Mudrooroo Narogin (1938–2019)
Auteur van Wild Cat Falling
Over de Auteur
Colin Johnson was born in Cuballing, Western Australia on August 21, 1938. During his childhood and young adulthood, he spent time in state care, an orphanage, and Fremantle Prison. He was a novelist and poet who wrote about the struggles of modern Aboriginals to adapt to life in a society toon meer dominated by whites. His first book Wild Cat Falling was published in 1965. He changed his name to Mudrooroo Nyoongah in 1988. Afterward he published under the names Mudrooroo Nyoongah, Mudrooroo Narogin, and Mudrooroo. His other novels included Long Live Sandawara, Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World, Doin Wildcat, Wildcat Screaming, The Kwinkan, Master of the Ghost Dreaming, Undying, Underground, and The Promised Land. His poetry collections included Song Circle of Jacky; Dalwurra, the Black Bittern; Collected Poems; Pacific Highway Boo-Blooz: Country Poems; and Old Fellow Poems. His plays included Big Sunday and Mutjinggaba: The Place of the Old Woman. His nonfiction works included Before the Invasion: Aboriginal Life to 1788; Writing from the Fringe: A Study of Modern Aboriginal Literature; Us Mob: History, Culture, Struggle; and Indigenous Literature of Australia: Milli Milli Wangka. In 1996 his sister wrote a newspaper article claiming the family's ancestry was Irish and African American and not Indigenous. Due to the public controversy, he left Australia in 2001 and moved to Nepal. He died on January 20, 2019 at the age of 80. (Bowker Author Biography) toon minder
Werken van Mudrooroo Narogin
Paperbark: A Collection of Black Australian Writings (Uqp Black Australian Writers Series) (1990) — Redacteur; Medewerker — 45 exemplaren
Gerelateerde werken
Australian Literature: An Anthology of Writing from the Land Down Under (1993) — Medewerker — 27 exemplaren
Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Officiële naam
- Johnson, Colin Thomas
- Pseudoniemen en naamsvarianten
- Narogin, Mudrooroo
Nyoongah, Mudrooroo - Geboortedatum
- 1938-08-21
- Overlijdensdatum
- 2019-01-20
- Geslacht
- male
- Nationaliteit
- Australia
- Geboorteplaats
- Narrogin, Western Australia, Australia
- Plaats van overlijden
- Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Leden
Besprekingen
This is an excellent novel, capturing a window into society in a rare and heartbreaking manner. The style is basic, but the story is extraordinary on multiple levels- the plight of aboriginals today, their monstrous mistreatment in the past, the playout between the clash of cultures and, sigh, the police. It is an awesome little book, though heartbreakingly sad
Colin Johnson aka Mudrooroo is a controversial figure in the history of indigenous literature. His novel, Wild Cat Falling (A&R Classics) is said by some to be the first novel by an author ‘of Aboriginal blood’ in Australia. However he is not mentioned in the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature – which one might perhaps expect to include an excerpt from a novel of such apparent significance. However, he is listed on the AustLit database BlackWords. Why the discrepancy? Well, if you check out the author’s Wikipedia page, you can soon see why: his Aboriginality is a contested issue.
Well, as I said elsewhere, I’m not getting into the complex politics of Aboriginal identity: if an author identifies him/herself as indigenous, that’s good enough for me. What is more problematic is that the novel tells the story of Trugernanna and the ‘last male of Bruny Island’ (p207), and the cover blurb refers to ‘the last native Tasmanians‘ implying that Tasmanian Aborigines are extinct. They are not, as shown by Dr Ryan’s authoritative research in The Tasmanian Aborigines: A History since 1803 which also explains how the false belief arose and how Tasmanian activists have had to mount a long campaign to have their Aboriginality acknowledged.
But as it happens, Mudrooroo’s title prefigures that endurance into the 21st century. Doctor Wooreddy’s Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World is a remarkable book on any terms, and if it were to be reissued as an Australian classic with a clarifying introduction, any doubts about its author or intimations of successful genocide could be confronted. I think it would be a pity to let this book slide into obscurity because it is an elegy for a lost way of life and a snapshot of the dilemmas of the period. It makes an empathetic companion to The Tasmanian Aborigines: A History since 1803.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2012/05/27/doctor-wooreddys-prescription-for-enduring-th...… (meer)
Well, as I said elsewhere, I’m not getting into the complex politics of Aboriginal identity: if an author identifies him/herself as indigenous, that’s good enough for me. What is more problematic is that the novel tells the story of Trugernanna and the ‘last male of Bruny Island’ (p207), and the cover blurb refers to ‘the last native Tasmanians‘ implying that Tasmanian Aborigines are extinct. They are not, as shown by Dr Ryan’s authoritative research in The Tasmanian Aborigines: A History since 1803 which also explains how the false belief arose and how Tasmanian activists have had to mount a long campaign to have their Aboriginality acknowledged.
But as it happens, Mudrooroo’s title prefigures that endurance into the 21st century. Doctor Wooreddy’s Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World is a remarkable book on any terms, and if it were to be reissued as an Australian classic with a clarifying introduction, any doubts about its author or intimations of successful genocide could be confronted. I think it would be a pity to let this book slide into obscurity because it is an elegy for a lost way of life and a snapshot of the dilemmas of the period. It makes an empathetic companion to The Tasmanian Aborigines: A History since 1803.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2012/05/27/doctor-wooreddys-prescription-for-enduring-th...… (meer)
Enjoyable and thought-provoking. It's always fun (and pretty damn rare) to read a book set in Perth (Western Australia). The bonus with Mudrooroo Narogin's novel (the long-awaited sequel to Wild Cat Falling, published in 1965) is the interesting and well-written story I was able to get into once getting over the Noongar accent in which the narrative is "spoken".
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- Werken
- 19
- Ook door
- 2
- Leden
- 481
- Populariteit
- #51,317
- Waardering
- 3.4
- Besprekingen
- 8
- ISBNs
- 63
- Talen
- 4
A worthwhile read as part of the broader writing on Indigenous literature and storytelling.