File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_1999/postcolonial.9902, message 56


Date: Mon, 8 Feb 1999 18:08:30 -0500 (EST)
From: Terry Goldie <tgoldie-AT-YorkU.CA>
Subject: Re: Question about Australian poem and treatment of Aboriginals


This has been a very controversial poem: I was trying to arrange a reading
by Mudrooroo and a Native group in Canada refused to co-sponsor it because
of this poem. As far as I know, this is simply an anti-abortion poem but
various indigenous peoples have seen "family planning" led by the
hegemonic cultures as simply a less overt version of the genocidal
impetus. There is no question that many state policies in
Australia, such as the "stolen generation", in which any child
which could be claimed to be "part white" was taken from the
family, play into this discussion. Mudrooroo has not, to my knowledge,
commented specifically on this poem.
I have copied this to a number of people who might know better than I.
terry

Terry Goldie
English Department
York University
North York, Ontario
Canada  M3J 1P3

email tgoldie-AT-yorku.ca

phone 416-604-3670	

On Mon, 8 Feb 1999 ncary-AT-DESIRE.WRIGHT.EDU wrote:

> In a poem by Mudrooroo (Colin Johnson) titled "They Give Jacky Rights,"
> are the lines
> 
> 	They give Jacky rights
> 	Like they give rights to the unborn baby,
> 	Ripped from the womb by its uncaring mother.
> 
> Is the poet making here a general attack on the destructiveness of white
> treatment of Aboriginals, or is there a particular allusion to forced
> abortions of Aboriginal women?  This question is from a student, and I
> could't give a clear answer. 
> 
> 
> 
>      --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
> 



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