 First edition cover | |
| Author | Kim Scott |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Fremantle Press, Australia |
Publication date | 1999 |
| Publication place | Australia |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 497 pp |
| ISBN | 978-1-86368-240-4 |
| OCLC | 41877548 |
| 823/.914 21 | |
| LC Class | PR9619.3.S373 B46 1999 |
| Preceded by | True Country |
| Followed by | Lost |
Benang: From the Heart is a 1999 Miles Franklin Award-winning novel by Indigenous Australian author Kim Scott. [1] The award was shared with Drylands by Thea Astley.
One of the main contexts in the novel deals with the process of "breeding out the colour". [2] This was a process in which children were forcibly removed from their homes and assimilated into the white Australian society. These children were forced to "breed" with white Australians in order to lessen the appearance of the Aboriginal in them. It was believed that through this continuous process that eventually there would be no trace of Aboriginal in the future generations. Chief Protector of Aborigines in Western Australia, A. O. Neville, was a key player in this process and he believed that it would work. This process occurred due to the government's inability to classify mixed children for the government system, as well as their fear of what mixing would do for the society. [3]
It was originally claimed that Australia was uninhabited. The Stolen Generations are the mixed (Australian Aboriginal and white Australian) children who were forcibly removed from their homes and families. According to the Stolen Generations website, "The notion that the absorption or assimilation of some Aboriginal people into the European population is a form of genocide had gone around academic and leftist political circles long before Wilson's enquiry but gained enormous impetus from it", [4]
Benang is about forced cultural assimilation, and finding how one can return to their own culture. The novel presents how difficult it is to form a working history of a population who had been historically uprooted from their past. Benang follows Harley, a young man who has gone through the process of "breeding out the colour", as he pieces together his family history through documentation, such as photograph and his grandfather's notes, as well as memories and experiences. Harley and his family have undergone a process of colonial scientific experimentation called "breeding of the colour" which separated individuals from their Indigenous Australian families and origins.
Chatalongs (Irishman)
 | This article contains too many or overly lengthy quotations .(March 2023) |
So... So, by way of introduction, here I come:
The first white man born. (Page 10/12)
Raised to carry on one heritage, and ignore another, I find myself wishing to reverse that upbringing, not only for the sake of my children, but also for my ancestors, and for their children in turn. And therefore, inevitably, most especially, for myself. (Page 19/21)
Sandy One was no white man. Just as I am no white man, despite the look of me...(Page 494/496)
Reviewing the novel for The Hindu , K. Kunhikrishnan wrote:
Reading Benang, one could see that the narration could be seen as unreliable. Narration and writing style used are similar to that of stream of consciousness, factual information, history and memories. All of these help compose the complex and sometimes confusing narration of Benang. Writing styles can be compared to the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison, in the way the narrator speaks through his memories or stream of memories and facts. It is difficult to find what the narrator is going for but upon further reading all the memories, thoughts and emotions presenting in this novel finally come together.
The Stolen Generations were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church missions, under acts of their respective parliaments. The removals of those referred to as "half-caste" children were conducted in the period between approximately 1905 and 1967, although in some places mixed-race children were still being taken into the 1970s.
The Noongar are Aboriginal Australian people who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the south coast. There are 14 different groups in the Noongar cultural bloc: Amangu, Ballardong, Yued, Kaneang, Koreng, Mineng, Njakinjaki, Njunga, Pibelmen, Pindjarup, Wadandi, Whadjuk, Wiilman and Wudjari. The Noongar people refer to their land as Noongar boodja.
Keith Windschuttle is an Australian historian. He was appointed to the board of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 2006. He was editor of Quadrant from 2007 to 2015 when he became chair of the board and editor-in-chief. He was the publisher of Macleay Press, which operated from 1994 to 2010.
Australian literature is the written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early Western history, Australia was a collection of British colonies; as such, its recognised literary tradition begins with and is linked to the broader tradition of English literature. However, the narrative art of Australian writers has, since 1788, introduced the character of a new continent into literature—exploring such themes as Aboriginality, mateship, egalitarianism, democracy, national identity, migration, Australia's unique location and geography, the complexities of urban living, and "the beauty and the terror" of life in the Australian bush.
Auber Octavius Neville was a British-Australian public servant who served as the Chief Protector of Aborigines and Commissioner of Native Affairs in Western Australia, a total term from 1915 to 1940 and his retirement from government.
Jack Leonard Davis was an Australian 20th-century Aboriginal playwright, poet and Aboriginal Australian activist.
Kim Scott is an Australian novelist of Aboriginal Australian ancestry. He is a descendant of the Noongar people of Western Australia.
Burnum Burnum was an Aboriginal Australian sportsman, activist, actor, and author. He was a Woiworrung and Yorta Yorta man, born at Wallaga Lake in southern New South Wales. He was originally christened Harry Penrith but in 1976, he changed his name to Burnum Burnum after his grandfather both to honour him and acknowledge his Aboriginal identity.
The Moore River Native Settlement was the name of the now defunct Aboriginal settlement and internment camp located 135 kilometres (84 mi) north of Perth and 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) west of Mogumber in Western Australia, near the headwaters of the Moore River.
The Secret River is a 2005 historical novel by Kate Grenville about an early 19th-century Englishman transported to Australia for theft. The story explores what might have happened when Europeans colonised land already inhabited by Aboriginal people. The book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2006, and has been compared to Thomas Keneally's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and to Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang for its style and historical theme.
Bringing Them Home is the 1997 Australian Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families. The report marked a pivotal moment in the controversy that has come to be known as the Stolen Generations.
Aboriginal Australians have inhabited Western Australia from around 50,000–70,000 years ago to present.
The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow (1996) is Thea Astley's second to last novel. It won The Age Book of the Year in 1996, and was shortlisted for the 1997 Miles Franklin Award.
Kinchela is a village in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia, The village is named after Kinchela Creek, which in turn may have been named after John Kinchela, Attorney General of New South Walesin 1831. The Kinchela Aboriginal Reserve was gazetted in 1883, Kinchela was gazetted as a village in 1885 or 1886, and in 1892 an Aboriginal school was established at Pelican Island, near Kinchela.
This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1962.
On 13 February 2008, the Parliament of Australia issued a formal apology to Indigenous Australians for forced removals of Australian Indigenous children from their families by Australian federal and state government agencies. The apology was delivered by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and is also referred to as the National Apology, or simply The Apology.
Angela is a young adult novel written by Australian author James Moloney, first published in 1998 by University of Queensland Press. By 2013 the National Library of Australia listed 19 editions of the novel in a variety of formats including book, audio book, braille and e-book. It is the third book in the Gracey trilogy, the first being Dougy (1993) and the second Gracey (1994) It won an Honourable Mention in the UNESCO Prize for Children's Literature in the Service of Tolerance and Peace. It is also part of Kerry White collection of Australian children's books.
Vincent Namatjira is an Aboriginal Australian artist living in Indulkana, in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara in South Australia. He has won many art awards, and after being nominated for the Archibald Prize three times, he became the first Indigenous artist to win the prize in 2020 for his work, Stand Strong For Who You Are. Namatjira was also nominated for the prize in 2022 for Self-portrait With Dingo. He is the great-grandson of the Arrente watercolour artist Albert Namatjira who was the first Indigenous Australian to be the subject of an Archibald Prize winning portrait in 1956.
This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2000.
Hidden Generations is a term used to describe a group of Indigenous peoples who responded to colonial forces in Australia by reducing their visibility. Although the term is relatively new in public conversation, it describes a very established pattern of behaviour. The emergence of the term is an outcome of this group of Indigenous people once again asserting their cultural identity.