous identity have existed here in Australia. For the first time, many had to think about the fact that Indigenous identity is not a straightforward affair. A lot of people believe if you are Indigenous then that is the end of the matter but sadly no, it is not, and has never been the case in our relationship with the nation state. John McCorquodale provided a legislative history of defining Aboriginal people in Australia and identified 67 definitions that classified Aboriginal people in 700 pieces of legislation!

Historically, all states defined Aboriginal status through blood quantum, starting with the introduction of "half-caste" in New South Wales legislation in 1839 and extending across all Colonies, States and Territories. More finely graded categories of blood mixtures were introduced over time and jurisdictions "to include, exclude or distinguish between the classifications provided".

Common denominations used were full-blood and half-caste, with quarter (quadroon), eighth (octoroon) and even three, five and seven eighths emerging in some places over time. As McCorquodale's analysis reveals, "[a] new species of legal creature was created and sustained as a separate class, subject to separate laws and separately administered".

Some Aboriginal people use the term "half-caste" and although I do not think that is an appropriate term I do not dictate what others prefer to name themselves. They should however, stop and ask themselves why they would want to use such derogatory colonial terms to describe themselves. The argument is usually that they wish to acknowledge their non-Aboriginal ancestry as well. That is easy - say you are Aboriginal and Irish for example. We don't need to think about Indigenous identity in deficit terms.

The issue of Indigenous identity is a complex one fraught by the continuing brutality of colonial policy and domination. While writing my book, The Politics of Identity: Who Counts as Aboriginal Today? my appreciation of both the meaning of the diversity of Indigenous experiences and my knowledge of the history of Indigenous experiences grew immeasurably.
As an Indigenous woman, it's been a long, hard journey to find out where my family is from | Kristy McMahon
Questions of Indigenous identity are serious ones in the wake of the colonial era and challenging ones in the global era where arguably more opportunities exist for global Indigenous solidarity in the face of shared issues such as identity politics and decolonial goals.

The point of writing the book was not to solve the "problem" but to understand the basis of our current thinking and how it shapes the practices around Indigenous identity confirmation. I think it is important for all Australians to have a deeper understanding of the ways in which the colonial era has impacted on contemporary ideas of Indigenous identity.

I also believe that if this were the case, we would be less subjected to media hype surrounding who "is" and "isn't" Indigenous because there would be some understanding of the role colonial governments have played - and continue to play - in the orchestrating and prescribing of Indigenous identity.

As an Aboriginal person, I have also had to learn just how deeply these historical contingencies are implicated in the current struggle over questions of "who is" and "what counts" as Indigenous.
Topics "Our stories, our way" - each week, a new guest hosts the @IndigenousX Twitter account to discuss topics of interest to them as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people. Produced with assistance of Guardian Australia staff.

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The politics of identity and who gets to decide who is - and isn't - Indigenous| Bronwyn Carlson for IndigenousX

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My name is Bronwyn Carlson and I am an Aboriginal woman who was born on and lives on Dharawal Country on the South Coast of NSW. I am an associate professor of Indigenous studies at the University of Wollongong I have been talking about the politics of identity on IndigenousX and it has been an amazing experience having such a significant audience to talk with about my research on identity.

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Article: 'Too white, too black, or not black enough? This is not a question for others to decide'

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Article: 'Too white, too black, or not black enough? This is not a question for others to decide'

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Growing up with a last name associated with Aboriginal activism, my identity is often decided for me. In some ways it becomes a validation of my Aboriginality. As I do not fit the stereotypical "mould" of what an Aboriginal person is "meant to look like", having my last name has at times saved me from the uncomfortable guess work that goes with my identity.

However, with that comes an expectation. I remember going to a job interview, where the interviewer - aware of my family ties - greeted me in a disappointed tone, "I thought you would be a lot darker." As if the shade of your skin colour was an indicator of your "credibility" as an Aboriginal person.

As an Aboriginal person with fair skin you often get that look where people are not quite sure "what your background is" or "how much Aboriginal" you are.

Indigenous voices are re-emerging. We are representing ourselves once again | IndigenousX
Many young First Nations people feel confused about their identity and where they belong. At times it feels like you're too white or too black for non-Indigenous people. And for our mob you're often just not black enough - a critique that goes beyond skin colour.

It's hard to feel accepted or secure when you're constantly being questioned about who you are. At times it is easier to shrug off non-Indigenous people questioning and critiquing your identity because you can pass it off as ignorance. But when you get it from your own mob, it digs deep and painfully reinforces the identity issues that have been forced upon you since birth.

Another festering sore of colonisation that continues to tear our communities apart is lateral violence.

In this context violence doesn't just refer to physical violence, but also social, emotional, psychological, verbal and institutional.
A treaty could change this nation's cultural tapestry | Richard Frankland for IndigenousX
Lateral violence is often described as "internalised colonialism" and according to Gunditjmara man and author Richard Frankland includes:

"The organised, harmful behaviours that we do to each other collectively as part of an oppressed group: within our families; within our organisations and; within our communities. When we are consistently oppressed we live with great fear and great anger and we often turn on those who are closest to us."

In other words, as Stó:lō Nation (Canada) woman Lee Maracle says, "lateral violence among Native people is about our anti-colonial rage working itself out in an expression of hate for one another."

This anger and frustration about the injustice of feeling powerless manifests itself in violence - not "vertically" towards the colonisers responsible for the oppression but "laterally" towards their own community.

The oppressed become the oppressors.

Ask any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person and they will tell you stories about the lateral violence they have experienced or have seen within their communities.

Some examples of my experience with lateral violence include a time when I was giving a presentation in a community I was invited to speak at, when a woman exclaimed, "I don't have to listen to you coconuts."

"Coconut" is a derogatory term to imply you are "betraying your race" by "acting white" (with a coconut being brown on the outside, white on the inside).

I've heard them all - Uncle Tom, Jackey Jackey or sell out. All intended to attack your "legitimacy" and "authenticity" as a First Nations person and imply that you have assimilated. Something seen by some as worse than colonisation itself.

There was the time a friend was invited to speak on a panel at a university which allowed another panellist to unleash a tirade calling him "a house nigger". This is used to demean First Nations people who are seen to be working "with and inside the system" rather than dismantling it.

It's not just verbal abuse. I've heard of instances where Aboriginal colleagues will exclude Indigenous teammates because they weren't actively against non-Indigenous management.

I've seen a Stolen Generations member berated by someone of his own nation for not speaking the language. These actions are detrimentally painful for the victim, but we must understand they are coming from a place of longstanding hurt for the perpetrator.

The roots of lateral violence lie in "colonisation, oppression, intergenerational trauma, powerlessness and ongoing experiences of racism and discrimination," factors we often don't take into account when talking about bullying.

To address this insidious issue we must call it out in our workplaces, communities and homes. But we must also deal with the underlining issues that trigger this behaviour.
As former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda reminds us, "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities face so many challenges and sadly some of the divisive and damaging harms come from within our own communities. When we already have so many of the odds stacked against us, it is tragic to see us inflict such destruction on ourselves."
We can reduce the Indigenous suicide rate through connection to culture | IndigenousX
Having your identity attacked and questioned consistently has had a profound impact on many young First Nations people. We have to change this.

Unfortunately, I have not had the privilege of living on my country, learning my language or practicing cultural traditions. Does this mean I am not Aboriginal? That I do not have a right to identify?

The answer is simple. This is not a question for others to decide. I am me. A proud Yawuru woman with German and Irish ancestry. And it is not society who decides this for me. My identity is not left in the hands of those around me.

Our stereotypical definition of Aboriginality is an unhelpful one. We must have open and honest conversations about identity struggles, as so many people, young and old, have to suffer in silence.

Guardian Australia is proud to partner with IndigenousX to showcase the diversity of Indigenous peoples and opinions from around the country.

Topics

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Too white, too black, or not black enough? This is not a question for others to decide | Shannan Dodson

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Growing up with a last name associated with Aboriginal activism, my identity is often decided for me. In some ways it becomes a validation of my Aboriginality. As I do not fit the stereotypical "mould" of what an Aboriginal person is "meant to look like", having my last name has at times saved me from the uncomfortable guess work that goes with my identity.

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Article: White Face – some notes from a fair-skinned Aboriginal

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Article: White Face – some notes from a fair-skinned Aboriginal

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Carly Sheppard is performing in Melbourne as part of Next Wave. Gregory Lorenzutti

Carly Sheppard's latest work, White Face playing as part of Melbourne's Next Wave festival this week, is a contemporary performance addressing personal experiences as a fair-skinned Aboriginal person based in Melbourne. It's a topic that gives plenty of scope for discussion.

Since European settlement of Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups have used public performances as a way to incorporate European audiences and engage with settler colonial economy. In this way artistic performance has functioned as both resistance and response to colonisation.

Traditionally, Indigenous public performances have been offered as a form of entertainment or cultural curio, and have acted as part of economic exchange. Dance has been a means to assert identity and political power as well as social status.

Performances have acted as an important focus within Aboriginal communities for the expression of cultural adaptation as well as innovation. New ways of knowing, ways of being, and ways of sharing information have thus been incorporated and re-presented to non-Indigenous audiences.

Image Gregory Lorenzutti

Negotiating the spaces between non-Indigenous and Indigenous communities has become increasingly difficult as so many Aboriginal people now belong, at least in part, to both. I myself am a fair-skinned Aboriginal person who embraces hybridity at the core of my identity and thus have experienced these difficulties first-hand.

There are few Aboriginal families in settled areas that have not felt the impact of what is in the popular discourse described as the "stolen generations".

Consequently experiencing life as a contemporary Aboriginal person in Australia can be fraught with challenges to identity, authenticity, and legitimacy.

As Indigenous author Anita Heiss wrote in her 2012 book Am I Black Enough For You?:

The Australian media have discovered a new crime, to charge them with: being too "fair skinned" to be Aboriginal.

In September 2010, nine Aboriginal people began legal proceedings in the Federal Court against shock jock Andrew Bolt and the Herald Sun over two posts on Bolt's blog. Bolt's articles proposed it was fashionable for fair-skinned people of diverse heritage to cherry-pick Aboriginality as a racial identity for the purposes of political and vocational influence.

Bolt was found to have contravened section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. The fallout from this can now be seen in the changes being proposed to 18C by Attorney General George Brandis and his recent claim that Australians have the right to be bigots.

Dance and choreographer Carly Sheppard is a descendant of the Wallangamma and Takalaka Tribes of North Queensland who has been training and working professionally in the dance industry for over eight years.

White Face is intended as an exploration of the experience of being a fair-skinned Aboriginal person in contemporary Australia.

Image Gregory Lorenzutti

Highly personal and deeply intellectual, Sheppard's two-years-in-the-making project still requires some refinement. While being a crafty take on a post Bolt-case Australia, Sheppard's performance at times resembled Pilates meets Frantz Fanon, the French-Caribbean author of Black Skins White Masks.

Sheppard's character, having re-enacted her discovery that she was of Aboriginal descent onstage, performs a monologue about her experience using an accent and mannerisms which indicate a low socio-economic background.

In this way, she equates poverty and disadvantage with her Aboriginality. It is as if she could never have found out she were Aboriginal, had she been born in Melbourne's Toorak or Sydney's Point Piper.

Sheppard's piece is a clever and original exploration of Aboriginality in contemporary Melbourne. While attempting to make the audience think their way outside the tropes of black equals Aboriginal, this performance unfortunately, and somewhat ironically, replicates the paradigm of Aboriginal as interchangeable with disadvantaged.

Its shortcomings emerge not from the subject matter itself, but rather its execution and reinforcement of negative stereotypes.

Yet again we have witnessed an attack on the colour barrier; perhaps in time we might also begin to dismantle the class barrier.
White Face runs at Footscray Community Arts Centre, as part of Next Wave, until Sunday May 11.

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White Face - some notes from a fair-skinned Aboriginal

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Carly Sheppard's latest work, White Face playing as part of Melbourne's Next Wave festival this week, is a contemporary performance addressing personal experiences as a fair-skinned Aboriginal person based in Melbourne. It's a topic that gives plenty of scope for discussion.

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Deadly Questions Youtube: Is being Aboriginal just the colour of yous skin?

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Deadly Questions Youtube: Is being Aboriginal just the colour of yous skin?

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Deadly Questions - Is being Aboriginal just the colour of your skin?

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