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A review by katetay69
Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia by Anita Heiss
4.0
Another powerful Anthology in the Growing Up series. A necessary read.
As with any anthology some resonated with me more than others. They are all written with tenderness, vulnerability, power and hope.
I think a big takeaway from reading this (and there are many) is the intergenerational trauma from the stolen generations. Along with Aboriginal people who "don't look Aboriginal" and have fair skin, are constantly berated, questioned, and challenged on their Aboriginality.
Some favourite quotes:
- Two Tiddas (Suzy and Alice Anderson) : "because we didn't have dad around, and when theres a connection to him, it makes me feel like a full person.
"I'm struggling to find the voice to write about this because I feel like I don't have any agency or my worlds don't have any value. Like who cares what a fair skinned Aboriginal girl's experience was?"
"I feel like a whole person knowing we have our ancestors helping us, Seeing a pelican fly above me and feeling safe. We're lucky".
As a non-indigenous person, I often wonder how nice it must be to have a connection to land and ancestors.
-White bread dreaming (Shannon Foster)
"My father's ability to story tell was an ancestral ability born of thousands of years of knowledge sharing".
-The little town on the railway track (Kerry Reed-Gilbert)
"When people say to me your mob lives in the past I say to them, No the past lives in us, because if I can stand in front of you and talk about segregation and apartheid that I've experienced in my own country, it can't be the past because I am very much living".
As with any anthology some resonated with me more than others. They are all written with tenderness, vulnerability, power and hope.
I think a big takeaway from reading this (and there are many) is the intergenerational trauma from the stolen generations. Along with Aboriginal people who "don't look Aboriginal" and have fair skin, are constantly berated, questioned, and challenged on their Aboriginality.
Some favourite quotes:
- Two Tiddas (Suzy and Alice Anderson) : "because we didn't have dad around, and when theres a connection to him, it makes me feel like a full person.
"I'm struggling to find the voice to write about this because I feel like I don't have any agency or my worlds don't have any value. Like who cares what a fair skinned Aboriginal girl's experience was?"
"I feel like a whole person knowing we have our ancestors helping us, Seeing a pelican fly above me and feeling safe. We're lucky".
As a non-indigenous person, I often wonder how nice it must be to have a connection to land and ancestors.
-White bread dreaming (Shannon Foster)
"My father's ability to story tell was an ancestral ability born of thousands of years of knowledge sharing".
-The little town on the railway track (Kerry Reed-Gilbert)
"When people say to me your mob lives in the past I say to them, No the past lives in us, because if I can stand in front of you and talk about segregation and apartheid that I've experienced in my own country, it can't be the past because I am very much living".