Resistance, Loss And Return

As a descendant of the Noggar people of Western Australia,Kim Scott always explores the relationships between settlers and the indigenous people in his works,and his novel Benang:From the Heart is a great success,because it reveals that white settlers try to assimilate Australian Aborigines according to eugenics and other policies.The novel focuses on the protagonist Harley and his family members,and describes difficult living conditions of Australian Aborigines and half-castes during20^thcentury in Australian land.According to Kim Scott,the half-caste is considered as the process of cultural evolution while black becomes white is the work of“elevating”the natives,and white colonists plan to hurry on disappearance of natives and their culture.Half-castes represented by Harley’s family make different choices to white and black culture in different time,and choose to return to aboriginal culture at last.The introduction briefly introduces Australian literature,mainly talks about the life experience of Kim Scott and his works,reviews his novel Benang:From the Heart,summarizes relevant research about Kim Scott and his works at home and abroad,and introduces the analyze of the half-caste in Harley’s family and indicates the imperishability of Aboriginal culture.The first chapter mainly analyzes the response of the first and second generations of the protagonist Harry family to the persecution and discrimination of white colonists.These generations are baptized by indigenous customs and traditional culture since childhood,so they are deeply influenced by indigenous culture and can not be assimilated by whites easily.Although they have contact with whites,half-castes like Fanny and Harriette adhere to their own culture and customs.They try their best to teach the next generation indigenous customs,such as hunting,food collection,tracking.Meanwhile,they ignore government policy and try to find relatives and maintain blood relations.As a half-caste,Harriette dares to express her dissatisfaction with segregation and racial discrimination,strives for educational equality and self dignity of mixed race children,and expresses her willing to“never be a dog”.Facing persecution and discrimination,the half-caste is brave enough to fight rather than submit to white colonists,which indicates the dissatisfaction with white privilege and racial discrimination,and shows their desire for equity.The second chapter focus on the third generation of half-castes,and it focuses on their loss between black culture and white culture.These people are descendants of white and black.They are eager to integrate into the white society,but they suffer discrimination and oppression by white people.Some of them have to obey white people in order to survive,but they hate white people in their heart.The other group is adopted by whites since childhood,which cut off the connection with indigenous culture.Therefore,they try to imitate whites under the education of white culture and despise indigenous groups.Since the living environment and education of the half-caste are controlled by whites,half-castes are influenced by white culture and strive to melt into white society but fail at last,and then they hesitate between two culture and loss themselves.The third chapter mainly analyzes the longing and return to indigenous groups of the fourth and fifth generations,especially the protagonist Harley.Harley’s elders arouse his idea of returning to the natives.Harley’s father Tommy is dissatisfied with Ernest’s oppression,he advocates returning to the aborigines,believes that the Aboriginal group is his root,and conveys this idea to his son Harley before he died,which makes Harley have a desire to explore the aborigines.Under the guidance of the two half-castes relatives,Harley explores the family history and balances himself among his Aboriginal relatives,so he finally decides to gather the Aboriginal groups through singing and writing to tell the Aboriginal history and inherit the stories of his family to future generations.The existence of Aboriginal group and Aboriginal culture help half-castes complete their identity construction and enrich their mind,which in turn units Aboriginal community and contributes to the continuity and the development of Aboriginal culture.Benang:From the Heart describes half-castes’different attitude to white andwhite culture,and reveals white colonists attempt to assimilate Australian aborigines and destroy Aboriginal culture.The choice of Harley,the fifth generation of half-caste in this family,shows the failure of eugenics and indicates that atrocities of white colonists will not be buried,Australian Aboriginal people still exist,and their stories will continue to spread.