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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Morgan believed she was being taken to an awards luncheon for her work with Aboriginal people when, sporting a fancy new suit, she climbed into a jeep and headed out of town. Hours later, she found herself at the edge of Australia's outback clad only in a thin shift, watching her possessions go up in flames. Her guides, telepathic and spiritually advanced descendants of a 50,000-year-old tradition, call themselves the "real people" and refer to Westerners as "mutants." Morgan's trek across the heart of Australia involved a series of increasingly revelatory and even miraculous occurrences. (Adapted from Trove)
Notes
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Marlo Morgan's work is occasionally presented as non-fiction. See, for example, Cath Ellis's 'Helping Yourself : Marlo Morgan and the Fabrication of Indigenous Wisdom' for more information.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
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Respecting Protocols for Representing Aboriginal Cultures
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 3 2014; 'This essay undertakes a detailed discussion of how respecting protocols for representing Indigenous cultures supports the interests of Indigenous communities and producers of stories with Indigenous content. To highlight the importance of Indigenous protocols I review the prominence and reception of Aboriginal stories in Australian film and literature and discuss how protocol guidelines can prevent problematic representations. I demonstrate how protocols influenced writing Calypso Summer (2014), a novel exploring issues relating to my cultural group, the Nukunu, to illustrate the challenges encountered and benefits gained from employing Indigenous representation protocols. ' (Author's introduction) -
Writing White, Writing Black, and Events at Canoe Rivulet
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: TEXT : Journal of Writing and Writing Courses , October vol. 16 no. 2 2012; 'How a community imagines the past contributes to the shaping of its present culture; influences that community's vision for the future. Yet much about the past can be difficult to access, as it can be lost or hidden. Therefore, when retelling first contact stories, especially when the documentary information is limited to a colonial perspective, how might a writer approach fictionalizing historical Indigenous figures? 'Will Martin' (2011), a tale written as part of my practice-led PhD, is a fictional retelling of the eighteenth century sailing trip, taken along the New South Wales coast, by explorers Matthew Flinders, George Bass, and Bass's servant, William Martin. This paper traces my attempts to discover how to approach fictionalizing the historical Indigenous figures that Flinders met. Examining how some non-Indigenous writers have appropriated Indigenous culture and investigating what some writers have said about non-Indigenous writers creating Indigenous characters, provided me with some guidelines. Interviews with Indigenous elders, and other members of the Illawarra community, helped me imagine the gaps in knowledge. In the fictional retelling, using unreliable narration to suggest there may be multiple stories around a single historical event, some of which we may never get to hear, became a useful narrative strategy.' (Author's abstract)
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The Survival of Indigenous Spirituality in Contemporary Australia
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Literature and Aesthetics , vol. 21 no. 2 2011; (p. 94-113) 'An Indigenous „spirituality‟ 1 has survived in Australia despite the impact of White colonial settlement since 1788. It is found in a multitude of forms, both because of the diversity of Indigenous communities in Australia and because it is an ethos of deep connections between one‟s Ancestors, and land or „country.‟ These connections are traced back to ancestral beings who formed the land through their deeds in „the Dreaming.‟ Though the rites, songs, iconography, and sometimes even the stories themselves were suppressed and often lost among some communities, I argue that the subtle, near-intangible ethos was passed on. The forty-thousand-year-old spirituality could not be suppressed by two hundred years of colonialism. This spirituality was maintained through rites and religious institutions in many communities, but survived by other means among those where formal religion was destroyed. This spirituality has been revived in various forms, but nevertheless survives in the work of Indigenous activism, particularly the struggle for land rights. Indigenous national identities have remained intact and are imbued with spiritual significance. ' (Author's introduction) -
'New Age Trippers': Aboriginality and Australian New Age Travel Books
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Travel Writing , vol. 13 no. 1 2009; (p. 27-43) In the last two decades of the twentieth century Australia became an attractive travel destination for alienated middle-class Westerners in search of a spiritual utopia. In such texts Aboriginality is represented as a source of spiritual transcendence and as a remedy for the evils of modern consumerism and industrialisation. This article examines a number of books by white New Age spiritual travellers-James Cowan's Two Men Dreaming (1995), Marlo Morgan's Mutant Message Down Under (1994), and Harvey Arden's Dreamkeepers (1995) - that claim to (re)discover a lost, universal, sacred heritage within Aboriginal cosmologies. The discourses employed by recent Australian New Age travel texts are prima facie examples of postcolonial forms of cultural appropriation. Yet the involvement of indigenous agents in the production, promotion, and critique of such texts complicates the argument that these texts are simply new forms of cultural colonisation (Author's abstract). -
Post Colonialism and Literary Criticism in Australia
Post-Colonialism and Literary Criticism in Australia
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Reading Down Under : Australian Literary Studies Reader 2009; (p. 95-105) Modern Australian Criticism and Theory 2010; (p. 14-27) 'In this essay I want to lay out the context for the development of the study of post-colonial literatures and post-colonial reading strategies, then move on to consider in a little more detail some significant aspects of the field in its early form. I will conclude by examining the effects of post-colonial criticism on ways of reading the work of three Australian writers: Judith Wright, Randolph Stow, and Patrick White' (95).
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Group Condemns Book's False Message
1995
single work
review
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 20 September no. 110 1995; (p. 25)
— Review of Mutant Message Down Under 1991 single work novel -
Dark Places in a Country Built on Lies
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 15 October 1994; (p. 11A)
— Review of The White Woman 1994 single work novel ; Mutant Message Down Under 1991 single work novel -
Outback Lore or Outright Lie?
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 2 October 1994; (p. 8)
— Review of Mutant Message Down Under 1991 single work novel -
Cynical Agenda in New Age Assault
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 29-30 October 1994; (p. rev 5)
— Review of Mutant Message Down Under 1991 single work novel -
Going Native : Disguise, Forgery, Imagination and the 'European Aboriginal'
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Overland , Autumn no. 170 2003; (p. 34-42) The article discusses the phenomenon of the 'white blackfellow' and the changing motivations of Europeans 'going native'. It argues that, in reporting about their experiences of living among Aborigines, some writers, as for instance Marlo Morgan in her successful but fraudulent book Mutant Message Down Under, are living out their own fantasies and quests for spiritual fulfilment rather than representing the realities of contemporary Aboriginal people and life. The author also discusses the pros and cons with regard to more recent notion of 'cultural protocols' for non-indigenous writers in portraying Aboriginal life. -
Mad in India
2004
single work
autobiography
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 63 no. 2 2004; (p. 56-63) Wanderings in India : Australian Perspectives 2012; (p. 167-174) Sophie Cunningham explains her obsession with India and why she wants to return. -
Helping Yourself : Marlo Morgan and the Fabrication of Indigenous Wisdom
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , October vol. 21 no. 4 2004; (p. 149-164) -
Listening to Indigenous Voices : The Ethics of Reading in the Teaching of Australian Indigenous Oral Narrative
2005
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Transcultural Graffiti : Diasporic Writing and the Teaching of Literary Studies 2005; (p. 155-170) -
Post Colonialism and Literary Criticism in Australia
Post-Colonialism and Literary Criticism in Australia
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Reading Down Under : Australian Literary Studies Reader 2009; (p. 95-105) Modern Australian Criticism and Theory 2010; (p. 14-27) 'In this essay I want to lay out the context for the development of the study of post-colonial literatures and post-colonial reading strategies, then move on to consider in a little more detail some significant aspects of the field in its early form. I will conclude by examining the effects of post-colonial criticism on ways of reading the work of three Australian writers: Judith Wright, Randolph Stow, and Patrick White' (95).
Last amended 3 Jul 2023 14:57:39
Subjects:
- Australian Outback, Central Australia,
Settings:
- Australian Outback, Central Australia,
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