I suppose if Chally and I keep linking to each other’s posts, it suggests we’re having a conversation which we find interesting, even if nobody else does ;)
Quick note: I’m going to use the term “genetic heritage” or “heritage” here to indicate that a person has a parent – or more distant ancestor – who identifies in a particular way but I’m not aware of whether the person themselves does, eg I say that Deborah Mailman has a “Maori heritage” because she refers to her mother as Maori (and so, I assume, her mother identifies as Maori, which I understand is a cultural identity rather than a genetic identity, much like Indigenous Australian identities), but it appears that Mailman herself does not identify as Maori. If anyone is offended by my use of “heritage” in this manner, please let me know, but I thought it was better than “background”.
Chally, in her excellent post on the invisibility of Indigenous Australian cultures within the broader Australian community, mentioned Deborah Mailman (who also has a Maori genetic heritage), and I thought immediately of her character in The Secret Life of Us.
Side note: That Enough Rope interview I linked to? Definitely worth a read.
I watched occasional episodes of that show for a couple of seasons – enough to have some idea of what was going on, so maybe once every two weeks or so. There was never anything about Mailman’s character’s Indigenous heritage. It suddenly occurred to me: that seems like a bit of a whitewash.
In one sense, it’s a good thing that her (apparent) Indigenous Australian heritage was not an “issue” – that is, it’s good that people who “look Aboriginal” (scare quotes because, again, identifying as an Indigenous Australian is an identity, not a phenotype) can be shown and seen to be “normal” Australians, whatever that means.
Plus, just because Mailman does identify as an Indigenous Australian (specifically, as far as I can discover: as a Murri woman from the Bidjara Nation, who grew up in Kalkadoon country) does not mean that she should always have to play Indigenous Australian characters.
But at the same time, the show was kind of about the minutiae of life. And so in some ways, this is the situation. There’s a character who “looks Aboriginal” – played by an actor who identifies as an Indigenous Australian – which means that the character’s (apparent, at least) Indigenous Australian heritage is “obvious”, which means that (at least some) viewers will think about it.
Does not mentioning that heritage suggest that having an Indigenous Australian heritage is unimportant? That if you simply don’t mention it, you will be treated exactly the same way? That you’ll never be exposed to any racism?
Because I suspect that that’s not the experience of most people who “look Aboriginal”.
But then again, if Mailman played a “generic Indigenous Australian character”, or even an Indigenous Australian character from a nation other than her own, doesn’t that suggest that Indigenous Australia = one big, amorphous, homogeneous conglomerate? And isn’t that just as bad as suggesting that having an Indigenous Australian heritage – however defined – is unimportant?
I thought I’d see if Mailman had expressed any views on this, and unsurprisingly, she has (in the same Enough Rope interview I linked to above).
ANDREW DENTON: With ‘Secret Life’, was it great to have a role where you were Kelly, you weren’t ‘an Aboriginal character’?
DEBORAH MAILMAN: Mmm, absolutely. I remember reading the script, and I thought, “Wow, what a fantastic story. What a great idea.” And I really wanted the role.
ANDREW DENTON: Yeah.
DEBORAH MAILMAN: And I don’t know what other actors, sort of, auditioned for the role, and I went in, sort of swig of wine, did the audition, and within a week they phoned me up and, “Got it,” and I just went, “What?!” And it just sort of steamrolled from there. There didn’t seem to be much time to think about that step that just happened. And it’s been a beautiful, beautiful sort of ride, actually. And it’s been wonderful that the character of Kel hasn’t sort of been a soapbox in that sense, because it wasn’t written for an Aboriginal actor.
Since Mailman was happy to be acting as a character who wasn’t specifically “an Aboriginal character”, actively wanted to do so, I find it difficult to fault the show for not bringing up any issues relating to the character’s Indigenous Australian heritage.
Nevertheless, I think that the situation raises some interesting general questions about how our culture responds to Indigenous Australian characters and actors.
Wallaby 
I am finding your discussion and mutual linkage very interesting! I am a white woman with an Indigenous husband (Ngario-Gunditjmara) man and we have a daughter who (we) identifies as Indigenous (she can make her own choice when she is older as to whether she wants to continue to identify as such). I have had my eyes opened much wider since meeting my husband and also beginning to work in areas involving (or specifically for) Indigenous people.
Thanks!
I really hope that your daughter gets to grow up feeling like Australia is a country where, no matter how she identifies, she’ll receive equal treatment.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that we’ll get there so quickly, so instead, I’ll just cross my fingers that your & your husband’s support for your daughter will help her live (relatively) unscathed by any racism and other prejudice she comes across.
Hrmmm. I can see both aspects. I think it’s unquestionably fantastic that Mailman scored that role, and that it wasn’t then tweaked to be “generic Indigenous Person A”. It’s definitely a good thing when non-white actors can audition for roles that are not racially defined and get them.
That said… how many seasons was she on the show for? The latter seasons weren’t written when she was cast, they were written on top of the character that developed. It’s entirely reasonable for the character’s background to be explored, and they had the opportunity to touch on some aspects of contemporary Indigenous life that don’t fit the “standard narrative”.
She was one of the main characters, and I think she was on the show for its whole run. What you’ve said about writing the character to her in later seasons: it’s possible (given the views that she has expressed publicly) that she didn’t want the character’s background to be explored in that way. If that’s the case, that may be why the show didn’t go there, and that’s one reason I say I can’t fault the show.
It’s also possible that the show did have a minor relevant storyline – I think I didn’t watch much, if any, of the later seasons – but from what Mailman has said, I suspect not.
All of this raises another question, too, about the responsibility of Mailman herself in a role like that. Is she entitled to escape from real life and pretend that a character who looked like her would never even have some racist epithet thrown her way – or that if it was, it would be a one-off thing she could brush off? I don’t want to say that she’s not entitled to escape in that way, and I find it even more difficult to say she has an active responsibility to make sure that long-running characters she plays get that sort of storyline. It’s that usual thing of: an individual who is a member of a minority or repressed group, who is one of the few members of that group to be in a particular role, should not have to be “representative” of that entire group, and as a community we shouldn’t force them to be.
All excellent points.
[…] The whitewashing of Indigenous Australian characters? […]
Nice post. :) Unbelievably, this has inspired me to do a response post!
Fabulous! I look forward to reading it – and seeing what switches it flicks in my head ;)
Actually, looks like this is going to turn into a biggie and could take a while!
I read your posts, and Chally’s, but I don’t comment, given my status as a new Australian. But they make me think.
Deborah, I think that as far as anything relating to Indigenous Australians is concerned, I’m also very much a new Australian – for much the same reasons that Chally outlined (Australian history taught in schools from a white perspective, very little in the public eye that’s really about real Indigenous Australians, etc). So I think my learning curve is as steep as yours.
@Chally: no hurry. I look forward to it whenever it arrives :)
I have been clicking through the links from Hoyden and want to thank you for writing about this.
Watching Sampson and Delilah on the weekend in a packed cinema on the weekend made me happy that such an important, sensitive and well made film was receiving attention. But for the vast majority of both international and domestic audiences that is likely to be the ONLY story they consume.
We need tv and film to start pumping out multiple stories… with all various combinations of identity and non identity focus. Mistakes are going to be made. Some people are going to be offended. I think that fear of getting it wrong definitely holds the industry back. But we need momentum. We need money directed so that personal stories can be told.
Wanted to give a call out ton Aaron Pedersen who does a great job (and is lucky enough to be given the roles) to be in both mainstream and more identity focused dramas.
[…] 26 September 2010 by Jo Tamar Last year, I wrote a post about the Aboriginal Australian stories I’d had around me when I was growing up (as far as I know, none of the stories I was exposed to were stories of Torres Strait Islanders). I also wrote about Indigenous Australian characters, and an interesting comment thread developed abo… […]