Translating histories: Australian Aboriginal narratives, history and literature
Date
2008-11
Authors
McGrath, Ann
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Chūkyō Shuppan
Abstract
Can literature exist without history? Can history exist without literature? I argue that
Indigenous authors and artists are now leading the way towards new tellings of
Australian history which go beyond the last ice age. In Australia, the topic of
'Aboriginal History' is conventionally narrated from the starting date of 1788, with
the British arrival to the shores around Sydney Harbour. From the late 1970s,
historians started to fill the erasure of written narratives. They tried to address the
neglected Aboriginal side of an Australian history that had been presented as a white
narrative of nation. However, as my own work attests, we historians still followed the
same dates as many other authors of national history. In Creating a Nation, a feminist
history of Australia that I co-authored with Patricia Grimshaw, Marilyn Lake and
Marian Quartly, I wrote about 'Birthplaces' at Port Jackson, a story of gendered
encounter. In my edited volume, Contested Ground: Aborigines under the British
Crown, it seemed appropriate to start in 1788 with the arrival of the First Fleet of
British convicts and the marine officers in charge. I But I no longer believe this is
adequate. Such a 'false start' is a narrative trick that we have replayed for too long.
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Translation of history
Citation
McGrath, A., Translating histories, also published in The Southern Hemisphere Review - Australian and New Zealand Literature Society of Japan Journal, November, 2008.
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The Southern Hemisphere Review - Australian and New Zealand Literature Society of Japan Journal
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Journal article
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