Silence and resistance: Aboriginal women working within and against the archive

ABSTRACT

Representation of Aboriginal women in colonial archives has long been linked to strategies of silencing and erasure. These representations still bear considerable weight over the ways in which Aboriginal womanhood is perceived and permitted in Australian society. This essay explores a history of Aboriginal women self-presentating both within and in direct response to colonial archives, and the modes of cultural translation which function to hold archival representations accountable to the realities of Aboriginal womanhood.

KEYWORDS:

• Aboriginal
• women
• representation
• resistance
• silence
• colonialism
• settler
• archive
• poetics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. While the emergence of Aboriginal publishing houses, Aboriginal editors, and Aboriginal writing initiatives have significantly expanded opportunities for Aboriginal writers, as I have written elsewhere, there are still inherent issues in the reception and intellectual engagement with the field of Aboriginal literature (EA Corr 2016).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Evelyn Araluen Corr

Evelyn Araluen Corr is a poet and teacher researching Indigenous literatures at the University of Sydney, Australia. She is a descendant of the Bundjalung nation but was born and raised in Dharug country and community.