Jamie Oliver’s novel has been withdrawn due to its ‘damaging and disrespectful’ portrayal of First Nations people. Here is how non-Indigenous writers need to approach it: First Nations people first.
First Nations authored literature continues to excite and educate Australian readers. Non-Indigenous writers are grappling with how to craft inclusive fiction that does not impinge on Indigenous knowledge, beliefs and rights of self-representation. Inclusive fiction is central to a representative literary landscape. In settler colonies such as Australia, this comes with the danger of cultural appropriation.
The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Corporation told the Guardian the book was damaging and disrespectful, and criticised Oliver’s “erasure, trivialisation, and stereotyping of First Nations peoples and experiences”. But releasing a book that draws the ire of NATSIEC should never happen in the first place.
Often, she writes, non-Indigenous authors focus on victimhood and portray First Nations people as “distant, damaged, or dead” rather than as “ordinary living humans”. Many First Nations writers, such as Alexis Wright, Kim Scott, Saunders and John Morrissey, reject the term magical realism altogether for First Nations writing across all genres.
Jeanine asks: what is at stake for First Nations peoples when these images of us and our cultures are misrepresented and misinformed by non-Indigenous people? And what is at stake when the stealing that the nation was founded in continues as our stories continue to be taken without cultural protocol – which involves permission, consultation and collaboration with First Nations communities before writing even starts? How much damage does this do?5 tips for non-Indigenous writers Jeanine wrote a...
Australian Writing First Nations Jamie Oliver John Morrissey Kim Scott Melissa Lucashenko Mykaela Saunders Representation
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