Skin deep: settler impressions of Aboriginal women

Liz Conor as kindly accepted to give an impromptu seminar on her latest book, Skin Deep: Settler Impressions of Aboriginal Women. Her book examines the preoccupations of European-Australians in their encounters with Aboriginal women and the stereotypes and perceptions that seeped into everyday settler-colonial thinking. Early erroneous and uninformed accounts of Aboriginal women and culture were repeated throughout various print forms and imagery, both in Australia and in Europe.

The maligning of Aboriginal women's sexuality, motherhood, domicile and appearance were part of the colonial project. Conor shows how industrialised print coincided with colonial expansion and became critical to rationales of dispossession.

Deconstructing and decolonising the history of the settlers/aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders peoples relations are essential steps for the process of reconciliation. Liz Conor identifies and traces the various tropes used to typecast Aboriginal women, contributing to their lasting hold on the colonial imagination even after conflicting records emerged.

Liz Conor is an ARC Future Fellow at La Trobe University and author of The Spectacular Modern Woman (Indiana 2004). She is the editor of the journal Aboriginal History, former editor of Metro Magazine and a columnist at New Matilda. She publishes and comments regularly on feminism, pornography, race relations and Australian history in both the mainstream press and scholarly publications.

Further information: admin.genderinstitute@anu.edu.au

This event is organised by CAEPR/NCIS Indigenous Studies Writing group, ANU Reconciliation Action Week committee (RAW), and the ANU Gender Institute.

Date & time

Thu 02 Jun 2016, 1.30–2.30pm

Location

Jon Altman Room, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR), Level 2, Copland Building 24, ANU

Speakers

Liz Conor, La Trobe University

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Updated:  31 May 2016/Responsible Officer:  Convenor, Gender Institute/Page Contact:  Gender Institute