aboriginality in science fiction

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Aboriginality in Science FictionAuthor(s): Brian AtteberySource: Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Nov., 2005), pp. 385-404Published by: SF-TH IncStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4241374.

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ABORIGINALITY N SCIENCE FICTION 385

BrianAtteberyAboriginalityn ScienceFictionIt is always hazardousto write across culturalboundaries,and when culturaldifference is accompaniedby a historyof abuse,the writer is certain o fall intoone trapor another.Non-AboriginalwritersfromAustraliahavegenerated ucha collectionof ignorant,patronizing,anddemeaning extsaboutAborigines hatsome of the latter want to call a halt to any furtherattempts.As the novelistMelissa Lucashenkosays, Whoaskedyou to write aboutAboriginalpeople?If it wasn't Aboriginal people themselves, I suggestyou go away and look atyour own lives instead of ours. We are tired of being the freak show ofAustralianpopularculture (qtd. in Heiss 10).Yet science fiction may be a special case. As the genre within whichconceptsof the futureare formulatedandnegotiated,sf can imply, by omittinga particulargroup from its representations,that the days of that group arenumbered.Silence, too, can be a form of control, andthe sin of omission, inthis case, worse thanmany possible sins of commission. Australiansf writershavelong struggled o incorporatenativepeoplesandtheirtraditional toriesandways of life into distinctively Australianfutures. The history of the strugglesuggeststhatgood faith and a desire to learn,while notproof againsterrorandoffensiveness, certainly make for more interestingfiction than does outrightprejudice. In addition, writers such as FrankBryningand TerryDowling, bycreatinga space for Aboriginalcharactersandviewpointswithinsf, canalso beread as inviting Aboriginaland other writers from non-European ulturestocontribute heir own visions of Aboriginality,Australianness,andthe future.Science fiction is often concernedwith the ways in whichcultures nteract,mostobviously in stories of firstcontactor interplanetarywarfare.By allowingwriters to dramatizenegotiationsamong radically differing world-views andways of life, the genre becomes what Mary Louise Pratt calls an art of thecontact zone. A contact zone, according to Pratt, is a space whereculturesmeet, clash, andgrapplewitheachother,often incontextsof highlyasymmetri-cal relationsof power, suchas colonialism,slavery,ortheiraftermaths.... (4).If sf is the art, the zone in which it operates s the collectively imaginedfuture,a symbolic space where utopia, armageddon,and other powerful scenarioscompete.

Pratt'sexamplesall representone side of thecontact:disadvantagedwritersstaking a claim in dominantcultural forms. Her term might apply as well,however, to writing in which voices of outsiders anddowntroddengroupsareallowed to challengetheprimaryvoice andpointof view even though he authorbelongs to the privilegedgroup. This second applicationdependson Bakhtin'sidea thatvoices incorporated nto a text remain, to some degree, autonomous,ratherthan being whipped into conformityby the authorialwill. This is theperspectivethatsees novels suchas HuckleberryFinn (1885) and Uncle Tom's

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386 SCIENCE ICTION TUDIES,VOLUME 2 (2005)Cabin(1852) as collaborationsetweentheir whiteauthorsandthe blackspeakerswhoseexperiencesndviewpoints avebeen mportednto helargertext. If there is any real cultural interactionwithin the science fiction of acolonial nation such as Australia,most of it could only be in this Bakhtiniansense,becauseuntilquiterecentlyall of Australia'sf, includinghatdealingwith Aboriginalcharactersandissues, has been writtenby writersof Europeandescent. The recentemergenceof science fictionby non-whitewriters such asArchieWeller andSamWatsonprovidesa new perspectiverom whichtocritique he earlierwriting,sometimesquiteharshly.Yet their fictionalsosuggestshat heearlierwork,even heworstof it, helpedoconstruct contactzonewithinwhichcontemporaryriters,bothAboriginalndnon-Aboriginal,can fruitfullyexploreissues of injustice,rationality, ower,anddifferingvisionsof the future.Thecultural rapplingshatmake cience ictiona contact oneoccurbothat the evelof representedction ndat thatofnarrativetructure.ome ciencefiction likemost antasy) raws n themesandmotifs rom raditional agicalnarrativesuch as mythandfolktale,but it reframeshosenarrativelementswithinnovelisticrepresentationsf societyand self. Well-knownxamplesincludeSamuelR. Delany'sTheEinsteinntersection1967),patternedn theOrpheusmyth,andRogerZelazny'sLordof Light 1967),inwhichadvancedtechnology llowsan elitegroupo transformhemselvesntoHindu ods. Butit is not a simplematter o fuse mythand the novel, each of whichcarriesdifferentassumptionsbout he waysin whichtime, society,andrealityareorganized.Narrativeechniques evelopedwithin henovel'srealist radition,suchas thedirect epresentationfthoughts, lace ndividualizedharactersndtheirmoraldilemmasat the centerof the action.Oral raditionaltories,bycontrast, regenerally rganizedroundigureswhorepresentntire roups rsymbolize onhumanorces.When fdraws ponraditionaleliefsand tories,then, it places them in radicallydifferentdiscursive ontexts,as well asjuxtaposing hem with advanced echnologiesand alien landscapes.Anessentiallymodem view of the world-scientific,psychological, istorical,materialistic-is huspittedagainsta traditional,magicalview. And each oftheseworld-views, longwith henarrativetructureshat ncapsulatet, comeswitha heavyburden f historicalreight.Someof themostaggressivelymodem ocietiesarealsothose nwhich hemodernworld-view rrivedwithEuropeannvaders,o that he clashbetweenviewpointswas enacted istoricallyn theformofusurpationf land, ormationof race-based astes, violentsuppressionf traditionaleligions, and evengenocide.Australia, ike New Zealand,the US, and Canada, s now aprosperous,elatively eaceful, emocratic,nd cientificallydvancedociety.Each of these formercolonies, however, s haunted y pastinjustices ndongoing onflictswithits nativepeoples.Intheimaginationsf theimmigrantmajorities,hesenativegroupsbecameassociatedarlyon withwild andscapeand avagery.Even houghhemostdisturbingavagerywasoftendemonstratedby the settlers hemselves, uch violentpropensitieswereprojected nto thenatives. Yet the landscapewithin whichacts of violence have takenplace could



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ABORIGINALITYN SCIENCE ICTION 387be seen, paradoxically,s a lostparadise, ndthebrutishavagesof pioneernarrativesouldsuddenlymetamorphosento unfallen hildren f the wilder-ness, as in JamesFenimoreCooper'sLeatherstockingales(theclassicNorthAmericanxample).ThoughhearidAustralianontinent asnotaswelcomingas the forestsandprairiesof NorthAmerica, he land and its peoplewerefrequentlyransformednimmigrant ritingsntovisionsof Edenicnnocenceandparadisal eauty.In bothAmericaandAustralia,he onenativepossessionmostenviedbyEuropeannterlopers-otherhan the landitself-is the indigenous odyofstories.Thekeenestoss still feltbythe newcomerss thedisappearancef thegodsandspiritshatonce inhabitedndenlivenedhe and.FromLongfellow'sadoptionf theHiawathaegend o Australia'sindyworobokovement f the1930s,we can see writersof European ncestry edefiminghemselves s localby reinscribingativemythswithinheirown iteraryraditions. nfortunately,theprocessof reinscriptionends oinvolvepushing side hosewhoseclaim othe myths s stronger hanone's own. Whilewaxing entimentalvercolorfullegendsandnoblerhetoric, othcolonialocieties ctively ngagednremovingnativepopulations nddestroyingheircultures.All of this troubled istorymeans hatculturalnteractionsepictedwithinsf are ladenwith ongingandguilt.TheindigenousOtherbecomespartof thetextualunconscious-alwayspresentbut silencedandoftentransmutedntosymbolicorm.WithinAustralianf, Aboriginalharacterstand ariouslyorthe ntractabilityf theAustraliannvironment,angerso be overcome, uaintsurvivals romprehistory,nda spiritualwarenesshatmodemhumanityaslost.Often here s no overtmention f earliernhabitants. heyonly showupindirectly n the form of place names and buriedculturalreferences owalkabouts or corroborees. Such absences are the fictional equivalent of thelongstandingegal principle f terranullius, by which the Australian ontinentwastreated s if it hadnoownership eforewhitesettlement.n theconscious-ness of whiteAustralians, ctualMurrior Aranda eopleandtheir olkwaysbecomea collectivesymbolicentity:not Aboriginals utAboriginalism,nabstractionhatcan tooeasilybecomea commodity.Tracinghechanging epresentationsf Aboriginalharactersndmotifs,we candividethe historyof Australianciencefictionandfantasy ntothreeperiods.Firstcame heBadOldDays,from he1890sallthewaytothe1970s.During the Bad Old Days, Aboriginalpeoples were seen primarilyas aproblem: holdovers, like the marsupials,fromsome earlierstageof evolution-ary history,and,like theTasmanianiger, unlikely o survive hearrivalofmoreadvancedompetitors.Next was theHopefulMoment, briefperiod nthe 1970s when the emergence of Aboriginal writers such as Kath Walker(Oodgeroo Noonuccal)andof anAboriginalcivil-rightsmovementsignaled hepossibilityf imaginativeapprochementetweenocieties.Finallyheres theTroubledNow, a time whenwhich here s nosafeway for a non-Aboriginalwriter o tackle Aboriginal ssuesandyet whenthe discourse f sf offers anumber f innovativewaysto reframe deasof raceandcultural ifference.



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388 SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME32 (2005)The Bad Old Days. One of the first appearancesof Aboriginalpeopleswithina fantastic narrative is also one of the most outrageously racist. AustynGranville, authorof The Fallen Race (1892), was not an Australianbut anAmerican who spent time in Australia,so blame for the novel's views can bespreadbetween two societies. A general ignoranceon the part of Americansregarding Aboriginal life probablymeans that Granvilleacquiredthe specificdetails of his racism, if not the impulse, from Australianacquaintances.Hisromance appeared in 1892, at the height of a craze for exotic adventuresmodeledafterH. RiderHaggard'sKingSolomon'sMines(1885) andShe(1886-87). Granville follows Haggard's formula faithfully (as the novel's originalintroductionpointsout), to the extent of remodeling he Australianandscape oprovidea hidden forest kingdom deep withinthe outback. This kingdom s, ofcourse, ruledby a beautifulwhite queenwho will be pairedupwiththe novel'sadventurer-hero.Accordingto RobertDixon, such adventure toriesareattemptsat narratingcolonialism. They transform the experiences of European exploiters intorippingyams aboutmystery, masculinecourage, and romanticfulfillment.Thewhite hero is allowedto go nativetemporarily: o immersehimself inothercultures,become attuned o landscape,andengage in barbaricbehavior,all thewhile retaininganuntouchable oreof Englishness.Theadventuremakesa manof himbut leaves him with schoolboyvirtues ntact. The ironythat Dixonpointsout in Writing he Colonial Adventure 1995) is that colonial cultures such asBritish Australiawere most uncertainon precisely these issues. Could one besimultaneouslywhite andnative, violent andinnocent? nparticular, he hero'sreformationdependson his induction nto a native cultureeven while the plotestablishes thatculture's inferiority.In Granville's version of the Colonial romance, the hero ventures nto theoutbackwith a groupof otherwhiteexplorersanda single native servantwhomhe calls by the generic nicknameJacky-Jackywith no acknowledgment hattheservantmighthave a real name in his own language).The otherEuropeansgoastray, and, severedfrom my last whitecompanion,I standalone, save for thepresence of the aborigine, lost in the wilderness (40). Jacky-Jacky, n otherwords, is not a full companion, but something midway between a civilizedhumanand partof the natural cene. Jacky-Jackyhas earlierbeen groupedwiththe pack animals, both literally and through metaphoric terms such astrotted -when the last horse dies, the poor fellow's lamentationsat theuntimely death of his favorite, beside which he had trotted so many wearymiles, were quite painfulto witness (31). The hero has learneda smatteringof his servant's language, and on the basis of thatbrief acquaintance ssures hereader hat t is alanguageaboundingwithdeep gutteralsandstrangewhispers,but moreeasily acquired hanone would atfirstcredit,on accountof thelimitedrange of its vocabulary (23). Speakinga defective language, overly fond ofalcohol, companionto horses, so deferential o his white boss thathe allows hishairs to be plucked to provide fishing tackle (48), Jacky-Jacky s a typicalrenderingof the half-assimilatedAborigineas seen throughcolonial eyes.



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ABORIGINALITY N SCIENCEFICTION 389Butnatives who have not beenbrought nto the British-Australianphereofinfluence fare even worse in Granville's narrative. Jacky-Jacky may bedescribed in animal-like terms, but the tribe of natives the lost explorers

encounter are actually a bizarre hybrid of animal and human. Here is thenarrator's irst glimpse: Lookingfrom behindthe leafy shelter of the bushes,my eyes fell, first upon the fire itself, and then upon three perfectly roundobjects, aboutfour feet inheight, covered with fur andlookinglike exaggeratedhedgehogs (60). These furry spheres are the products of miscegenation,descended on one side fromacertainosttribeofaborigines,whomany gesagohadwanderedack nto heinterior f thecontinent ndhadneverbeenheard romagain.ThecenterofAustraliaat that time had been largelyoverrunby thatenormousmarsupial, hekangaroo. With these creaturesthe lost Assoluloo tribe was supposed to haveassimilated,heybeingavery owanddegradedace, iving hieflyonroots,andbeing in a very small degree removed from the brutecreation. (94-95)

The narrator-hero s not greatly surprisedby these apparitions:as I gazeduponthecuriouslyformedcreaturesbeforeus, andmarked he almosthuman ntelligence withwhichthey performed he dutiesassignedthemby theirleader,I had littledifficulty n tracingn theiruncoutheatures omedistinctcharacteristicsf the early aborigine,while in theirfur-covered odies,thegeneralactivityof theirmovements,he halfleapswithwhichtheymoved,although ircularly, romplaceto place, the distinguishingeaturesof thatgigantic marsupial, he CentralAustraliankangaroo,were plainlyto bediscerned. 95)He assumes that these improbablehybridswere the products of rape, bykangaroos, of captive tribal women-a blatant act of projection, consideringwho actuallycarried out such rapes. In contrast,the effect of white incursionson the lives of the local populace is presentedas entirelybenevolent. At thenovel's end, the hero and his queen begin to turn their realm into a sort ofmissionary utopia, complete with steam engines and a free press. Mostimportantly, f]romanalmostsavagecondition,shehas, in a few years, raisedthe masses of her people to a high averageof intelligence (351). Such is thepower of a determinedwhite womanover even the mostunpromising ubjects.The attitudes represented n Granville's novel did not disappear rom theAustralian literary scene, but they did go underground-in one case liter-ally-and otherviewpointsbeganto challengesome of his assumptions.Writersof fantastic fiction had plenty of other stereotypesto draw on in portrayingnative peoples and cultures. Van Ikin mentions two standardattitudes oward

Aboriginalpeoples withinearlyfiction: contempt r indifference xxxi). Theformer is representedby G. Firth Scott's TheLast Lemurian 1898), in whichambushedwhiteheroes haveno qualmsabout ayinga trapandcold-bloodedlykilling every one of their attackers (Ikin xxxi). The latter attitudeoftenexpresses itself as absence:the Australian cene is writtenaboutas if it were aprovince of England, completely free of prior occupation. A majorityof sfstoriesby Australianwriterstakeplace in the featureless aboratories,offices,andapartmentsof formulasf, a settingeven freer of dark-skinned eople than



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390 SCIENCE FICTIONSTUDIES, VOLUME32 (2005)of women.Especiallywhenprojectedntothefuture, hisversionof a native-freecontinents, ineffect,a sortof bloodless enocidehat implydoesawaywith he inconveniencendguiltassociatedwithAboriginalresence.Anotherwaytogetridof thenativeswithout uilt s to havesomeone lse doit: inErleCox's 1925scientific omanceOutoftheSilence,avisiting uperwomanffers,if herwhitehostswish,toweedoutall thecolored aces seeWebbandEnstice123).Troublesome ativescouldalso be eradicatedromEarthbytransformingthem ntoaliens. WhenAmericanwriters uchas EdgarRiceBurroughsenttheirheroes o otherplanets,hebeings heyencounterednthoseworldswerefrequently ativeAmericans n disguise-or, moreprecisely,reworkings fCooper'sIndians.Similarly, hepointof referenceor an Australianwriterdepicting lienswas some versionof theAborigine.nJ.M.Walsh'sVandalsof the Void 1931),the nhabitantsf Venusaredescribedmore latteringlyhanGranville'sAboriginals,but still in subhumanerms: Thosequaint,notunlovablepeoplewho somehowremindone almostequallyof a bird and abutterfly.Pretty heyare,hardlyhuman s we understandt, theyseem 29).In conformancewith white descriptions f Aborigines, he Venerians atdisgustingoodswithrelish 278),endurenhospitablenvironments277),andhaveshortattentionpans: theywere ... very nterestedneverythingtrangeandnew, yet withan interest hatone felt surewaspurelyevanescent 29).Althoughbirds and butterfliesare more decorative han sphericalhalf-kangaroos,hey are not muchcloserto fullyenfranchisedumanity.A more recent nstanceof the Aboriginal-as-Aliens RonSmith'sstoryStrongAttraction 1968).Inthisversion,people romEartholonizeaplanetwithnoapparent ualms bout heexistence f anative ace, he landies, hoare described s primitive,with a culture t thefood-gatheringtage 110).Thestory'smalenarratorinds he andies epulsive: Scaly,withabrighthinelike a snakehas that ooks ikeslimeonlyisn't 111).Ontopof that, heyarehairless, naked, and smelly. Women of the colony, however, responddifferently. t seemsthat he distinctive dorof themale andies s a powerfulsexualattractanthat eadsto a massabandonmentf thehumanmen n favorof anew,crude,primitive, nknowable,npromising ayof lifethat ame othemas astrangemixture f freedom,which s fulfilment,ndcaptivity,whichis the very basic fact of being human ... (126; ellipses in original). AlthoughSmith'sstory treats the masculine olonists'pointof view with irony, itnonethelesseproduces common olonial trategy,which s toproject nto hesubject ace hesexualaggressivenessctually emonstratedy thecolonizers.Whitemenraping arkerwomenaresomehowransformedntovisionsofwhitewomenbeingseducedby nativemen. Thisvision, in turn,can be usedtointensifyheoppressionf the nativepeople.Ofthe variousattitudesxpressedn fiction, hemostbenevolent-or eastmalevolent-was the assumptionhatAborigineswere holdovers romthedistantpast,survivorsromthe dawnof mankind,nevitably oomedby thespreadof Europeanivilization ut entitled o gentle reatmentor as longastheyshouldholdon. This is the attitudexpressednmanyAustralianoems,



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ABORIGINALITY N SCIENCE FICTION 391reports, and memoirs such as Daisy Bates's The Passing of the Aborigines(1938);and t occasionallyarriesover intothe realmof science iction,as inMarjorie ernardndFloraEldershaw'stopian ovelTomorrow Tomorrow& Tomorrow1983;originally ublished,n truncatedorm,as Tomorrow&Tomorrow1947]).Thetwenty-fourth-centuryarratorf thatworkcommentsthatAustralia's irstPeopleare now

gone, completelyandutterly,nothingwas left of them buta few rockdrawings,a few spearheads n rosy quartz, some patterns ncised in wood, the words ofsome songs, soft, melancholy, their meaningforever sealed. Theirdust was inthis dust, nothingmore. In the north, wherethey had notperishedbut had beenabsorbed,their docile blood hadmingledwithouttrace and no overt memoryofthem remained.(4-5)In the undergroundstory mentioned above, however, a lost tribe ofAboriginesturnsout to representnothumanity'smelancholypastbutits future.Phil Collas's The Inner Domain (1935), one of the first stories by anAustralianwriter to be publishedin an American sf magazine,begins when aset of strange adiosignalsarises somewheren thecenterof the continent.Deciphered,hesesignalsprove o be utterancesn anunknownanguage.Thenarrativedescribesthis language n termsreminiscentof Granville'sdescriptionof Jacky-Jacky's limited ongue: Indeed, hegutteral,somewhatanimal-likesoundswere declared y manyscientistso be of purelyanimalorigin,and twassuggestedhatahuge okewasbeingperpetratedybroadcastinghevoiceof anapeor othermembersf simian enus 85).Later, hough,his anguageis declared o be related o the language f a vanishedAboriginalribe,theArnuna.At this point, the storyseems to be heading n the direction ndicatedby theeditorialntroduction,hichassertshat theaboriginalsreregardedmongstanthropologistss one of the leastdevelopedacesof mankind-asurvival ftheStoneAge.... (85). Theeditorspeculateshat heterritory ow heldby

these survivals mightonce havecradleda moresophisticatedociety,butWhat eopledwelt hereandwhatdegreeof civilizationheyhadreached, oone knows-the deep, sandy desert holds many secrets (85). No oneknows-but everybody knows, the editorimplies, that sucha civilization couldnot have been built or maintainedby anyonerelated o present-dayAboriginals.Indeed, Collas does invent an ancient, highly technological civilizationhiddenin a cavern beneaththe desert. He departs rom the lost-worldromancescenario, however, by having his Arnunatribesmentake over from the long-dead machine builders. Having wandered into the caverns decades ago, theArnunahave over time learnedall that was known to our predecessors-thesecrets andpowers of the spheres of light; the method of extractingmetalorefrom rock by fusion and attraction;how to create the translucentmetal fromwhich our buildingsandmanyotherthingsare made-in short, everythingtheoriginal inhabitantsknew (102).By the end of the story, we discoverthatthe Arnunahave notonly masteredthe ancient knowledge but have surpassedit, makingmachines that can readthoughtsand explore times past and future. In the process, they have remade



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392 SCIENCE ICTION TUDIES,VOLUME 2 (2005)themselves as well. We see, on the viewscreen of the time-crossing machine,an image of the Arnunaas they once were: Thetypicalwalk, body markings,weaponsanddress could be reproducedby scattered ribesof Australiannativestoday. Gins carried squallingbabies and the young lubrascrowdedtogether,giggling foolishly (106).Raciallycharged termssuch as gins for Aboriginalmotherswould comenaturally to the story's white hero, but the narrative seems to distributehisimpressions of the old-style Arnunaamongtheir own moderndescendantsaswell. In the story's present, the Arnuna are representedas grave, dignified,dressed nvaguelyclassicalrobes, and ofsplendidproportions .. almostsevenfeet in height (90). They are also given a new origin. In the distantpast, itseems, the Arnunahad fled to Australia rom Egypt afterbeing attackedby amighty force of fair-skinned metal clad warriors (95). This rewriting ofprehistoryallows Collas to associate the Arnunawith the origins of Westerncivilization, so thattheirmove intothe caverns of the ancientrace is portrayedas a returnto lost grandeur.Their time as typical natives is an aberration,aresult of their exile.So TheInnerDomain has it bothways: Aboriginesarefoolish subhumansbut they are also rationalsuperbeings. The story offers a radicallydifferentconceptionof theirpotential, but thatpotential s developedonly by abandoningall traditionalways of life. The Arnunaare the futureof humankind, ather hanthe vanishing past, but in becoming that future, they must trade their ownculture for that of the vanishedaliens.The Hopeful Moment. The first story to treat Aboriginal folkways assomethingof value in themselveswas FrankBryning's Placeof theThrowingStick (1956), publishedmorethantwentyyears afterCollas's tale. Bryning'sstorytakesoff from the fact that the firstAustralianrocket-testinggroundwasnamed Woomera. The name was intendedto honorthe originalinhabitantsof the region by borrowingtheirword for a spear-launcher-at the same timethosevery inhabitantswere beingrelocated o makeroom fortherocketground.Bryningadoptsthe pointof view of a warriornamedMunyarra,who has cometo Woomera to challenge this new threat to traditionalways of life. Hisinspiration s an earlierheroof the Aruntapeople, who successfully (for a time)drove off the cattle which were devastating he huntinggrounds.Munyarra'squest is not destined to be even that successful. A showdown betweenboomerangand rocket is about as even as a match between a possum and asemi-truck,and Munyarraends up, predictably,as roadkill.The only trace ofhis heroic effort is a dented fm on the rocket. Technicianslooking over thescene fmd only the boomerang,now acharredbentobject (165). As for thewarriorhimself, allMunyarra's kill in the manoeuvreof evadingspears hadnever given him experience in evadinga missile flying fasterevery second andevery yard from the momentit was launchedtowardshim (165). His body isvaporized, leaving not even a charredbent tracebehind.Yet Munyarraand his quest are portrayedheroically, rather han as trivialor ridiculous. He is fightingfor somethingmeaningful,thoughthe only means



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ABORIGINALITY N SCIENCE FICTION 393he has at handarehopelessly inadequate.Unlike the Arnunaof Collas's story,his traditionalway of life is depictedas something complex andrewarding nitself, not as an absence of civilization. Ultimately, Munyarra'sculture is justas doomed as thatof the pre-undergroundArnunaor Granville'shalf-kangarooAssoluloo. The difference is thatin this case, the disappearance f a culture istreatedas something to be regretted. Having been immersedin Munyarra'spointof view throughoutmost of the narrative,we come to see the rocketas adangerousbeast andits masters as irresponsible,atbest, for lettingit loose onthe landscape. Munyarrachooses to enact the partof a tribalhero, and heroesof legend are not always triumphant.The tragedyis that his heroic, doomedquestwas unwitnessedand so will not be enteredinto his tribe's oral tradition.If his deed were known and retold, it could change the world, as the earlierhero's deed changedboth his own time and Munyarra's.Two decades later, Bryning came back to the same themes in a pair ofstories: Mechmanof the Dreaming and Nemalukand the Star-Stone both1978). These differ from Place of the ThrowingStick in that the Aboriginalcharacters n each successfully challenge examplesof advanced echnology. InMechmanof the Dreaming, for instance,a seemingly invulnerablemachinecalled Multi-purposeRobot Eight, or MPR8, is sabotagedby unseen locals.Unlike the indifferentrocket of Place, MPR8 is crippledby boomerangsandspears: He swung about,unable to stand erect with the spearsjammedin hisplates (131). MPR8 is not only more vulnerable han a rocket, it is also moresympathetic to its attackers' motives. Discovering that it has inadvertentlyreenactedan Aboriginal myth abouta golem-likecreaturecalled Woolgooroo,themechanicalman,or mechman,chooses to withdraw.MPR8 even takespridein its assimilation into local legend: I might like to claim, sometime, thatmechmen were amongstthe aboriginalpossessorsof this land before the whitehumen [sic] came. I mighteven like to claim MechmanWoolgooroo as a kindof ... Dreamtime ancestor (139; ellipses in original).One key difference between the earlier and later Bryning stories is thepresenceof a mediating sensibility. In Mechman, his role is played by Dr.David Mingarra, an anthropologist working as liaison between MPR8'sconstruction crew and the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. Mingarraapproaches he problemfrom a scientific pointof view. He denies any specialinsight into local tribal beliefs:

You must realise thatall I know of aboriginalcultureandhistoryis what I havetaken from the same books andUniversitycoursesany whiteyouth mighttake.My ancestral ribe disappeared rom East Gippslandmore than a centuryago. Igrew up in Melbourneas a secondgenerationcity-integrated outh on the luckyside.... The only personalawarenessI mayhave of thethinkingand attitudesofthe myalls in the Reserve at this time is what I can pick up from the partiallyintegrated ocal blacks. (135)Yet it is Mingarra,by virtue of havinga foothold n two differentcultures,whosolves the riddle of the mechman and its mythicalpredecessor.WhenDr. Mingarra s first introducedn the story,he is presented n a waythat indicates a non-Aboriginalnarratorand audience. Unlike a white team-



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394 SCIENCE FICTIONSTUDIES, VOLUME 32 (2005)member,who is simply ntroduceds Sievers,n ElectronicsMaintenance(129), Mingarra ets a full andraciallymarkeddescription: Hewas theDepartmentf AboriginalAffairs' iaisonofficer n the fieldwiththesurveyproject.His eyes, deepset beneathprominentrows,hadtwinkled,andhissplendidwhite teeth hadflashedagainst he darkof his face in responseoMPR8's okeagainsthimself '131).There s nodoubtaboutwhorepresentsthenormandwho theexception nthissurvey.YetasMingarramerges sthestory'smost mportantumanharacter,ispointofviewbeginsoreplacehatof Sievers and the others. Whenhe comments n his own role as culturalintermediary,e iscareful olayclaim oEuropean-Australianraditionss wellas Aboriginal-indeed,he has a better laimto whiteculture han o the localtraditions f a tribe farremoved rom his ownpeople.He cannotknowtheanswer owhythepeopleof theReserve reattackingMPR8, unless, erhapsitcouldbeinthe iterature boutmyrace .. thewhiteman'siterature,mean,which s incidentallymyliterature lso (135).And t is a scientificiterature,thoughthe subjectmatter s traditionalmyth. Dr. Mingarramaintainsrespectfuldistance from the beliefs he explicates.Interestingly,t is themechman hofindsapersonalonnection ith hestoryof theWoolgaroo. hetwo characters ross paths,Mingarra avingmovedaway fromancestraltraditionsntothe worldof sciencewhileMPR8goesfromartificial rigins oa senseof belongingo the landand tsmyths.To the degreethat MPR8standsfor the white Australianocietythatproduced im,theimplications thata rootlessnewcomer anbegrafted ntonative culture-at least he can do so if there is a characterike Mingarraavailable o interpretor himandto absolvehimof guiltforpastusurpationsand abuses.Mingarra lso fills the reader n on historical evelopmentshatmakehis rolepossible: All otheraborigines,ikemyself,aremoreor lesshappily ntegratedwithin the all-Australianommunity. t is now nearlyagenerationincethetrulyenlightenedegislation f theearly eightiesand hepoliciesapplyingt (139).Thoughhisstatementeadsmore ronicallyhantdid in the1970s, t doesexpressahope hathistoryandscience ogethermightcreatea hybrid ulture trongerhaneither raditionn isolation.After Mechman, he scientistor professional f Aboriginal ncestrybecamea frequentharacterype,nearlyalwaysservingas a culturalbridgebetweenWesterncienceand raditional yth.Theopeningectionof DamienBroderick'sTheDreamingDragons (1980)is toldfromtheviewpoint f AlfDeanDjanyagirnji.ikeDavidMingarra,e isananthropologist,omeonewhocomes back to thetraditionsf his ancestors ia academictudy n the whitecommunity.Broderick rovideshis characterwith a moredetailed ndmoretroubledhistorythanBryning's.Alf Djanyagirnji,ike many nonfictionalcounterparts,as taken romhismother nd ribebybureaucrats.isadoptioninto a whitefamilyallowedhim to complete formal ducation utit didnotprotect imfromracismandafeelingof outsider-dom.t thesame ime,beingadoptedutof theNgularrngaribekepthimfromearninghemythic raditionsas a boyof the tribewould earn hem.ThusAlf findshimselfalienatedrombothworldsand unsureof his own identity.Perhapsor thatreasonhe has



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396 SCIENCE ICTION TUDIES,VOLUME 2 (2005)broughton by war andecologicalcollapseforce survivorso find a moresustainable ay of life, one thatechoestheancestralolkwaysof thepeopleTurnerallsKoori.GivenTurner'sharacteristicallyardonic iewpoint,t isnotsurprisinghatheemphasizesotonly hesurvivalalueof atraditionalayof life butalsotheharshdiscipline ndrigidroles.It is not a coincidencehatAboriginalhemesandcharactersroliferatedduring he samedecade hatAustralianfbeganoachieveprominencet homeand abroad.Manywriters creditthe 1975World Science FictionConvention nMelbourneor raisingawareness f andstandards ithinAustralianf. TheGuestof Honorat thatWorldCon,UrsulaK. Le Guin,hasalwayssought obringbroader ultural erspectives,specially on-Europeanerspectives,ntosf. Bothby her own exampleandby conducting workshopor Australianwriters, she encouragedthe productionof stories involvingalternativevisions.Ananthologyditedby LeeHarding, directoutgrowthf thatworkshop,wascalledTheAlteredI (1976),reflectingLeGuin's mphasisnbeingandseeingdifferently s a resultof culturalontacts.Outside of sf, the 1970s marked the emergence of the first generationofAboriginalwritersand the appearanceof a numberof influential exts derivingfrom Aboriginal lore. Among the latterwere children's books by Bill Scott,PatriciaWrightson, and Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Noonuccal). Scott's Boori(1978) is a hero-tale that takes place when The Dreamtime had ended inAustralia, and no white man had yet found the great land of the south (1).Wrightsonwroteseveralfantasy toriesbasedon indigenousegends,mostnotablyhe threevolumesbeginningwithTheIce Is Coming(1977).Walker'sStradbrokeDreamtime (1972)differsfromScott's andWrightson'sooks nbeingbased in her own experienceas a memberof the Noonuccal lan ofcoastalQueenslandndin combining utobiographyithretellings f myth.With hesevolumes ndothershat ollowed,Aboriginalistory nd torytellingbecameamiliar oAustralianchoolchildren,omethingheywereencouragedto see as part of Our National Heritage ratherthan as distant and alien. Inbringing Aboriginal charactersand motifs into their work, sf writers werefollowing a nationalshift of perspective.Even houghAboriginalityeverdominatedhesfgenre,even nthe 1970s,it becameprominentnough o triggerdefensivereactions. n a reviewof a1978anthology hatincludedBryning's Nemaluk ndthe Star-Stone ndChandler's NotWithoutPrecedent, GrahamStonecomplains hat bothChandler nd Bryning ntroduce borigines nd the flyingsaucerreligion.Chandlervenbrings n convicts.SF laborsunder noughdisabilitieswithoutaddinghe national bsessions,hanks 10).Similarreactions ollowedthe appearance f a set of storiesby TerryDowling hatdepicted futureAustraliaominatedyAboriginalolitical ndreligious raditions.Dowling'sRynosseros(1990) andsubsequentollectionsmarkeda greatermaturationf science-fictionalxplorations f Aboriginalculture.Focusingon theadventuresf a non-Aboriginal,r National, erooperatingwithinthis cultural phere,Dowling'sTom Tysonstories offersophisticated arrativeechniques,memorablemages,andtroublinghemes.



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ABORIGINALITYN SCIENCE ICTION 397These hemesusually evolvearound onflicts etweenraditionnd nnovationornature ndartifice.Most nterestingly, owling oesnotequateAboriginalitywith traditionor nature-he is just as likely to pit advancedAboriginaltechnologyagainstNationalattempts t resurgence r to frame he conflictbetween radition ndnoveltyas a struggle etween ribal actions.Rynosseros adapts the sf traditionof CordwainerSmith and JackVance-characterized by distant utures,radicallyalteredhumanity, echnologi-cal effects that resemble magic, and an exuberant,even baroque anguage-totheAustralian cene. Againstthebackdropof Australia'swide and arid nterior,Dowling places great sand-ships,talking belltrees, shapeshifters,cyborgs, andvisionaries, while overhead, tribalsatellites guardagainstencroachments romthe remnantof white populationalong the coast. Though he received manyhonors for his evocative and inventive fiction, Dowling did not please allreaderswith his imagined uture.To someit seemedto be an exampleofcultural ppropriation,ndto othersyetanothernstance f theconvicts-plus-Aborigines-equal-Australiaabit hat rkedGraham tone.The Troubled Now. By the time Rynosserosappeared,however, otherfactorsbesidesfan resentment f national bsessions were operating.Even asAustralianf writersbegan o realize hepossibilitiesfferedby incorporatingtraditionalboriginaloicesandmotifs nto heirwork, hosepossibilities erestartingo closeoff. The 1970swere characterizedotonlybytheemergenceof writingby Aboriginalauthorsbut also by the first stirrings f politicalactivityby Aboriginalactivists-manyof themthe sameindividuals.KathWalker,orinstance, sserted erheritage y droppingerEnglish-styleameinfavorof her Aboriginal ameOodgeroo ndby creating ninformalulturecenterat Moongalban Stradbrokesland verymuchagainsthe wishesofQueenslanduthorities).n a veryshort ime the intellectuallimateshiftedfrom dismissalof Aboriginalulture o extolling ts richness,andthence ocondemninghe exploitation f Aboriginalraditionsy anyonenot borntothem.And ndeed,Aboriginaldeasof thesacredhaveall toooftenbeen nvokedby people who have no notion either of the discipline hat traditionallyaccompanieshemyths r of thehistoricalorces hathaverepeatedlyhreatenedtheir ransmission.osephCampbellndothermythpopularizersavemadeheDreamtime bywordamongpoppsychologistsndNewAgereligionists.Oneliteraryequivalent f such New Age religiousourism s thetransformingfAboriginalmythsnto antasytorieswithwhiteprotagonistsCharlesHulley's1994 novel TheFire Crystal is a blatant xample).Another s the use ofAboriginalharacterssmysticalommentatorsntechnologicalocieties.Thelatterploy showsupinthefilmmade romTomWolfe's 7heRight Stuff.Themoviecuts awayfrom its high-tech ettings o show one of the astronautshelping o set up tracking ites in WesternAustralia.He meetsa groupofAboriginalmen,who findnothing dd in the notionof flyingoutintospace:See hatoldbloke here?Heknow.Heknow hemoon.Heknow hestar,an'he know heMilkyWay.He'llgiveyoua hand,heknow qtd nMuecke ).



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398 SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 32 (2005)And, sure enough, later in the story, an Aboriginalceremonyprovides magicalsparksthathelp protectJohn Glenn's space capsule. As StephenMueckepointsout, the script uses Aboriginality [as] a representationor emblem of 'theprimitive'-set up againstspace travelas the ultimate achievementof Westernmodernity 2).Criticisms of Terry Dowling fail to note how differentlyhe constructs herelationship between the traditionaland the modem. In the Tyson stories,mysticism is not separatedfrom scientific knowledge. Eitherworld-view, orboth in conjunction, can be found among characters of any race. Dowling,though, did not help matters when he chose the term Ab'O to name hisfuturistic tribes. The shortened form of Aborigine, though not the mostoffensive racialepithet available,has beenusedderisivelymore often thannot.An extra apostrophe and capital letter did not provide, for many readers,sufficientestrangementof an all-too-familiar erm.As JohnFoysterpoints out,To write of a future in which the power lies in the hands of Nig'Rs, orChin'Ks,or Wo'Ps would I thinkbe regardedas a little on thetackyside (29).As Dowling's series has developed, he has worked very hard to create analternativevision of racial and tribal identities, to provide a genuinely newconceptto go with the estranged erm, but it is not an easy task for an outsiderto imagine a new form of selfhood for a group that has been so stronglyOthered.Most white Australianwriters have chosen to avoid suchcontroversy.GraiHughes's alien-artifact story, Twenty-First Century Dreamtime, firstappeared in a fanzine in 1989 and was popular enough to reprint in theprofessional magazineAurealis. There, however, the editor commented thatthe author had intended to expand the story to novella length, but in hisresearch discovered thataspects of the extended version would offend certaintaboos of the Aboriginal people (Strasser4).Rosaleen Love deals with the problemof writingacross culturaland raciallines by focusing on the fallibility of the human sciences. Her story Trick-ster (1993)turns out to be aboutthe unknowabilityof other people's pasts. Anancient skull foundnear Melbournedefies categorization,even to the extentofshifting its form:

At night in the skull room the bonesrearrange hemselves,a little, not much.The indentationsn the skullfrom Cow Swampdeepen.The orbitalridgesthicken. Scratchesin the teeth enamel sink in, just a fraction.Soontherewillbe a newtheory f theoriginsof the human ace.The workers n the skullroomassume hebonesremain hesameand t istheir heorieswhichchange.Butthat s notthe case.The bonesknow.Itamuses hem. 159)Love's story goes about as far as one can go in refusingto claim ownershipofthe culturalOther, and it managesto do so in a witty and thought-provokingway. Itexemplifies, in a sense, artof the no-contactzone. But the relationshipsbetweenpastandpresentandbetweenAnglo-Australian ndAboriginalcultureskeep changing. The publicationof Sam Watson's The KadaitchaSung (1990)and Archie Weller's Land of the Golden Clouds (1998), has reopened the



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ABORIGINALITYN SCIENCE ICTION 399possibilityof science-fictionaldialoguebetweencultures.One could even arguethat these two novels alterthe meaningof earliertexts such as Terry Dowling'searly Tom Tyson stories, just as RosaleenLove's tricksterskull retroactivelychangesthe origins of the human race.The Kadaitcha Sung is not primarily sf, but Watson's heady mix ofstorytelling ropeshas led reviewersto labelit as such, citing also myth, horror,fantasy, and magic realism (Watson, I Say 591). The novel compresses thewhole historyof white-Aboriginalrelations nto the family story of the creatorgod Biamee, his twin sons Booka andKoobara,and his present-daydescendentTommy Gubba. Tommy is a half-white, urbansocial worker, but he is also asupernatural ero who talksto spirits, makeshimself invisible, andgoes in questof the powerful stone that is the heart of the RainbowSerpent. Initiatedas aKadaitcha,or tribal enforcer/shaman,he must maintainhis double identityandfunction in both worlds, magical and mundane, in order to defeat the evilBooka, who has possessed the body of a white politician. Tommy's own clanis the Biri, but he has to reach outsidehis own familyconnectionsandtraditionsin order to achieve his quest. His initiation takes place in a cave in sacredUluru, half a continentaway from his home (and well outside the traditionalstewardshipof either Tommy's tribe or Sam Watson's). BeatingBookaat hisown magical game requires assemblingallies among Aborigines, whites, andspirits, and also acquiring an amulet brought from Africa by his whitegirlfriend's parents-it requires, in other words, all the resourcesof his ownculture and an infusion from other cultures as well. Tommy's final triumphcomes only after a greatdealof violence (including exualviolence)andatgreatemotionalexpense. Thoughofferedprivileges beyondprice by Biamee(251),he forfeitshis reward andhis life when he chooses to disobeytribal aw andleta member of anotherclan go unpunished or her clan's past treachery.Insteadof killing Jelda,a youngwoman of the blackpossum people, as he is instructed,Tommy sends her away from Brisbanebearinghis child. Forthis disobedience,he must die, buthe is doomed also because the Kadaitcha raditionhe representsis too wild, too powerful, and too violent to live on in the new social realityofthe Aboriginal people.TheKadaitchaSungstartledmanyreaderswhen it firstappeared.Itdidnotfit into the accepted forms of discourse for Aboriginalwriters-it was not aretold folktale or a tragic autobiography r a piece of mysticalwisdom. Evenacommentatorasknowledgeableas StephenMuecke,collaborator n andeditorof many Aboriginal texts, found the book virtuallyunreadable GelderandJacobs108). Yet what Watsonwas doingin the novel was whatanothernovelistandessayist, MudroorooNarogin,has saidAboriginalwritersshoulddo: TheAboriginalwriter is a Janus-type igurewith one face turned o thepastand theother to the future while existing in a postmodern,multiculturalAustraliainwhich he or she must fight for cultural space (24). Turning to the past isacceptable; staking a claim to the future by using modes like sf is morecontroversial. Watson's book functionswithin the contact zone of European-style fantastic fiction. It also reasserts the points of contact between urbanAboriginesandthose who live more traditional ives:



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400 SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 32 (2005)white economists and white administrators ave tried to separatethe so-calledtrue Aboriginal person, the so-called full-blooded tribal person, who isessentiallya hunter-gatherer,rom the urbanblacks who were agitating or suchbullshit things as landrightsand that sort of thing. I wanted to redressthat andsay, not only to white Australiabut also for my own brothersand sisters, thateven though we live in a land of concrete and bitumen, and even though wespeakin the languageof the conqueror,wear the clothes of the conqueror,dealin thecurrencyof the conquerorandessentiallyearn a living withinthecampofthe conqueror,we are still very much a tribalized, fully culturalpeople and westill have, even throughthatboundaryof concrete andbitumen,we still have avery stronglink to the land. So I constructeda storyabout the Kadaitcha igurewithin traditionalAustralia. ( I Say 590)The KadaitchaSungfunctions withinthe contactzone of genre fiction; it isitself an arena for negotiation among different traditions of narrative andcharacterization; nd its central igure TommyGubba,whose name, occupation,and mixed blood all representcultural interactions,asserts the continuityofAboriginal traditionwithin modern urbanAustralia.An articlein the TheMUPEncyclopaediaofAustralianScience Fiction andFantasy acknowledgesWatson'soriginality: Thereare manywonderfulbooks,most of them for young readers,with elements of Creationstories in them. Butonly one book so farby an Aboriginalauthordelves into the fantasyrange;this

is The Kadaitcha Sung by Sam Watson.... (Weller, IndigenousMythology97). The authorof this article, Archie Weller, has himself written a novel thatstraddles he line betweenfantasyand science fiction. Wellerwas acclaimedasan Aboriginal writer of distinction for his realist novel The Day of the Dog(1981), buthe has also hadhis claims to Aboriginalancestrychallenged.Similarquestionshave been raised about the racial identityof MudroorooNarogin anda number of other writers identified as Aboriginal. Rather than scrutinizingwriters' family trees, we might note the significanceof the fact thatAustraliansof mixed or unknown race would self-identifywith the most visible and mostoppressedracial Other. IntheMUP Encyclopaediaarticle,Weller seems not tobe numberinghimself among Aboriginal writers, simply pointing out that Anovelby ArchieWeller, TheLandof the GoldenClouds Allen & Unwin 1998),has two Nyoongah, or Southwest Aboriginal characters,among those who goon a quest in an Australiathree thousandyears in the future (97).What Weller does in his futuristicsetting is to offer a broad range of racialand culturalpossibilities. His questingcharacters nteractwith severalgroups:pale city-dwellers who rule by psychic powers, even paler Nightstalkerswholive in caves and prey on the above-groundraces, Gypsies moving within andbetween differentgroups,Caribbean isitors who havepreservedahigherlevelof technologythanany of the Australians,and even a societywhose religionisbased on the game of cricket. The central charactersRed Mond StarLightandhis kin, however, represent perhaps the most interestingversion of racialidentity. They belong to a tribeof hunter-gatherersf mixeddescent butmostlyEuropean,called the Ilkari. Theirmythsand ritualsreflectthe influenceof theirAboriginalneighbors,whom they call the Keepersof the Trees. Some of them



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ABORIGINALITYNSCIENCE ICTION 401have Aboriginal ancestry: Sometimes, thoughit was strictly forbiddenby theKeepers' laws, an Ilkari womanwould give herself to one of the Keeper menand thus there were Ilkariwho hada Keeperancestor. But never would a darkKeeperwomangive herself to a white man. Their race was much too pureandregal for that (5).In the post-Holocaustworld of the novel, dark skin is both a markof honorand a survival advantage:manyof the Ilkarisuffer from skincancer because ofexposure to the sun. The palest people are also the least trusted:the cave-dwelling Nightstalkers.In thecourseof the story, many culturalboundariesarebreached.Red Mond shelters and falls in love with a Nightstalkerwoman, andone of the Keeper warriors falls in love with a Caribbeanvisitor. Like SamWatson's Kadaitcha warrior, the Ilkari not only draw upon indigenousAustralian raditionsbut also ally themselves with othernon-European owers.Red Mond and his fellow wayfarers survive by pooling several sorts ofknowledge: forgotten technology, traditionalstories, and newly-developedpsychic abilities. As they travel, they shakeup the societies with which theyinteract,giving aboostto dissidentfactionswithineach. By theend, a relativelystable but fragmentedworld is giving way to a new culturaldynamicthatmayresult in a new and less destructivecivilization.Weller offers two different visions of Aboriginalfutures.On theone hand,the Keepersof the Trees remainapart, preservingthe mythsanddisciplinesofnomadic life that have kept their ancestors alive for millennia. On the otherhand, descendantsof Aboriginalpeople and the stories those descendants ellprovidethebasis for a new hybridhumanity.Neither culturalpattern s markedwithin the narrativeas the rightor only way to be Aboriginal.Archie Weller and Sam Watson are able to use sf and related genres toexplore and reinventAboriginalitynot in spite of but because of those genres'racistorigins. A storytelling orm thathas been used to depictracialandculturalinteractions,even in the mostoutrageouslybiasedfashion,can be redirected opresent other pointsof view. Once the Otherhas been invoked, there is no wayto post Keep Out signs on the genre. It has become a contact zone.I find it particularly nteresting o readTheKadaitchaSungandLandof theGolden Cloudsalongside Dowling's most recent Tom Tysonstories. Inthe firstcollection, Rynosseros, Tyson was a hero in the Rider Haggard romancetradition: he white colonial who acquirespowerfrom nativepeoples-and findsa love interesthiddenamongthembut notusuallyone of them. He was opposedby Aboriginal Kurdaitcha men (the more common spelling of Watson'sKadaitcha)who resentedhis acquisitionof a tribalshipand tribalspiritualgifts.More recentstories, though,have changedthe impressionof who Tysonis andwhatmightbe at stake in his search for his own identity. Tyson, it seems, maybe anartificialcreationmadeby the AboriginalClever Men as partof theirownexplorationof life and spirituality.He, like various artificialintelligences hemeets in his adventures, s a productof theirsuperior echnicalability, and hisfrequent frustrationshave more to do with differing scientific goals amongAboriginalfactions thanwith any personalvendetta.



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402 SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 32 (2005)Even the earlier Tyson stories change their meaningwhen they are readwithWatson's andWeller's novels. No longer do theybear the burdenof speakingfor Aboriginalpointsof view, if theyever did so. Instead,theycan speakabout

what it mightbe like to live among Aboriginalneighbors n a radicallyalteredfuture, one in which science and myth go hand in hand andwhite Australiansmust reinvent themselves, with the help of those neighbors, after bringing onecological andother disasters.Tyson does not acquirepower from the Aboriginesbut rather s allowedbythem to make his own discoveriesto supplement heirs-so long as he abidesbytheir social rules. What he discovershas do with his own origins, with the landitself, with hidden forces and intelligences at work in that land, andwith theorganizing of all those factors into myth-like narratives. His is a quest forpattern, and his dispatcherson that quest are the Aborigines, as changed,changingand changeless as they now are, who have always had the soul-mapof the songlines to keep intact this vital, pivotal connectionbetween self andplace, realityanddream, identityand the infinite ... caughtbetweenamusementand grudging approval at this growing habit among Nationals ( Doing theLine 1). The patternshe finds have to do with three imagesthatwere plantedin his unconscious by his Aboriginal creators: a star, a woman's face, and aship. Each of these seems to havehad a purposethatevents in Tyson's life haveredirected. His own personal archetypes, these images can turnout to signalmany things, some of them contradictory.It is up to Tyson, finally, to decidewhat story they will combine to form, which will be the storyof his life.And it is up to other writers, Aboriginaland National, o decide what tomake of the contact zone that is science fiction. The zone has been expandedrepeatedlyby Dowling, Weller, Watson, Broderick, Bryson, and others. It isavailableespecially to Aboriginal writers, who can find in it a form that linkstheir traditionaloral literatureswith a high-techor post-tech future.By writingin genres such as sf, Aboriginalwriters remindus thatthey too participate ncontemporaryworldcultureandhave a claimon all formsof literarydiscourse.For non-Aboriginalwriters, sf maybe less perilousthanattempting o describetheAboriginalpastandpresentfrom an outsider'sperspective,forsuchattemptsall too often come across as patronising,misconstrued,preconceived, andabused (Jackie Huggins, qtd. in Heiss 198). Withinthe zone of sf, abuse andmisconstructionmay continue, but there is no excuse to carrypreconceptionsover into the future. Dowling's complex future is best read, not as anappropriationof Aboriginal themes, but as an invitation to other writers,especially Aboriginal writers, to take partin a dialogueaboutpossible futuresand new ways of being human. One of the most important unctionsof sf likeDowling's and Weller's is to show us our own preconceptionsand offer waysto bypass them.ACKNOWLEDGMENTSPartof theresearchor thisessaywas fundedby a grant romtheFacultyResearchCommitteetIdahoStateUniversity,nda sabbaticaleave rom heUniversity avemetime oexplore newcontinentroma distance. wouldiketo thank llthosewhohaveoffered suggestions and insights, includingMichelle Reid, Terry Dowling, Van Ikin,



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ABORIGINALITY N SCIENCEFICTION 403DamienBroderick,JustineLarbalestier,LymanSargent,KimSelling, MargaretCluniesRoss, RobertHood, StephenDedman, and JudithLeggatt.WORKSCITEDBlackford, Russell. The Damien BroderickInterview. Science Fiction:A ReviewofSpeculativeLiterature4.3 (September1982): 94-105.Broderick, Damien. TheDreamingDragons. New York: Pocket, 1980.Bryning, Frank. Mechman of the Dreaming. Other Worlds. Ed. Paul Collins.Melbourne: Void, 1978. 129-39.. NemalukandtheStar-stone. EnvisagedWorlds.Ed. PaulCollins. Melbourne:Void, 1978. 77-83.. Placeof theThrowing-stick. 1956.AustralianScienceFiction. Ed. VanIkin.St Lucia: U of QueenslandP, 1982. 159-65.Chandler, A. Bertram. The Mountain Movers. 1971. Centaurus: The Best ofAustralian Science Fiction. Ed. David G. Hartwell and Damien Broderick. NewYork: Tor, 1999. 63-81.Collas, Phil. The InnerDomain. AmazingStories (October 1935): 85-113.Dixon, Robert. Writing he ColonialAdventure:Gender,Race, and Nation in Anglo-Australian PopularFiction, 1875-1914. New York: CambridgeUP, 1995.Dowling, Terry. Blue Tyson.NorthAdelaide, SA: Aphelion, 1992.Doing the Line. Rynemonn.Unpublishedmanuscript.Rynoserros. North Adelaide, SA: Aphelion, 1990. Rpt. Parramatta,NSW:

MirrorDanse,2003.TwilightBeach. NorthAdelaide, SA: Aphelion, 1993.Eldershaw, M. Bernard [Marjorie Bernard and Flora Eldershaw]. Tomorrow &Tomorrow& Tomorrow.London:Virago, 1983.Originallypublished, nabbreviatedform, as Tomorrow& Tomorrow Melbourne:Georgian, 1947).Foyster, John. Questof the Three Worlds. Australian Science Fiction Review. 2ndseries. 1.3 (July 1986): 28-33.Gelder, Ken and Jane M. Jacobs. UncannyAustralia: Sacrednessand Identityin aPostcolonial Nation. Melbourne:MelbourneUP, 1998.Granville,Austyn. The Fallen Race. New York: Neely, 1892.Harding, Lee, ed. The Altered I: An Encounter with Science Fiction. Melbourne:Norstrilia, 1976.Heiss, Anita. Writing about Indigenous Australia-Some Issues to Consider andProtocols to Follow: A Discussion Paper. Southerly62.2 (2002): 197-205.Hughes, Grai. Twenty-FirstCenturyDreamtime. TheMentor62 (January1989): 18-25. Rpt. in Aurealis 4 (1991): 51-59.Hulley, Charles E. TheFire Crystal.Sydney:Mystic, 1994.Ikin,Van. Introduction:TheHistoryof AustralianScienceFiction. AustralianScienceFiction. Ed. Van Ikin. St Lucia: U of QueenslandP, 1982. ix-xxxvii.Love, Rosaleen. Trickster. MortalFire: Best AustralianSF. Ed. TerryDowling andVan Ikin. Rydalsmere, NSW: Hodder, 1993. 157-62.Muecke, Stephen. TextualSpaces:Aboriginalityand CulturalStudies.Kensington:NewSouthWales UP, 1992.Narogin,Mudrooroo.Writingrom theFringe:A StudyofModernAboriginalLiterature.Melbourne:Hyland, 1990.Pratt, MaryLouise. Artsof the ContactZone. Profession91. New York:MLA, 1991.33-40. Rpt. in Professing in the Contact Zone: Bringing Theoryand Practice



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404 SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 32 (2005)Together. Ed. Janice M. Wolff. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers ofEnglish, 2002. 1-18.Scott, Bill. Boori. Oxford: OxfordUP, 1978.

Smith, Ron. StrongAttraction. 1968. AustralianScience Fiction1. Ed. JohnBaxter.Sydney: Arkon, 1975. 109-26.Stone, Graham. Review of Paul Collins, ed., EnvisagedWorlds.ScienceFictionNews53 (February1978): 7-12.Strasser,Dirk. Editorial. Aurealis: AustralianFantasyand Science Fiction 4 (April1991): 4.Turner,George. Beloved Son. London:Faber, 1978.Down There n Darkness. New York: Tor, 1999.In the Heart or in theHead: An Essay in Time Travel.Carlton, Vic: Norstrilia,1984.Walker, Kath. StradbrokeDreamtime. Sydney:Angus, 1972.Walsh, J.M. Vandals of the Void. London: Hamilton, 1931. Rpt. Westport, CT:Hyperion, 1976.Watson, Sam. I Say This to You. Meanjin53.4 (Summer1994): 589-96.. The Kadaitcha Sung. Ringwood, Vic: Penguin, 1990.Webb,JaneenandAndrew Enstice.Aliens andSavages:Fiction, Politics, andPrejudicein Australia. Sydney: HarperCollins,1998.Weller, Archie. Indigenous Mythology. The MUP Encyclopaedia of AustralianScience Fiction and Fantasy. Ed. Paul Collins. Melbourne:MelbourneUP, 1998.

95-97.. Land of the Golden Clouds. St. Leonards,NSW: Allen, 1998.Wrightson, Patricia. TheIce Is Coming. London: Hutchinson,1977.ABSTRACTScience fiction in colonial societies such as Australiacan function as what MaryLouise Prattcalls an artof thecontactzone -an imaginative pacewithinwhichgroupsdefine themselves andnegotiate their culturaldifferences. Australian f falls into threeperiodswith regardto its treatmentof Aboriginalcharactersandtraditions.In the first,from the 1890s to at least the 1960s, native charactersare treatedas subhumanandAboriginalbeliefs andtraditions ompareunfavorablywithEuropean-derivedcienceandsocial organization.The second periodoverlapsthefirst, but a new perspectivebecomesdominant n the 1970s; the emphasis s on positive qualitiesof Aboriginalcultureand oncommongroundbetween Aboriginal andnon-AboriginalAustralians.After the 1970s,increasedawarenessof politicalinjusticeandfears of impingingonAboriginalexperienceandintellectualpropertycause most European-Australianso avoid thetopicaltogether.Inthe sameperiod,however, non-whitewritersbegin to explorethe possibilitiesof usingscience-fictionaldiscourseto redefinetheir own history, identity,andtraditions.Novelssuch as Sam Watson's The KaidatchaSung and Archie Weller's Land of the GoldenCloudopen the genre up to new voices and points of view. These novels maybe read ascommentariesupon, andresponsesto, earliersf. Some of this new fictionbenefitsfrombeing readas part of a cross-culturaldialogue, most notablyTerryDowling's series ofstories about a high-tech, Aboriginal-controlled, e-mythologized uture Australia.

aboriginality in science fiction

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