AustLit

This chapter examines works written between 1929 and 1945 by non-Aboriginal authors representing Aboriginality. Works analysed in detail are Coonardoo (1929) by Katharine Susannah Prichard, Capricornia (1938) by Xavier Herbert, Lasseter's Last Ride: An Epic of Central Australia (1931) by Ion Idriess, The Passing of the Aborigines (1938) by Daisy Bates and Native Legends (1929) by David Unaipon. Shoemaker argues the following points: Firstly, that there is a tendency for academics to overemphasise the importance of works by Prichard and Herbert as indicators of a supposedly new and enlightened view. Secondly, that by highlighting such works as beacons of enlightenment, academic criticism has cast a shadow over the extremely popular works of historical fiction by Idriess. And thirdly, that a number of other popular works of literature written and published between 1929 and 1945, for example, Daisy Bates's The Passing of the Aborigines, still exerted some influence on Australian readers as late as the 1960s. Finally, Shoemaker's analysis concludes with David Unaipon, who published during this period, was almost totally ignored until the 1970s, and even now still deserves far more study than he has received.