A Universal Father and Son Story'? The Representation of Father-Son Relationships in Zach's Ceremony , In My Blood It Runs , and Robbie Hood

Bibliographic Data

ID5854350
AuthorsJoanne Faulkner (0000-0001-5694-181X)
Year2024
Volume39
Issue119-120
Pages98-117
Publication date2024-04-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAustralian Feminist Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1321-7568 • E-ISSN: 1465-3303
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/08164649.2024.2375574
OpenAlexW4400448372
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited24

First Nations boys and men are heavily freighted with colonial stereotypes that give them to be antisocial, drug-addicted, violent, and harmful to their own communities. While men are consistently represented as neglectful or abusive fathers, Aboriginal boys are depicted as potential criminals whose childhood is blighted, and who lack guidance from suitable father figures or male role models. This article addresses three depictions of father-son relationships which engage different strategies for addressing negative stereotypes of Indigenous boys. Aaron Petersen and Alec Doomadgee's Zach Ceremony (2016) is analysed in terms of its internalisation of settler-colonial problematisations of Indigenous masculinities and over-investment in the male role-model discourse that frames settler disparagement of Aboriginal communities. I then turn to In My Blood It Runs (2019) and Robbie Hood (2019) as examples of representations that articulate more complex and ambivalent navigations of colonial stereotypes and appropriations of 'Indigenous masculinities', and that largely avoid and critique settler discourse on Aboriginal boyhood

Ceremony · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Representation (politics · Sociology · Theology · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Psychology · Race, History, and American Society · Theater, Performance, and Music History · Law · Philosophy

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access