Preview

Dispossession In Garry Foley's White Myths Damage Our Souls

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
408 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Dispossession In Garry Foley's White Myths Damage Our Souls
The long challenge of indigenous people has been overcome by not only their feeling of dispossession of their land but also that dispossession of being emotionally hurt through that of indigenous culture and family. Passage one Red Indian Heritage is my reading of a plea by Chief Seattle to keep his peoples land and this their way of life; it informs my reading of Garry Foley’s article White Myths Damage Our Souls which was writing over one hundred years after Seattle’s. Both texts explore similar ideas of dispossession within indigenous people. Foley’s article informs the reader of that forced assimilation of Koori people in Australia has cost them their Aboriginality which is also something Chief Seattle mentioned in his speech as to what

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    She showed how her knowledge from Western schooling pushed her to learn more about Indigenous knowledge and how both forms can have a strong impact on the world. Also, it took a vast amount of strength for Gehl to overcome her position in society according to the Indian Act and fight against the government to achieve for herself, the good life. In this book, many topics are touched upon that bring to surface the problems within the Canadian government and the issues the government imposes onto the Aboriginal population. Lynn Gehl in Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit proves that sexism within the Indian Act of 1876, racialization and discrimination, colonialism through unfair treaties and denial of traditional Aboriginal land are all issues that affect the lives of the Aboriginal community and make their struggle towards Aboriginal status and mino-pimadiziwin much greater. In my analysis, I will show how racialization, discrimination, and colonialism has affected the Indigenous community and how sexism has both directly affected women in the Aboriginal community and Gehl in the process of achieving Indian…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    To present day, the history and culture of indigenous communities are often sugar-coated till the significance is lost. Through stereotypes of appearance and spirituality, a boundary is created to isolate these marginalized people from the rest of society -- this is all due to the colonialist mindset. To clarify, this mindset entails the feeling of inferiority or oppression by a group of people who never reciprocate respect, as a result of colonization (d’Errico). Peter d’Errico, a central figure in the litigation of indigenous peoples’ issues, states that the term colonialism “is a bad word” and it is now “fashionable to say we live in a ‘post-colonial’ world” (d’Errico). It is through analytical stories such as Borders where this mindset is addressed and illustrated through the recognizable experience of border crossings.…

    • 1706 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    This story is important because it situates Indigenous people within the historic and contemporary nation building processes of Canada and connects their original claim to the land with the the colonial injustices of Europeans. In depicting Europeans as a settler population within Canada, Indigenous people are able to redefine their identity as intrinsically linked to their original land rights. This identification conflicts with the Eurocentric portrayal of Indigeneity, which treats Indigenous Canadians as Other. In addition, this self-segregation by Indigenous populations “…implies a high degree of solidarity among group members” (Rosenberg, 24). This is crucial in creating political unity and achieving collective political aspirations.…

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Walker’s poem, We are going, the power of culture as an influence of belonging is investigated. The poem explores ownership of land that white settlers have inhabited. The land was previously used as a bora ring, for traditional Aboriginal Corroberees, which are a very important part of Aboriginal culture, used for celebrations and initiations of…

    • 1203 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    From 1910-1970, many Indigenous children were taken from their biological families, because of unnecessary government policies. Although this is over, the traumatic experience of the children who experienced that, consequently, is having a current impact on Indigenous communities, families and individuals. The Stolen Generation is what these children are known as. The Europeans wrongly told the children of the Stolen Generation that their parents had either died or abandoned them after once they were under the care of the Europeans, moreover, manipulating them into thinking what they were doing was right.…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    however the overarching determinant on a structural level that continues to oppress Aboriginal children is racism. Racism is correlated and entrenched within the history of Australia, starting from the time of colonisation (Priest, Mackean, Davis, Waters, & Briggs, 2012). Griffiths, Coleman, Lee, & Madden (2016) describes that social injustice occurs in the context of colonisation which is to forcibly takeover Indigenous people’s land without any respect to their laws and rights. Furthermore, for the Indigenous community, health isn’t just about being physically immune from diseases, but rather health is seen as a holistic notion that is achieved through the wellbeing of the land, the community and spirit. The colonisation process however separated them from this holistic wellbeing and its implications are manifested through various health related issues in children and youth (Griffiths, Coleman, Lee, & Madden, 2016). In a study done with parents perspective on their children’s experiences with racism, one parent named Bob emphasised that Aboriginal people cope with day to day survival dude to colonisation that has resulted in the diminishing of majority of the Aboriginal community in South East Australia. Other parent’s responded that colonisation has negatively influenced the self-esteem on their children in regards to how they saw themselves in respect to others…

    • 1994 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The continuing effect of dispossession on Aboriginal spirituality has caused a destruction of the kinship system. The separation from the land has had a devastating effect on the Aborigines because it has broken the ties of their spiritualities with the Dreaming since it is inextricably linked with the land. The separation from the land meant removing a sense of belonging to life and the separation from family removes the sense of belonging to oneself, which is also known as the Stolen Generations. Dispossession has caused a number of problems in Aboriginal society which includes lower life expectancy, higher rate of infant mortality, overrepresentation in prison, educational disadvantages, higher unemployment rates and higher drug and alcohol use. In reference to the statement above, “It never goes away”, implies that the trauma in which the land have been dispossess from them will never disappear from their memory and they will forever remember this unjust act which has greatly affected them. Also, the fact that they will continue to “carry these sorts of wounds ’til the day I die” suggests how they are constantly living in immense pain even though they are not hurt physically but they are hurt emotionally and mentally. Ultimately, the main causes to why these Aborigines are feeling very damaged is because of the dispossession of the land is incredibly vital for them as they have referred the land as their ‘mother’ land and that the dispossession has caused a detrimental impact on the Aboriginal…

    • 963 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    At the turn of the twentieth century the systematic forced removal of Aboriginal children from their mothers, families and cultural heritage was commonplace. There were several reasons that the government and white society used to justify the separation but the prevailing ideology of nationalism and maintaining Australia for the ‘whites’ was the over-riding motivation and justification for their actions[1]. Progressive sciences such as anthropology espoused such theories as eugenics, miscegenation, biological absorption and assimilation which legitimated governmental policies relating to Aboriginal affairs[2]. It was perceived by white society that Aboriginal children were neglected and they were removed based on the premise that they needed protection from their community environment. It was further believed that the removal of these children was in their best interest for both the present and their future.[3]…

    • 1847 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Colonisation has impacted profoundly on indigenous communities worldwide and this essays examines and details some of those impacts.…

    • 1656 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The consequences of dispossession for aboriginal spirituality have been enormously and overwhelming detrimental. Two centuries of dispossession impacted greatly on Aboriginal Spirituality most significantly the separation from land led to a loss of identity and thus the dreaming and it’s rituals that follow. The dreaming is inextricably connected to the land and thus the forceful removal from their land means that Aboriginals lost much more than a place to call home. For Aboriginals the land is their mother their sole purpose in life is to love and protect the land and one day return home to the grasp of their mother country. The dispossession from the land resulted in a continuing burden for aboriginal as they were no longer able to fulfil…

    • 239 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The land provides the aboriginals their dreaming element so the Experiential and Emotional dimension is represented through the incredible strong connection and dependency to the land, their emotions with each other and with what they are doing and how it makes them feel.…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Therefore, when a person becomes alienated or disconnected from that society, it is the responsibility of everyone in that society to bring the person back into a harmonious relationship with him/her “self”, as well as with the rest of the community. This may mean that the society itself needs to take a long hard look at its own practices and systems, which may be “contributing factors” to the person’s alienation from it. The society may need to heal itself. When a crime is committed it results in the creation of an inequality between the victim and the offender. Unlike the vertical structures of European/ Canadian Justice systems where crime is a violation of the law of the state, all matters in an Aboriginal society are private (James, 1999). Aboriginal societies do not make the distinction between criminal and civil law that is found in the Euro- American tradition. In an Aboriginal society, when a crime is committed the debt that is created is owed to the victim, not the state. The victim has been placed in a lowered status by the victimizer. It becomes the obligation of the victimizer to raise the victim to the status previously held; that being equal with all others within the…

    • 1504 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Aboriginal Charter of Rights, aimed at a white audience in the 1960s, discusses the problems faced by the aboriginal people and how they want to be treated as equals. It also shows that they know that they are being exploited and the lack of respect they receive. Lines such as “Must we native Old Australians in our land rank as aliens?” (lines 41-42) and “Give us welcome, not aversion” (line 23) are used to tell the reader that the Aborigines, whom had called Australia home, long before the white settlers, are alienated from their homes and from society. The poem also references religious indoctrination and how, even after the indigenous people were “…baptised and blessed and bibled” (line 35), they are still “…tabooed and libeled” (line 36). The poem gives a message to the white population that the aboriginal people do not want to be exploited and that they want the discrimination to end. This is shown in lines such as “Make us equals, not dependents” (line 4). Aboriginal Charter of Rights exposes the problems in society and how, through abuse of power, the Aboriginal people’s rights were oppressed.…

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wildcat’s article “The Question of Self-Determination” explains that self-determination is when one freely chooses to act or think a certain way. He then examines in great detail the question of what does self-determination really mean for Indigenous Peoples? Wildcat states that Indigenous self-determination commences with consideration for the relations around us whether they are political, social, economic or spiritual in nature. The article also explains that education is in and of itself an assimilation process as it forces differently minded people to conform to the dominant Western culture. It is clear that this is where problems have been arising because one culture cannot determine what is best for another culture. Wildcat proposes…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Practice: Many aboriginal Australians were removed from their homeland and moved to reservations. The aboriginals were forced out of their traditional lifestyles and forced into a controlled white community lifestyle. Many children were taken away from their families to be raised up to become ‘European’ and try to ‘bleed’ out the Aboriginal bleed. Later on these children are known as the ‘Stolen Generations’.…

    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays