PDF (Whole Thesis) - USQ ePrints - University of Southern ...

the 1980s general celebratory discourse, providing a counter reading to the dominant
discourses of Indigenous representations in Australian history and culture. Even though other
sources, such as for example, David Stewart’s Case studies in Australian history (1986),
incorporate the perspectives of Indigenous Australians, Babakiueria, stands out for its
consistent and aggressive perspective, at the expense of the dominant non-Indigenous
discourses operating at the time.
Babakiueria at the time of its release was described as:
A critical and popular success, this ‘reverse angle’ probe into racial
inequality in Australia has developed a considerable cult following. It
approaches its subject with humour but is no less effective for that,
perhaps more so.
The white Australian lifestyle is seen through (patronising)
Aboriginal eyes within a pseudo-documentary format, written by
Geoffrey Atherden of Mother and Son fame.
Aboriginal actors Michelle Torres and Bob Maza (Heartland) are
supported by a number of familiar faces, including Cecily Polson (E
Street) and Tony Barry, who scored major ABC TV hits in I Can Jump
Puddles and his Penguin award-winning Scales of Justice. (Pringle and
Featherstone, 1986, n.p.)
There are two significant reasons for Babakiueria to be named as a resistant text. First, the
genre-style is political satire, an approach uncommon in school texts both then and now.
Although, it is important to point out that Babakiueria was not produced specifically for
schools, it was used to quite a large extent in schools, particularly for high school students in
Social Studies and History classes. Second, the content is significantly uncommon for this
era, with topics such as the so-named ‘Stolen Generations’ broached. Although this, and
other terms, now forms the common lexicon of Indigenous discourses, in the mid to late
1980s, this term would be very alien to the majority school students (as well as the general
public). It was not until the Bringing them home: Report of the national inquiry into the
separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families government
commissioned report released in 1997 that ‘Stolen Generations’ as a term and concept
395