Post-colonial Literature for Children – EDU32PLCWeek 6 Lecture 12

Monocultures and Multicultures

© La Trobe University, David Beagley, 2006

References

Use the Library catalogue, databases and other searching tools to examine the history of immigration to Australia, and the evolution of social attitudes to “outsiders”.

Bunbury, R. (1997) Old neighbours, new visions - at a melting point?

Kroll, J. (1997) The new Fringe Dwellers: the problem of ethnicity in recent Australian children’s picture books.

Both in Old neighbours, new visions: selected papers from the 1st conference of the Australian Children’s Literature Association for Research, ed. Maureen Nimon. Adelaide: University of South Australia

(Bunbury on e-reserve, Kroll not, due to copyright rules!)

Foreign Children - RL Stevenson 1885

Little Indian, Sioux or Crow / Little frosty Eskimo,Little Turk or Japanee / Don’t you wish that you were me?

You have seen the scarlet trees / And the Lion over seas,You have eaten ostrich eggs / And turned the turtle off its

legs.

Such a life is very fine / But it’s not so nice as mine:You must often, as you trod / Have wearied, not to be abroad.

You have curious things to eat / I am fed on proper meat;You must dwell beyond the foam / But I am safe and live at

home.

Little Indian, Sioux or Crow / Little frosty Eskimo,Little Turk or Japanee / Don’t you wish that you were me?

Cultural markers

How is one culture distinguished from another?

• Language• Religious beliefs - morality and expressions of right and wrong

• Social groups - family, kinship, castes/classes. Responsibilities to each other

• History - how it has been shaped, and treated in relation to other cultures

• Outward expressions of identity - e.g. appearance, symbols, gestures, food, behaviour

Multiculturalism

• Relating to several cultural groups• Co-existing• Inclusive - allows the equivalence of those several

• Respect for, and acceptance of, differences• Breaks the binary pattern of superior/inferior - invader/indigenous - imperial/provincial

• Difficulties: how are contradictions resolved?

Assimilation

• The culture of one group is seen as the norm in a society

• Other groups are allowed freedom for personal expression of their culture …but …

• Are expected to adapt their cultural markers to the pattern allowed by that norm, if there is a contradiction

• Difficulties: how are contradictions resolved?

Apartheid

• Separate development of cultures in a society - Apart + hood

• Developed and formalised in South Africa 1948-91

• Expressed by separation - transport and social facilities, schooling, ownership and economics

• In theory, to allow cultural integrity to be maintained and developed

• In practice, the suppression of “other” groups to the advantage of a dominant

Evolution of Australia’s multiculturalism

• 1788 - Settlement / Invasion - depending which side you were on.

• Anglo-Celtic soldiers and convicts• 1820s-40s - Free settlers - Anglo-Celtic• 1850s - Gold Rush - immense & rapid migration

• European, US, and Chinese• 1860s - continuing European, restrictions on Chinese

• 1890s - White Australia - Blackbirding - the Bush ethos - Federation and independence

Evolution of Australia’s multiculturalism

• 1900s - White Australia strictly enforced, British Empire identity dominant

• 1910s - First World War - anti-German hysteria

• 1920s - resumption of European migration, especially Italian for farming/orchards

• 1930s - Depression, European Jewry fleeing Hitler

• 1940s - WW2 - post-war migration boom from war-torn Europe, £10 Poms, Dutch, Italian

• Arthur Caldwell - “2 Wongs don’t make a white”

• 1950s - Factory fodder, Snowy scheme

Evolution of Australia’s multiculturalism

• 1960s - Swing to Eastern Europe - Poland, Yugoslavia, Hungary etc., trickle of non-Europeans.

• 1967 - referendum to give Aborigines citizenship.

• 1970s - Vietnam War - boat people and refugees. Major shift from the European to Asian and African

• 1980s - Multiculturalism emerges as social concept, especially around Bicentennial. Advertising campaigns and festivals

• 1990s - 2000s - Queue jumpers, detention centres, “we will decide who comes here”