I'm a recent subscriber to this forum and had intended to wait a while before submitting any thoughts, but I was recently struck by some thoughts which I found interesting and thought I might share. I'm from and live in Australia but have travelled far and wide in the world, but as I know Australia best I shall limit myself at this point to discussing my birthplace. So when I read the passage in Lila about how certain aspects of the mythical American identity (cowboys etc) are taken from the Native Americans it struck me that it might be possible to apply this to all countries where an occupying/colonial power has usurped native lands.
As such my thoughts turned to the Australian Aborigines and contemporary white/multi-cultural Australia. I discovered that apart from the very superficial differences inherent in these two groups (such as appearance), it seems to me that the Australian mythical character of the Digger/Outback Settler, as well as the Outback Woman are derived, in similar ways to those described for the Indians and Cowboys, from the Aborigines. in fact there are aspects of Aboriginal spiritual belief which have become absorbed into the greater Australian psyche. a good example of this is the notion of belonging to the land, this idea comes from the Dreamtime myths (creation myths) and they state that the people were born out of the land and thus the land is their mother and that therefore the people belong to the land rather than the other way around. When European settlers appeared here they used this as an excuse to claim that the land wasn't owned by anyone invoking the law of terra nullius. it's unfortunate that much of contemporary Australian history (since colonisation) seems to have been an attempt to eradicate all traces of Aborigines and there culture from this country. this kind of attitude produced, massacres in the early days, and culminated in the White Australia policy (a form of cultural genocide), which has given us the stolen generations and meant the loss of many tribal customs, stories, and languages. However it is clear to me that all of this horrible tale has led to the culture that Australia has today and that far from eradicating Aborigines and their culture, we have ended up being absorbed into their culture and vice versa. Our cultural identity is taken from them, our language uses their words, and our sense of home and country is one that we owe our native people for. Ask any Australian and they will tell you that at some time or another the have stood in the bush and felt a deep spiritual connection to the land.
this is a fairly lengthy first letter and I hope it isn't just going over old ground.
thanks,
Jasmine
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