We aren’t all in the ‘bush’, ‘outback’ or ‘on communities’…
I don’t leave my Aboriginality at the airport or in a locker at the bus station on the city fringes when I visit. It seems that some people assume that Aboriginal people don’t belong in the city or big regional centres. Research undertaken in Brisbane suggests that some people think that Aboriginal people belong in the ‘bush’, ‘outback’, and ‘on communities’. Others think that somehow our Aboriginality becomes irrelevant in the city or that we place our cultures to the side in order to ‘succeed’. In spite of such comments, Aboriginal people are still asked to give a ‘welcome’ or an ‘acknowledgment to Country’ in cities and in other urban areas. We may be asked whether we know, or could we organise, a group to do traditional dancing or play the didgeridoo, or whether we can get an artist to paint a mural or display some art? Our involvement is generally placed in the context of what is deemed ‘traditional’, ‘authentic’ or ‘tribal’. That is, we are asked to be involved in ways that portray the artistic and material cultural images of the past. What if we don’t depict the cultural and social stereotypes of what some people in society believe, perceive or expect of us? What if we aren’t dark brown or black skinned?
I have experienced people trying to categorise me by my hair, skin or eye colour, in an attempt to organise me into a grouping that suits their framework of what they perceive to be an Aboriginal woman. I have been asked, ‘What part is Aboriginal?’ I know as an urban Aboriginal woman that if I don’t fit the images that some people hold, I may be perceived as having no culture, as not being ‘real’, as ‘unauthentic’ or a ‘fake’. Sadly, some Aboriginal people feel this about themselves and others. What does the word ‘authentic’ even mean with regard to Aboriginal people in the historical context of urban Brisbane or in any other urban area?
Normally, the word ‘authentic’ is posed in a way that describes someone being more ‘tribal’ or ‘traditional’. These terms can set Aboriginal people within a timeless and static setting where we are generally represented in the bush, on a hill, or in a remote community. These images trap us and don’t represent the complex lives and situations in which we find ourselves