Mabo’s Cultural Legacy: History, Literature, Film and Cultural Practice in Contemporary Australia

Description

More than any other event in Australia’s legal, political and cultural history, the High Court of Australia’s 1992 Mabo decision challenged previous ways of thinking about land, identity, belonging, the nation and history. Now, more than a quarter of a century after Mabo, this book examines the broader impacts of this landmark legal decision on various forms of Australian culture and cultural practice. How is Australia’s post-Mabo imaginary being reflected, refracted and articulated in contemporary film, fiction, poetry, biography and other forms of cultural expression? To what extent has the discussion and practice of history, linguistics, anthropology and other branches of the humanities been challenged or transformed by Mabo? While the judges in Mabo recognised native title, they also denied Indigenous people sovereignty over the continent: how is First Nations sovereignty being articulated and creatively imagined in more recent post-Mabo discourse? This interdisciplinary book, offering a transnational perspective via scholars based in Australia, continental Europe and the UK, provides an overview of the diverse impact and discursive influence of Mabo on fields of artistic endeavour and cultural practice in Australia today.  Cover Front Matter Half title Title page Copyright information Contents Acknowledgments Intro, Part I-V Introduction Why Is Mabo Significant? Beyond Mabo: Towards Recognition and Indigenous Sovereignty References Part I Making History Chapter 1 Activism Before Mabo Land Rights, Law, Human Rights Victorian Aboriginal People Letters and Petitions, the Coranderrk Papers William Cooper and the Australian Aborigines’ League And on to Mabo Conclusions Acknowledgements References Chapter 2 Remembering Koiki and Bonita Mabo, Pioneers of Indigenous Education Learning History from Its Makers Koiki and Aunty Kath Koiki and Queensland’s Unions Black Community Education References Part II Mabo in Politics and Practice Chapter 3 Responsibility = Ownership? Tourism, Heritage and Mining In Court Conclusion References Chapter 4 The Contributions of Linguistics to Native Title Claims Language and Linguistics in Native Title Studying Place Names Ethnonyms and Glossonyms The Miriuwung–Gajerrong Native Title Claim Acknowledgements References Part III Mabo and Film Chapter 5 Australian Indigenous Filmmaking Beyond Mabo Indigenous Film Policy and Production An Indigenous Australian Film Production Framework, ICIPR and Land The Position of Indigenous Sovereign Filmmaking in Australian Screen Culture Conclusion References Chapter 6 Filmic Representations of Eddie Mabo in a Changing Cultural Imaginary Appraising Mabo Documenting Eddie Mabo Featuring Eddie Mabo References Chapter 7 Torres Strait Screen Media ‘Post-Mabo’ Parallels in Politics and Media Torres Strait Screen Media Collaboration Institutionalisation/Nationalisation Diversification Lone Star Conclusion References Part IV Fiction and Poetry Chapter 8 Melissa Lucashenko’s Mullumbimby References Chapter 9 Writing the Land, Writing Relations That Deadman Dance as Songline Where to Now? Imagining a Shared Future References Chapter 10 Aboriginal Jurisprudence in Philip Mclaren’s Lightning Mine References Chapter 11 Rewriting History, Rewriting Identity The Rejection of Terra Nullius, Displacement and Identity References Part V Mabo and Memoir Chapter 12 Are We Better Than This? The Belated Activist Stan Grant and the Public Arena References Chapter 13 Beyond Native Title Writing after Mabo The Medium of Memoir Not ‘My Country’ References End Matter Contributors Index