File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postco_1995/postco_Aug.95, message 60


Date: Fri, 11 Aug 1995 11:19:55 -0400
From: <ksumner-AT-bosshog.arts.uwo.ca>
Subject: Australia/N America conflict


May I ask what posters mean when they ask somethimg like whether Australia
exists from the North American point of view?  What is meant by "North
America"?

Why don't I know about the Hindmarsh affair?  Probably for the same reasons
that others on the list don't know much about local battles here (in
Canada) between the Federal govt and numerous aboriginal groups:  It
doesn't make it into the international section of our national paper here,
nor on the CBC news, etc.  Our newspapers are conservative and "yet another
aboriginal/govt battle" just will not make the news.  I look to this group
as an alternative source of news/ideas/discussion.  I rarely post to the
group because, for some reasons that I understand and some I don't, it
makes me feel uncomfortable.  Is _my_ silence in the face of the Hindmarsh
discussion to be read as a colonizing force, an attempt _to silence_ the
discussion?  I know that posters are talking in general terms, and not
about "me" necessarily, but I don't always understand those terms.  Are
there only two positions open here -- speak and therefore recognize the
Australian voice, or keep quiet and therefore silence it?  I can't accept
this.

re: that "good old, fundamental question for poco theorists -- who has the
right to speak and ... is the speaker heard?"  I hear a lot about
Australian issues/concerns/events on this list -- far more Australian than
Canadian content (are there fewer of us?  are we more likely to be lurkers?
I don't know).  I find it hard to understand the lament that "we
Australians" are not heard in "North America."  Not only do I follow with
interest postings to this list on Australian subjects and discuss with my
peers the intersections and differences between native politics here and in
other places (like Australia), I have been practically raised on Australian
poco criticism and theory, as have my colleagues (here in south-western
Ontario).

Karen






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