2. Lecture part B. The second part details some of the effects of settler colonialism, especially the aboriginal camps in Australia and the residential schools in the US that emerged during the 19th century. What did you learn here that was new or interesting? What questions or thoughts do you have about this material?
I really enjoyed learning from the lecture this week. One of the topics that stood out to me was the Native American boarding schools in the US. Junior year of high school, I wrote a research paper which analyzed the hypocrisy of the US government valuing indigenous languages when they used natives as Code Talkers in World War II, but oppressing native language and culture otherwise through the implementation of these boarding schools. If you don't know about Code Talkers, I highly recommend looking into it - super interesting topic.
Prior to listening to this lecture I knew a good amount regarding the forms of cultural and linguistic oppression used at these boarding schools. However, it was really interesting and new to me to compare this aspect of settler colonialism to settler colonialism in Australia. One of the main forms of oppression at these schools was punishing the students if they spoke their native language. By disconnecting the youth from their language, they distanced them from their culture and made it harder for indigenous culture to be passed down generationally. A connection I've drawn between this and The Secret River is how the settlers make no effort to learn the aboriginals' language. Because of this, any hope of peace between the groups is dependent on the aboriginals partially conforming to the settlers' language and culture. Watching this lecture and reading this book has made me more interested in the power of language. Languages are very important for maintaining culture, but are also often the first thing to go in cases of cultural assimilation, as shown in The Secret River and the Native American boarding schools.
Hey Audrey, it is fascinating to hear about your interest in this specific topic regarding indigenous people in boarding schools. I agree that these schools systematically worked to strip Aboriginal people of their language and, therefore, their culture. It is interesting that preserving a language appears to be the big idea in terms of preserving an identity.
ReplyDeleteHi Audrey, I agree completely that language and its power is something that is super important in the secret river and as an element of settler colonialism as a whole. Like you said, there was no effort to learn the any native language by the colonists, but there were a few natives who learned some English. I also think this relates to the article about the stage adaptation and the lack of lines given to aboriginals.
ReplyDeleteHi Audrey, Thank you for sharing about Code Talkers, I will have to look that up. I am intrigued by your focus on language in the Secret River. William and Sal especially can be noticed using subtly tactics to suppress their language such as trying to assign them English names. Thornhill later noted that one of their names was completely unfitting of his character, which is unsurprising and represents the stripping of their identity.
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