Chapter 12 - Are We Better Than This?: Stan Grant and thePost-Mabo Blues
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 February 2022
Summary
The Mabo case was a watershed event that affectedIndigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Centralaspects of its consequences include land rights,recognition, reconciliation and reparations, but ithas also sparked further Indigenous intervention andagency on the issue of sovereignty. In this chapter,I investigate the Mabo case as a legacy, orbackdrop, against which we might productivelyanalyse subsequent Indigenous-led interventions intothe white-Indigenous ‘contact zones’ of recentdecades. There are many such interventions, but hereI am primarily interested in the role of the publicintellectual as framed by Edward Said, based on hisreading of Antonio Gramsci (Said 1994). Gramscispeaks of the ‘organic intellectual’ as ‘someone whoin a democratic society tries to gain the consent ofpotential customers, win approval, marshal consumeror voter opinion’ (Said 1994, 4). Such intellectuals‘constantly struggle to change minds’ (4). One ofthe aspects of post-Mabo Australia that providessome grounds for optimism is the broad range ofIndigenous public intellectuals who have come tooccupy quite central positions in public discourse.This happens against dismal statistics reflectingthe poor health and living conditions of so manyIndigenous Australians. The much heralded Closingthe Gap campaign has failed (see Australian HumanRights Commission 2019). The Mabo decision, though,helped carve out a space for input in the publicdomain from intellectuals like Mick (or Michael)Dodson, Noel Pearson, Marcia Langton, Gary Foley andLowitja O’Donoghue. A number of Indigenouspoliticians, elected to state, territory and federalparliaments in recent decades, are also influencingpublic debates, as are athletes and artists, such asCathy Freeman, Adam Goodes, Anita Heiss, LarissaBehrendt and Dan Sultan. However, in this chapter Iwant to examine the writings of someone who's livedand worked right through the post-Mabo period, butwho is a relative latecomer to the sphere ofIndigenous public intellectuals. In recent years,this figure has had a profound impact on publicdebate around Indigenous/non-Indigenous relations.That figure is Stan Grant. His bestsellingautobiography, Talking to MyCountry (2016); his televisionjournalism; and many public interventions in recentyears have turned him into a well-known publicfigure.
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- Mabo's Cultural LegacyHistory, Literature, Film and Cultural Practice in Contemporary Australia, pp. 171 - 180Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2021