{"id":37618,"date":"2014-10-06T19:10:28","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T19:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=37618"},"modified":"2021-11-27T23:41:45","modified_gmt":"2021-11-27T23:41:45","slug":"am-i-black-enough-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=37618","title":{"rendered":"Am I Black Enough For You?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Am I Black Enough For You?<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Random House Books Australia<\/a>\u00a0(Available in the United States via University of Hawai\u2018i Press<\/a>)
\n2012-04-02
\n352 pages
\nPaperback ISBN: 9781742751924
\neBook ISBN: 9781742751931<\/p>\n

Anita Heiss<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Winner of the Vic Premier’s Award for Indigenous Writing.The story of an urban-based high achieving Aboriginal woman working to break down stereotypes and build bridges between black and white Australia.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m Aboriginal. I’m just not the Aboriginal person a lot of people want or expect me to be.<\/em><\/p>\n

What does it mean to be Aboriginal<\/a>? Why is Australia<\/a> so obsessed with notions of identity? Anita Heiss, successful author and passionate campaigner for Aboriginal literacy, was born a member of the Wiradjuri<\/a> nation of central New South Wales<\/a>, but was raised in the suburbs of Sydney<\/a> and educated at the local Catholic school. She is Aboriginal – however, this does not mean she likes to go barefoot and, please, don’t ask her to camp in the desert.<\/p>\n

After years of stereotyping Aboriginal Australians as either settlement dwellers or rioters in Redfern<\/a>, the Australian media have discovered a new crime to charge them with: being too ‘fair-skinned’ to be an Australian Aboriginal. Such accusations led to Anita’s involvement in one of the most important and sensational Australian legal decisions of the 21st-century when she joined others in charging a newspaper columnist<\/a> with breaching the Racial Discrimination Act<\/a>. He was found guilty, and the repercussions continue.<\/p>\n

In this deeply personal memoir, told in her distinctive, wry style, Anita Heiss gives a first-hand account of her experiences as a woman with an Aboriginal mother and Austrian father, and explains the development of her activist consciousness.<\/p>\n

Read her story and ask: what does it take for someone to be black enough for you?<\/p>\n