|
|
Article: Note on style.(aborigines)
- Article from:
- Quarterly Essay
- Article date:
- June 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Schwartz Publishing Pty Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
If there is an us-and-themness to this story, which rudely assumes the reader is non-Aboriginal, I apologise, but as a white man I cannot do other than stand on the outside and look in. Nor do I seek to sign up to the growing white Australian sport of claiming a Warlpiri, Pintupi, Pitjantjatjara or Noongar great-grandmother in my heritage. None exists.
Besides, Aborigines are used to being talked about rather than talked to, are they not? Perhaps this is something I picked up from the previous PM, who always seemed so disconnected from and baffled by Aborigines. He could only talk of "them," whereas he found it easier to gather up the great white suburban clans ...