AustLII Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback

Indigenous Law Bulletin

Indigenous Law Bulletin
You are here:  AustLII >> Databases >> Indigenous Law Bulletin >> 2001 >> [2001] IndigLawB 23

Database Search | Name Search | Recent Articles | Noteup | LawCite | Help

Brady, Wendy --- "Book Review - Write on Native Americans: Contemporary Native American Culture Issues" [2001] IndigLawB 23; (2001) 5(7) Indigenous Law Bulletin 19

Book Review:

Write on Native Americans: Contemporary Native American Cultural Issues

Edited by Duane Champagne

Altamira Press, 1999, 328p, hardcover & paperback

RRP: US$65.00; US$24.95

Reviewed by Wendy Brady

Duane Champagne, editor of Contemporary Native American Cultural Issues recently visited Australia and expressed his interest in the similarities between colonised cultures. He also made mention of the ways in which Indigenous cultures endeavour to overcome the structural impact of colonisation. Contemporary Native American Cultural Issues provides an overview of the key areas and elements requiring the attention of Indigenous peoples whether they are in the Americas, Pacific or the Arctic Circle. The book is divided into sections covering: Native Identity; Gender; Cultural Maintenance; Media Studies; Health; Environmental Issues. Although concentrating on issues of concern to Native Americans they relate to those working in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs and communities in Australia.

One of the advantages of the writings in each section is the dominance of the Native American viewpoint. This provides a powerful voice for the lived experience of Indigenous people. In Australia, for example, it is far too rare to find a collection of writings such as these with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors as the dominant source of knowledge. There has been an increase in recent years, but there is still some distance to travel until it becomes the norm.

Each section holds a bountiful source of information, which will add to our knowledge of Native Americans but will also add to our understanding of approaching these issues in Australia. In Laurie Anne Whitt’s article on ‘Cultural Imperialism and the Marketing of Native America’ she has examined three functions of contemporary cultural imperialism; ‘the copyrighting of traditional indigenous music, the patenting of indigenous genetic resources, and the patenting of human cell lines of indigenous people themselves’.[1] It is similar to the work of Terri Janke in Australia on intellectual and cultural property rights and the human genome project which has been a subject of debate in Australia for many years.[2] However, we still wait to see the strategies, ideas and theories for change being combined in a text with the depth of Indigenous contributors as seen here. Indigenous Australian writers still battle against the dominant culture ideology that will only validate indigenous work when it is contained within non-Aboriginal boundaries.

Devon Mihesuah’s chapter on identity is a powerful piece that deals with the various stages of colonisation. Katherine Beaty Chiste provides a broad understanding of ‘Aboriginal Women and Self-Government’, while Rachel Spieldoch’s chapter, ‘Uranium is in My Body’ has a frightening applicability in contemporary Australia. These are only a few of the rich diversity of writings in the book.

Duane Champagne’s editing of Contemporary Native American Cultural Issues provides a highly readable and enlightening book. He also advises the reader that:

the challenge for today is to reclaim and preserve as much [culture] as possible, while upholding and maintaining cultural expression in contemporary life that will strengthen and extend the creativity of Native wisdom and culture.

This is a challenge which we in Australia also face and this book will give us more knowledge to face that task.

Dr Wendy Brady, of the Wiradjuri nation, is Director of the Aboriginal Research and Resource Centre at the University of New South Wales.

[1] Dwayne Champagne, Contemporary Native American Cultural Issues (1999) 175.

[2] Terri Janke, Our Culture. Our Future (1997).


AustLII: Copyright Policy | Disclaimers | Privacy Policy | Feedback
URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/IndigLawB/2001/23.html