Insiders' and outsiders' perspectives: indigenous cultural knowledge in circulation

Abstract

There is a historical tradition of Aboriginal storytellers working with white writers to produce children’s books with Aboriginal subject matter, which underlines the ethical concerns in representing Aboriginality: who is eligible to tell Aboriginal stories and to what extent is the deployment of Indigenous cultural knowledge an empowerment for Indigenous communities or merely another act of cultural appropriation? Such questions for both insiders and outsiders are also legitimate for researchers who are interested in Aboriginal Studies and yet are inextricably associated with or even complicit in the dominant discourse during the postcolonial era. The cross-cultural and interracial collaboration between Boori Monty Pryor, a storyteller of Kunggandji and Birra-gubba origin, and Meme McDonald, a white female writer, manifest a reciprocal relationship, which recognises Indigenous collective ownership of cultural and intellectual heritage. The structure of reciprocity, as I intend to argue, envisions a non-legal approach to protect the collective Indigenous cultural heritage. By examining the structure of reciprocity in representing Aboriginality by Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers, I will further consider the ethical stances of researchers in this process of knowledge production and exchange.