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Indigenous woman which, although commonly accepted terms to use at the time, were still
considered paternalistic descriptions. However, the ways in which the terms are included in
this narrative do not seem to be negative or paternalistic, which perhaps owing to their
widespread usage is a way for the hidden messages of non-Indigenous superiority to be
communicated. So, the non-paternalistic way in which the terms are used here could be
because the terms are mediated through their connection with British heritages and the
overall representation of Lura, the Indigenous girl, who is positioned as having superior
knowledge to the English girl, Julie. Just as significant as the terms used to describe
Indigenous Australians, are the terms used when describing the two protagonists, Julie and
Lura, as a collective. This is noteworthy as describing an Indigenous and non-Indigenous
person in the same collective group does not occur elsewhere in school texts. In this
narrative, the following terms are used to describe the girls: “great friends”; “they”; “her
friend”; “we”; and “two little pals” (Wallace, 1958, pp. 112, 113).
6.10 Examples of Resistant and Alternative Readings of Indigenous Representations
There are a number of examples of resistant and alternative readings of Indigenous
representations in textbooks from this era. Samples of content that break away from typical
representations of Indigenous Australians are found in textbooks across the era, not just in
the latter years, which could have been reasonably expected given the rise in profile of social
justice and political rights for Australia’s Indigenous population.
6.10.1 Discourses of traditional life.
The earliest example of resistant readings can be found in The first hundred years (Palmer &
MacLeod, 1954/1964). Although the textbook primarily reproduces the official knowledge of
curriculum, part of it presents as an alternative reading. See Source 6.41 for an extended
extract of the textbook that contains an alternative perspective of regarding Indigenous
Australians as primitive when living in their traditional environment, following a traditional
lifestyle.
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