The White Father

Denial, Paternalism and Community

Bibliographic Data

ID3007828
AuthorsF Probyn-Rapsey (0000-0002-3908-0816, The University of Sydney, corresponding author), Fiona Probyn
Year2013
Volume9
Issue1
Pages60-76
Publication date2013-09-13
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCultural Studies Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1446-8123 • E-ISSN: 1837-8692
PublisherUniversity of Technology, Sydney (UTS) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5130/csr.v9i1.3584
OpenAlexW2169806079
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited1

I argue that one of the reasons why the federal government did not listen is that to listen to these stories necessitates coming to an appreciation of how much the concept of 'whiteness' was/ is linked to the genocidal effects and paternalistic rhetoric of government policies regarding Aboriginal people. As I will go on to argue, in its refusal to apologise and in its casting of 'mistakes' into a dissociable past, the federal government seeks to maintain a particular view of whiteness that makes it possible to continue with an untroubled investment in it. I would like to revisit the archives and other texts in order to examine the story of the stolen generations from the perspective of an interrogation of whiteness. In particular, I would like to look at the role of the white fathers, both literally and figuratively in the form of government paternalism, with a view to counteracting the ongoing argument that it had 'nothing to do with us or our parent's generations'. I argue that dissociation from 'bad white fathers' and assimilation of 'fellow Australians who are indigenous' now forms the very conditions for Howard's 'community

Aesthetics · Denial · Epistemology · Government (linguistics · Indigenous · Nothing · Paternalism · Political science · Rhetoric · Sociology · White (mutation · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Rhetoric and Communication Studies

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access