Projects per year
Abstract
First Nations boys and men are heavily freighted with colonial stereotypes that give them to be antisocial, drug-addicted, violent, and harmful to their own communities. While men are consistently represented as neglectful or abusive fathers, Aboriginal boys are depicted as potential criminals whose childhood is blighted, and who lack guidance from suitable father figures or male role models. This article addresses three depictions of father-son relationships which engage different strategies for addressing negative stereotypes of Indigenous boys. Aaron Petersen and Alec Doomadgee's Zach Ceremony (2016) is analysed in terms of its internalisation of settler-colonial problematisations of Indigenous masculinities and over-investment in the male role-model discourse that frames settler disparagement of Aboriginal communities. I then turn to In My Blood It Runs (2019) and Robbie Hood (2019) as examples of representations that articulate more complex and ambivalent navigations of colonial stereotypes and appropriations of ‘Indigenous masculinities,’ and that largely avoid and critique settler discourse on Aboriginal boyhood.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Australian Feminist Studies |
Early online date | 9 Jul 2024 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 9 Jul 2024 |
Keywords
- Boyhood
- Indigenous boyhood
- Settler colonialism
- Australian cinema
- Australian television
- Indigenous television
- Indigenous documentary
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ARC Future Fellowship: Significances of 'childhood' in postcolonial Australia
6/02/18 → 5/02/21
Project: Research