Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T08:49:50.286Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Re-Presenting Urban Aboriginal Identities: Self-Representation in Children of the Sun

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Bronwyn Lumby  and
Colleen McGloin
Bronwyn Lumby
Affiliation:
Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology, Sydney, PO Box 123, Broadway, New South Wales, 2007, Australia
Colleen McGloin
Affiliation:
Woolyungah Indigenous Centre, University of Wollongong, Northfields Avenue, Wollongong, New South Wales, 2522, Australia
Get access

Abstract

Teaching Aboriginal studies to a diverse student cohort presents challenges in the pursuit of developing a critical pedagogy. In this paper, we present Children of the Sun (2006), a local film made by Indigenous youth in the Illawarra region south of Sydney, New South Wales. We outline the film's genesis and its utilisation in our praxis. The film is a useful resource in the teaching of urban Aboriginal identity to primarily non-Indigenous students in the discipline of Aboriginal studies. It contributes to the development of critical thinking, and our own critical practice as educators and offers a starting point to address pre-conceived and stereotypical notions about race and colour. We situate this paper within a theoretical framework of identity and whiteness studies to explore the issue of light skin in relation to the constraints of identity surrounding urban Aboriginal youth, as represented in Children of the Sun. We discuss the usefulness of this film as a self-representational text that subverts and challenges pre-conceived notions of Aboriginal identity.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , January 2009 , pp. 27 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ang, I. (2001). On not speaking Chinese: Living between Asia and the West. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bhabha, H. K. (1998). The white stuff. Artforum Internatumal, 36(9). Retrieved 18 February, 2009, from http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/itx/start.do?prodId=AONE.Google Scholar
Boladeras, J. (2002). “It's easier to be black if you're black”: Issues of Kboriginality forfair-complexioned Nyungar people. Unpublished MA thesis, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia.Google Scholar
Children of the Sun. (2006). Directed by A. Loughlin, Merlin Films, 2006. Videocassette.Google Scholar
Davis, H. Y. (2004). Understanding Stuart Hall. London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frankenberg, R. (1993). The social construction of whiteness: White women, race matters. London: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Frankenberg, R. (Ed). (1997). Displacing whiteness: Essays in social and cultural criticism. Duhram, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy ofthe oppressed. New York, NY: Herderand Herder.Google Scholar
Gilbert, K. (2002) [1973]. Because a white man'll never do it. Sydney, NSW: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Moreton-Robinson, A. (2004). Whiteness, epistemology and Indigenous representation. In Moreton-Robinson, A. (Ed.), Whitening race: Essays in social and cultural criticism (pp. 75–88). Canberra, ACT: Aboriginal Studies Press.Google Scholar
Nakata, M. (1998). Anthropological texts and Indigenous standpoints. Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2:3–12.Google Scholar
Nakata, M. (2004). Ongoing conversations about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research agendas and directions. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 33, 1–6.Google Scholar
Nakata, M. (2007). Disciplining the savages, savaging the disciplines. Canberra, ACT: Aboriginal Studies Press.Google Scholar
Perkins, M. (2004). False whiteness: “Passing” and the Stolen Generations. In Moreton-Robinson, A. (Ed.), Whitening race: Essays in social and cultural criticism (pp. 164–175). Canberra, ACT: Aboriginal Studies Press.Google Scholar
Rudd, K. (2008). Full transcript of PM's speech. Retrieved 18 February, 2009, from http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23207256-5013172,00.html.Google Scholar
Yunupingu, M. (1994). Voices from the land. Sydney, NSW: ABC Books.Google Scholar