Evidence:

1. Mom and dad was always not around

2. Time spent with mom: doing milimbi and playing tennis

3. Author enjoyed having her cousins around in the children’s home

4. Aunty Maureen was strongly against author living with white family

5. Mom was taken away from her parents but resituated with other members of her family in the Norseman camp

Analysis:

Q: Why was mom and dad always absent?

A: Mom was an alcoholic and either always drunk or away to try and get sober and dad was a policeman regularly on duty far away

Q: Why did the author enjoy doing milimbi and playing tennis with mom?

A: Those were one of the rare moments when mom wasn’t drunk or away and she cherished every single time which she felt the care of her family and also cherished every moment spent with her family members.

Q: How were absent parents impactful to the author?

A: It drove the author to turn to distant relatives and her friends and their families, some white, for support and growing a reliance on them.

Q: Why was Aunty Maureen against the author’s idea to move in with a white family?

A: She was against the idea because she felt that aborigines should not be staying with whites to avoid assimilation.

Q: How has her experience of a lack of family impacted herself?

A: She had a feeling of not being loved as she always had to seek for care herself instead of being provided with it by her family.

(Jovi, Vione)

Examples:

1. Mother taught how to clean teeth with charcoal and the green twigs of eucalypts, Milmibi, How to look for edible plants.

Analysis:

1. Why did the mom teach her about the traditional culture?

• Because she was raised in the Norseman mission, halfway between Kalgoorile and Esperance on the edge of the Nullarbor.

(Mesha and Shine)

culture / ways of living

( Examples )

• Intergenerations

• Absent dad

• Stolen generations

• Mother alcoholic

• Loves to play tennis

• Cultures were passed down

• Taken to the children home’sIntergenerations

• Absent dad

• Stolen generations

• Mother alcoholic

• Loves to play tennis

• Cultures were passed down

• Taken to the children home’s

  (ANALYSIS)

  Q:What are the cultures passed down by mother ?

  A: milimbi, brush their teeth with charcoals

  Q: why is mother alcoholic ?

  A: to crop with trauma of stolen generations

  Q: what were the traditional food ?

  A: bush turkey

  Q: what was the traditional habit of them ?

  A: they usually apply talcum powder after taking showers

  Q: why does the author doesn’t feel in children homes ?

  A: she was scared with what she had to interfered with for example experiencing sexual harassment

  
  

Evidence:

1) Cleaning their teeth with charcoal and green twigs of eucalypts

2)Milimbi  weaving

3)Loving tennis

4)She loved having to walk through spinifex and mulga bushes

Analysis:

Q: Why did their way of life differ so much compared to the rest of society.

A: They were marginalized, so they didn’t have the resources available.

Q: How/why were they marginalized?
 

A: This is because they weren’t supported by the government, the government thought they were lower class, this resulted in marginalization and the stolen generation.

Q: Why Aileen love tennis?
 

A: she used it as a distraction from the barbarous reality just as her mother used alcohol to escape. It was also they only way to relate with her mother.

Q: Why did she love walking through spinifex and mulga bushes?
 

A: This particular phenomenon can be explained due to the un-ending assimilation of aboriginal culture, therefore the lady took advantage of this profound activity to associate thy self with her cultural background.

Evidence:

1) Mom teaching about culture (clean teeth with charcoal and green twigs of eucalypts and did milimbi)

2) She changed schools a lot

3)She fell in love for the first time in Belcatta Primary with an aboriginal kid

4) When she was taken she went to Applecross primary school, she had all the stationary.

5)Tennis

6) She got called boong in high school while competing in high jump

Analysis:

2) Q:Why did she change schools a lot?

A:As she was moving a lot due to family issues and getting taken

Q: How did this affect her education?

A: She couldn't consistently focus on her studies.

Q: How can this affect her future?

A:It would be harder for her to pursue her studies in higher institutions.

6) Q: Why did she get called boong?

A: She is getting discriminated /made fun of

Q: Why is she getting discriminated/made fun of?

A: Because she is aboriginal

Q:Why are they getting discriminated?

A: As they were seen as savages/uneducated

Q:Why were they seen this way?

A: As they didn’t have the conventional way of education

Theme: Identity

Quotes:

-‘I’m not aboriginal’

-clean teeth with natural ingredients (milimbi)

-the only aboriginal kids in primary school

-docile when being taken

-grew up loving tennis

-named after grandma

-walking in landscapes felt natural

-was a “fair-skinned Aborigine”

Q: Why does she deny being aboriginal?

A: She didn’t want to be singled out in school/be bullied.

Q: Why did she clean her teeth with milimbi?

A: To connect with her aboriginal roots. Mother introduced aboriginal culture to writer.

Q: Why were her siblings and her the only aboriginal in her primary school?

A: Many aboriginal families were separated. Aboriginal families were looked down upon, so there were less opportunities for them to go to school.

Q: Why was she docile when being taken?

A: She was young and naive, didn’t know what was going on so she went along with her neighbours instructions, whom she trusted.

Q: Why did she grow up loving tennis?

A: One of the few things her and her mum did together/had in common when she was young.

Q: Who was she named after?

A: The writer was named after grandma. Preserving aboriginal culture by passing down name.

Q: Where does she walk to feel closer to her roots?

A: She walked in landscapes as it felt ‘natural’ to her, made her feel closer to her roots.

Q:Why was she a fair-skinned aborigine?

A: Because in her ancestral roots there is some interference also known as the stolen generation and forcible marriage, additionally her mother married a white man contributing to her fair-skinned genes.

Example:

1. 'I loved having my cousins in the home with us .'

2. Decided to leave home and stay with her freind's family. Her aunt stopped her

Analysis:

1)

Q: Why did she like having her cousins with her?

A: They were moved to a children's home. Their cousins made her feel better (familiarity).

Q: How did the cousins make her feel better?

A: Familiarity, she knows they are close by.

Q: Why did she like having them close by?

A: It likely made her feel safer with more family near them that they could see them often

2)

Q: Why did she want to leave?

A: To have a change in her life, move away from the trauma.

Q: Why did she want to stay with another family?

A: Her family is largely related to her trauma, she might've wanted to leave and experience something different.

Q: Why did her aunt stop her?

A: Her aunt was angry that she decided to live with a white family

Q: Why was her aunt angry she wanted to live with a white family?

A: White people were largely responsible for many of their family's hardships and trauma

Evidences:

1. They live on a huge block surrounded by bush

2. Her aunt Elsie allowed to go home to her family in Spinifex country every school holiday

3. Aileen walk through spinifex bush a lot knowing it was an aboriginal land

4. Clean their teeth with charcoal and the green twigs of eucalypts or did milimbi in the yellow building sand

Analysis:

1. Q: Why is connecting to aboriginal country is important as a aboriginals?

A: because it contains spiritual connection and also their culture identity

1. Q: why Aileen like to hide or went to the bushes in aboriginal land?

A: because she felt natural and a part of her

1. Q: why did she felt natural?

A: knowing it was an aboriginal land, she could imagine and related how aboriginal people had walked for generation across this land with their family.

1. Q: How did aboriginal stay connected with their land?

A: By languages, dreaming and traditional practice in daily life to pass down knowledge or culture about their land

Evidence

1. exploration and cultural traditions through the bush taught by mom

2. Having their traditional food together ( bush turkey )

3. applying talcum powder as a routine after shower

4. Playing tennis with her mom

Analysis:

Q: why did mom pass down the  traditions to her children?

A: she does not want her children to forget their aboriginal  identity.

Q: why talcum powder is used after their shower?

A : is a traditional practice to provide moisture ( longest shower)

Q: why does she play tennis with mom even though she feels unloved ?

A: she wants to spend time with mother and interact with her to form a bond between them

Example

1 Mother taught writer to clean teeth with charcoal and the green twigs of eucalypts or did milimbi in the yellow sand.

Analysis

1 Q: Why did mother teach writer  to clean teeth with charcoal and the green twigs of eucalypts or did milimbi in the yellow sand.

• A: Mother wants to pass down the traditional to writer/next generation.
 
Q: Why is it important to pass down the culture and tradition.
A:  Preserve cultural identity.( They are living in a place where those traditions aren't part of their daily life.
 
Q: Why connection to the land/country is important to the aboriginals.
A: Writer recalls the memories that spending time with her family in this country/land.

( mi jia georgeann)