Josephine Walton

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History Written Task #4

How have your studies in this unit so far influenced your understanding of the
Foley and Nakata readings?
Back in week two when I first read Too White to be Black, Too Black to be White
by Dennis Foley and Better: A Torres Strait Islanders story of the Struggle for
Better Education by Martin Nakata, I was focused on how what they had to say
related to the present world that I am living in. Having now spent another seven
weeks studying the history of Australian Indigenous Peoples, I was much more
aware of their suffering and struggles. When I re-read the two readings, I was
much more aware of how the history of his ancestors would have had an impact
on Nakata. It also gave much more meaning to the social racism that the
students Foley wrote of were victims of. It was only as I was re-reading Foleys
article that it truly dawned on me that social racism is not even close to ending,
it simply shifts in its context as the times change.
As soon as European settles first arrived in Australia, as a solution to
overcrowding in their prisons and a strategic position for the expanding empire
(HIST106 Lecture Week 1: Many Stories), the Indigenous Australians were
considered to be lesser people. The missions and reserves that Indigenous
Australians lived on in the 19 th Century intentionally separated people from their
own land and European settlement (HIST106 Lecture Week 5: Protectorates,
Missions and Reserves) and were provided with hardly any money and few
rations (Broome, 2010, p83). In the 20 th Century, discrimination, caste barriers
and white racism [led to] poor education, lowly paid jobs, low esteem
substandard housing, ill health, improvident habits, poverty [and] poor
education (Broome, 2010, p185). Assimilation policies, especially cultural
assimilation meant that Indigenous Australians had to earn rights that every
other Australia had by right of birth, yet they were expected to adapt to the
Australian Way of life (HIST106 Lecture Week 6: Assimilation).
I found I was able to draw strong connections between the lecture on
Assimilation in week six and Foleys article. Foley himself referenced the man in
1935 of part Indigenous descent who was ejected and rejected from
establishments because he was an Indigenous while also being refused entry on
missions because he was not Indigenous (Foley, 2000, p44). Assimilation was a
form of social racism, and the students in the study suffered in similar ways,
because they were too black to be white and too white to be black.
The lecture that had the most impact on me, and most influenced my re-reading
of Foley and Nakata, was the week that we spoke about Child Removal. While
Naomi told us we shouldnt feel guilty, it was certainly hard not to. Thinking
about the estimated 100,000 children who were forcibly taken (HIST106 Lecture
Week 7: Child Removal) was overwhelming. For some reason, this made me think
of Nakata and his children, whom he did not want to celebrate a culture that was
framed in terms of lack (Nakata, 2012, 92). I think I drew the connection because
child removal had a deep impact on family, which rippled across the generations;
and Nakata and his family are still touched by the same suffering of earlier
generations. Considering this ripple effect, I find it amazing that Indigenous
Australians like Adam Goodes can say that they appreciate Australia for the
 Josephine Walton
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freedom they have (Wood & Elliot, 2014). We can only hope that one day
everyone in Australia will have freedom and equal opportunities.

REFERENCES
Broome, R. (2010). Aboriginal Australians: A History Since 1788 (4th ed.). Crows
Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin
Foley, Dennis. "Too White to be Black, Too Black to be White." Social
Alternatives 19, no. 4 (2000): 44-9.
HIST106 Lecture Week 1: Many Stories
HIST106 Lecture Week 5: Protectorates, Missions and Reserves
HIST106 Lecture Week: 6: Assimilation
HIST106 Lecture Week 7: Child Removal
Martin Nakata, Better: A Torres Strait Islanders Story of the Struggle for a Better
Education in Kaye Price (ed) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Education: An Introduction for the Teaching Profession (Port Melbourne:
Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp.81-93.
Wood, S. & Elliot, T. (January 26, 2014). Adams Honour Only Half The Picture.
Retrieved from http://www.theage.com.au/national/adams-honour-only-half-
the-picture-20140125-31frm.html