All too often over the course of Australian political history Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander peoples have been stereotyped and dehumanised. ‘Aboriginal’ identity is often thought of, and depicted as, fulfilling a fixed criterion without appreciation for the multitude of tribal differences, the evolution of culture and religion over time, and individual personalities. Aboriginal people become blank canvases in the eyes of mainstream society, which then overlays its own prejudices and world views. However, both Rene Baker: File #28/E.D.P and Peopling the Cleland Hills in their own way break through this constrictive narrative of indigenous history and culture.
Rene Baker was written jointly by Rene Powell and Bernadette Kennedy. Powell recounts her life as a member of the Stolen Generations, and it is a moving story of injustice, sadness, strength and hope.
She came from Milyirritjarra country near Warburton, Western Australia. At the age of four, Powell was forcibly removed from her people. She writes about how, when she was taken away on the mission truck, her mother ‘started crying’ and ‘went into mourning’, while Powell was inconsolable. Remarkably, though, Powell’s removal is not as saddening an aspect of her story as is her own disconnectedness from both her traditional culture and mainstream society. She spent the rest of her childhood institutionalised, and upon returning to her family Powell found she had lost her language. Because of this there was an ‘empty space’ between her and her mother.
Meanwhile, she was not accepted by wider society. Powell was a dark-skinned girl raised in a white world, living in limbo. Through all of this, though, she manages to struggle her way through a world stacked against her, and thereby claim her identity.
Driven by her personal friendship with Powell, Kennedy situates her political analysis of the removal policy of the Western Australian government in the context of Powell’s life story. This makes Kennedy’s insights and research all the more powerful and poignant. In other words, Kennedy’s compassion motivates and sharpens her insights.
There are two fundamental ideas running through Kennedy’s analysis. First, the Stolen Generations issue requires a shift in focus away from the rights of the victims towards addressing the injustice of the policy itself and the actions carried out to further it. Kennedy’s hypothesis is that a rights focus is too individualistic and adversarial, and is in part responsible for the Federal Government’s refusal to apologise for fear of being