growing up aboriginal in australia edited by anita heiss

That’s the most heartbreaking aspect of Growing Up Aboriginal In Australia for me – the impact that colonisation has had, and the damage it has done, in deciding what a “real” Aboriginal person “should” look like, or how they should live.Įach account reveals, to some degree, the impact of invasion and colonisation – on language, on country, on ways of life… Growing Up Aboriginal In Australia (Anita Heiss, Introduction) The feeling of not being “black enough” or “Aboriginal enough”, and lamenting loss of connection to ancestry and culture, is present in almost all of these stories. That’s not to say that their Literary(TM) writing is any better than that in Growing Up Aboriginal In Australia, or vice versa – simply that different styles will appeal to and resonate for different readers. You should try reading Melissa Lucashenko, or Alexis Wright.

However, if you’re looking for literary masterpieces about First Nations people, this isn’t the collection you’re looking for. You don’t need to be a “reader” to appreciate and learn from them, nor do you have to be an adult (I’d say Growing Up Aboriginal In Australia is appropriate and accessible to just about any age group with an interest in reading it). That’s good in the sense that it makes these accounts widely accessible.

On the whole, they’re not particularly arty or Literary(TM). Mostly, the stories are told in a straightforward essay format, though some of the contributors mixed it up, offering conversation transcripts, open letters, and poetry. The only requirement Heiss laid out for them is that their stories be true, non-fiction accounts about (as the title suggests) growing up Aboriginal in Australia. For many, it’s the first time they’ve published anything they’ve written. Contributors to Growing Up Aboriginal In Australia include a handful of writers you might recognise – like Tony Birch, Evelyn Araluen, Tara June Winch – but they are mostly non-writers. She’s done an excellent job of collating diverse stories from a broad cross-section of Aboriginal people. The anthology is edited by Anita Heiss, an Aboriginal Australian author, poet, cultural activist and social commentator. Get Growing Up Aboriginal In Australia here.

Growing up aboriginal in australia edited by anita heiss