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Crossroads: Imperialism and race relations (Cowie, 1982). Within Chapter 16: Race
relations in Australia, for example, discourses of a ‘dying race’ in terms of the perceived
inevitability of the future of Indigenous Australians is clearly communicated. However, by
using past tense, it is clear that the textbook author, Cowie, is not sympathetic with this
perspective in a contemporary sense. Instead this discourse and related content is included,
legitimised due to its historical importance, and a view that is firmly in the past (in this case
from the 1920s). See Source 7.40, for the extract, with primary source included.
Source 7.40. Discourses of a dying race extract from Crossroads: Imperialism and
race relations (Cowie, 1982, p. 307).
There is also a clear discourse operating of Indigenous Australians as victims of circumstance
with pity expressed towards Indigenous Australians of the impact on their lives as a
consequence of colonisation. In particular, terms (italicized) used to communicate this
discourse of victimhood included, for example: “...sedentary life on the fringes...increased
Aboriginal vulnerability”; “diet, once high in protein level, often became high in starch...”;
“where once Aborigines had taken only what they wanted from white society...they now
became totally economically dependent on it”; and “tribal kinship ties...became confused as
more half-caste children were born...” (Cowie, 1982, p. 307, emphasis added). For a
contextualised reading of these statements, see Source 7.41.
Source 7.41. Examples of discourses of victimhood extract from Crossroads:
Imperialism and race relations (Cowie, 1982, p. 307).
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