Rejoinder to "Is Aboriginal Suicide Different? A Commentary on the Work of Colin Tatz"

Māori and Aboriginal Women in the Public Eye: Representing Difference, 1950–2000

“…1 An Otago Daily Times editorial after her death in 1994 lamented the 'loss' of 'both a significant figure and an important symbol', someone who in 'this age of the celebrity' satisfied the desire of 'wider New Zealand, both Maori and pakeha' for 'a special figure to respect and love'. 2 Cooper's national prominence developed through her lifetime of struggle for Māori people and her visibility as a leader within Māoridom. It is such prominence, accrued through leadership and through social and political institutions, which is the focus of this chapter.…”

“…In the description of Cooper as 'a Maori for all races' after her death in 1994, for instance, the potential implication was that it was moderate and unifying figures who could be embraced by Pākehā New Zealanders as well as by Māori. 2 The preferred image of the nation thus continued to be one of harmony and integration. A similar point may be made about ideas of femininity as expressed in many depictions of these famous women.…”

“…1 In this discourse of extinction, the figure of Trukanini became a central symbol in Australia, as discussed in the Introduction. 2 As I noted there, continuing constructions of Trukanini as representing the demise of her people undercut the claims of the contemporary Tasmanian Aboriginal community for recognition and land rights. Indeed, nineteenth-century beliefs about the inevitability of Indigenous peoples' extinction potentially assuaged settlers' guilt over the appropriation of Indigenous land, the introduction of infectious diseases and the many other ills brought by European settlement.…”

“…1 Lyndall Ryan has described her as 'the most famous Aborigine in white Australian history'. 2 Trukanini became known for a tragic story, as the last Tasmanian Aboriginal person, whose death signalled extinction. Though this basis of fame became contested, particularly through the vocal presence of a continuing community of Tasmanian Aboriginal people, the label of 'last of the race' was frequently still attached to Trukanini, often amended to describe her as the last so-called full-blooded Tasmanian Aboriginal person.…”

“…This flowering of literature by women was connected to the second wave feminist movement, which sought to 'reclaim the value and importance of women's interests', and therefore of the issues women wrote about. 2 In a book of interviews with New Zealand women authors published in 1989, Sue Kedgley observed that a number of women began writing after a feminist awakening of some form enabled them to find their voice. 3 While such an understanding of 'women's writing' was essentialist, as was a categorisation of writing by Indigenous people as 'Indigenous writing', the literature produced by women and by Indigenous people was advanced by, and contributed to, the assertions of identity made through feminist and Indigenous rights movements.…”