Overview

"Children's literature enables young readers to acculturate to socially desirable forms of knowledge, values and ideologies. An increasing number of children's books with Aboriginal themes and motifs, written by Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers in the post-Mabo era, seek to rewrite Aboriginal history through realistic or imaginative modes of expression and, as a counter-discursive agency, they open a path to inculcate young minds with Aboriginal culture and knowledge in a postcolonial context. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital, Indigenous Cultural Capital: Postcolonial Narratives in Post-Mabo Australian Children's Literature explores how Aboriginal people's histories and cultures are deployed, represented, and transmitted as "" Indigenous cultural capital "" for young readers, with the purpose of illuminating the complex relations between Aboriginal agency and dominant forces in the postcolonial contact zone and identifying possible tactics of resistance within the domination. The notion of Indigenous cultural capital provides a fresh perspective in the postcolonial readings of Australian children's books."

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9781787070776

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Reviews

This is a groundbreaking discussion of the representation of Aboriginal people in children's literature. Importantly the book confirms Aboriginal agency through the deployment of indigenous cultural capital. The analysis of the circulation of cultural capital in Aboriginal writing is a significant and timely intervention into indigenous studies. (Bill Ashcroft FAHA, Australian Professorial Fellow, University of New South Wales) In this persuasive, deeply researched study, Xu Daozhi demonstrates that Australian children's books are powerfully invested in Aboriginal cultures. An impassioned call to see children's books with fresh eyes, Indigenous Cultural Capital examines works by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal writers, investigating the ethics of representation and the issues associated with publication and reception. (Clare Bradford, Emeritus Professor, Deakin University)

«This is a groundbreaking discussion of the representation of Aboriginal people in children’s literature. Importantly the book confirms Aboriginal agency through the deployment of indigenous cultural capital. The analysis of the circulation of cultural capital in Aboriginal writing is a significant and timely intervention into indigenous studies.» (Bill Ashcroft FAHA, Australian Professorial Fellow, University of New South Wales) «In this persuasive, deeply researched study, Xu Daozhi demonstrates that Australian children’s books are powerfully invested in Aboriginal cultures. An impassioned call to see children’s books with fresh eyes, Indigenous Cultural Capital examines works by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal writers, investigating the ethics of representation and the issues associated with publication and reception.» (Clare Bradford, Emeritus Professor, Deakin University)

Author Information

Xu Daozhi completed her PhD in English literary studies at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and is now a senior research assistant in the Faculty of Education at HKU. Her research interests include postcolonial studies, cultural theory, children’s literature, and studies of race and ethnicity. Her scholarly articles have appeared in Australian Aboriginal Studies, Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, and Antipodes.

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