Have a sense of difference makes it difficult to belong
PARAGRAPH ONE
Be specific about the different ways the aborigines were treated and how they were socially excluded and treated like social outcasts. (Pick and choose.)
- The children had to sit in the front at the cinema; the indigenous patients were made to sit on the veranda at the hospital. (Patti’s mother also states, “the aborigines were always put on the veranda” (205)
- The indigenous families were controlled by a ration system that distributed staple items. In the 1970s, the aborigines were stilling coming to the Wellington police station to collect their ration tickets. (203)
- The father had to ask for permission from the Bulgandramine Mission manager to go to town (194)
- Jimmy Governor was not paid for his labour; he was exploited
- Andy Towney was refused a drink from the RSL club in the 1970s when he returned from the Vietnam War (196).
Consequences for sense of self; erosion of confidence
- Sense of being disempowered; socially disengaged/disaffected
- The missionaries did not think the Wiradjuri had a spiritual life. “They had not heard of the Dreamtime or the Rainbow serpent and dismissed the stories they were told as fantastical.” (85)
- This constant sense of exclusion leads to feelings of worthlessness; they are made to feel like second class citizens; they are subject to segregation; “It was segregation like South Africa”, says Evelyn. (194)
- The indigenous citizens feel a strong sense of hatred; they engage in anti-social activities and violence. Wayne says, “I was a complete madman. Absolutely mental. Absolutely mental.”
- Jimmy Govenor – snapped and killed a group of 5 women and children. “the women had apparently taunted Jimmy’s white wife for marrying a black man.”
- Evelyn constantly feels a sense of pain; she draws attention to the fact that they were treated as lesser human beings. At the cinema she was told, “get back down ‘ere you little nigger”. (195). “She knew the hurting inside herself, the pain of not being regarded as fully human”.(199)
Comparisons:
- Archie Roach, who was made a Member of the Order of Australia (2015) for services as a musician and “spokesman for justice” was a “stolen generation” child brought up with foster family in Melbourne. He remembers a time “in the apartheid era when he saw similarities between the predicament of Indigenous Australians and black South Africans. “There was exclusion, you know. There was a sense of we are not supposed to be here or a sense of that you belong in this other place which is beneath us”.
- migrants; refugees; Kayne/ Wayne (socially disaffected and disengaged); disabled people. Mrs Sharp is told by the doctor in the 1970s to institutionalise her autistic son.
ANOTHER PARAGRAPH
Similarly, individual often feel a sense of difference because of traumatic experiences. Physical dislocation often precipitates an emotional or psychological crisis.
Bushfire victims (Matthew) or soldiers: Matthew and the soldier – feelings of being emotionally dislocated (psychiatrist)
PARAGRAPH 3
The challenge for such individuals is to try to find a way to engage without being ostracised or humiliated or controlled.
Positive: reconnect with roots; – regain pride and dignity/ confidence/ place to belong; exercise control over self esteem
- Wayne finds strength in the aboriginal myths – the knowledge of kinship systems gives a strong sense of place. (Obsession with land rights claim: 250, 232, 155.)
- Migrants find strength in discovering their ethnic and cultural roots. eg. Najhi Chu
- Kayne finds a substitute family and discovers love and trust – dignity
- Matthew and soldiers (see psychiatrist’s comments) – need to retain a sense of the whole
Return to Mind of a Thief: Summary page