Authentic white australian

[Liam]

hi there -

I've just found this group, to my great delight. I've been interested for some time in justice for Indigenous people and am specifically interested in white privilege and destroying it. I'm not so much interested in "helping" Indigenous people, inasmuch as I think racism is a problem in the white community and as I know the white community pretty well, I am best placed to fight it

I'm currently doing my honours thesis on  "how does the misappropriation of Indigenous cultures by 'cultural backpackers' represent a reinscription of colonial culture". I intend on looking at misappropriation of First nations cutures in North America, then I will look at different books that have been written on Aboriginal people here (you might have heard of Marlo Morgan's 'Mutant Message Down Under'), and then I intend on taking a look at 'alternative' festivals and the like here.

There is a very different dynamics that underpin the cultural theft that happens here and in N. America. You don't get people fluttering around here calling themselves "Aboriginal shaman's", or if you do they get shut down super quick. However I kinda of thing there is one basic idea that underscores all cultural theft and this is the fundamental belief in white supremacy. By this I mean that white people are always constructed as "modern" "civilised" "industrial" and Indigenous people are alway "primitive", timeless",  "stone age" "noble savages".

I wont rant too much, but I look forward to some good times reading

[educatedindian]

Hello Liam, good to have you here. I'd be very interested in finding out how to get hold of your thesis once you're done with it, or seeing any parts you might publish before then. I'm interested to know why you think these frauds don't go after Australia's Aboriginals as much as they have NDNs. (From what I understand, Marlo Morgan's audience is mostly American and she got widely panned in Australia.)

There have a been a few frauds from over here that made their way to Australia, such as William "Two Feather." Naturally if you hear of frauds like that in Australia we'd want to know.

[Liam]

My theory at this stage is that America has a much longer history of romanticising their Indigenous peoples. So you've got westerns, those shows like what Wild Bill used to run, and before that, even the 'Indian wars' you had fighters being written about in really romantic ways. Phillip Deloria has written that the Boston Tea Party was the first instance where people with an 'American' identity started to define/identify themselves against/in opposition to the British - and to do this they looked to Indian people (he puts it more eloquantly than this though). I guess to some extent Americans have some way of identifying with Indian people - even if this doesn't mean actual dialogue with Indian people.  

Here things are a bit different. You would be hard pressed to find many people who could name more than a couple of Indigenous nations. Few would know the names of resistence leaders. Very little is understood in the wider public about frontier conflict/genocide - and this has been encouraged by our PM for the last ten years. Most depictions of Indigenous people in the past (and to some extent in the present) have been of a dying stone age people, and always in opposition to white people.This opposition is always articulated in terms of an Autralian/British identity completely in opposition to indigenous people.

This needs some more thoughts though.

Yes, I've heard of William Two Feathers. Last I heard of him was in relation to him using his spiritual prowess to sleep with women. He's a bit of a regular at a festival called "Rainbow Serpent" which involves cultural theft from all around the world. Sounds fun, hey? The name Rainbow Serpent obviously comes from Indigenous histories, but the festival manages to have no dialogue with Indigenous people, much less the traditional owners whose land they are on (Djadjawurrung). I'm going to go visit the 'Mind Body Spirit" expo today where a bloke by the name of Bobby Runningfox will be performing an "eagle dance" or some damn thing - he's Cherokee (and claims Incan and Mayan) see http://www.bobbyrunningfox.com/therapy.html for my favourite page.

Cheers

[Raven_Walkingstick]

Hello Liam,

Hope you find the knowledge you seek here at this forum. ? Although perhaps the frauds of your indigenous people may not be as rampant as it is with ours. There is the same similiar stories of how our governments have dealt with us. ? Similiar programs have been used by both, watering down of our race from boarding and mission schools that helped strip away tradtions and language, breeding programs to out right genocide.

However now our biggest plight comes not from our governments but by individuals that are looking for ways to make an easy living, and the many that are in search of something because of their unhappiness with who they are within. ? I believe one reason why many latch on to our culture is for psychologic reasons. Our culture is based on traditions of families and tribes that each and every individual plays an important role.There is a common structure of family and community. ?  In many cases of those coming from "white traditions", ? there is a lack of oral traditions, the roles of many family members are not viewed the same as those coming from native traditions. ? Many lack ? the feeling of fitting into and playing important roles within their own families and community. So they seek out individuals and groups to try and fulfill what they lack within themselves.
This in itself, the psychological shortcomings of many has done more damage and harder to combat than what our government has done.

Our forefathers fought physical wars, ours has become psychological.

[gus]

see http://www.bobbyrunningfox.com/therapy.html for my favourite page.

Cheers

Yikes ! thats really sickening.....

[educatedindian]

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