AustLit

'This term paper wants to examine the forms and functions of Aboriginality in Kim Scott’s novel Benang: From the Heart. Published in 1999 as the author’s second novel, it gained great attention and also won the Miles Franklin Award. Kim Scott is a descendant of the Nyoongar people who have at all times inhabited the south-east coast of Western Australia. They used to be a large homogenous group that shared a common language and culture until the first white settlers landed on their continent. The following clash of cultures had various fatal consequences and “sounded the death knell” for the Nyoongar community (cp. Da Cruz 2003: 14). Apart from general mistreatment of these people, Kim Scott’s novel illustrates how an institutionalized genocide of them and other Aboriginal people was attempted. The story not only includes individual stories of several Aboriginal characters, but also official documents, newspaper articles, letters and reports. Like that, Scott creates a counter- narrative to colonial history and gives voices to those who were oppressed by legislations and racism.' (Introduction)