Benang
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''Benang: From the Heart'' is a 1999 Miles Franklin Award-winning novel by
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
n author
Kim Scott Kim Scott (born 18 February 1957) is an Australian novelist of Aboriginal Australian ancestry. He is a descendant of the Noongar people of Western Australia. Biography Scott was born in Perth in 1957 and is the eldest of four siblings with a ...
. The award was shared with ''
Drylands Drylands are defined by a scarcity of water. Drylands are zones where precipitation is balanced by evaporation from surfaces and by transpiration by plants (evapotranspiration). The United Nations Environment Program defines drylands as tropical ...
'' by
Thea Astley Thea Beatrice May Astley (25 August 1925 – 17 August 2004) was an Australian novelist and short story writer. She was a prolific writer who was published for over 40 years from 1958. At the time of her death, she had won more Miles Franklin ...
.


Context of Novel

One of the main contexts in the novel deals with the process of "breeding out the colour". This was a process in which children were forcibly removed from their homes and assimilated into the white Australian society. These children were forced to "breed" with white Australians in order to lessen the appearance of the Aboriginal in them. It was believed that through this continuous process that eventually there would be no trace of Aboriginal in the future generations. Chief Protector of Aborigines in Western Australia, A. O. Neville, was a key player in this process and he believed that it would work. This process occurred due to the government's inability to classify mixed children for the government system, as well as their fear of what mixing would do for the society. It was originally claimed that Australia was uninhabited. The
Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church miss ...
are the mixed (Australian Aboriginal and white Australian) children who were forcibly removed from their homes and families. According to the
Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church miss ...
website, "The notion that the absorption or assimilation of some Aboriginal people into the European population is a form of genocide had gone around academic and leftist political circles long before Wilson’s enquiry but gained enormous impetus from it",


Plot summary

''Benang'' is about forced
cultural assimilation Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's majority group or assume the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group whether fully or partially. The different types of cultural assi ...
, and finding how one can return to their own culture. The novel presents how difficult it is to form a working history of a population who had been historically uprooted from their past. Benang follows Harley, a young man who has gone through the process of “breeding out the colour”, as he pieces together his family history through documentation, such as photograph and his grandfather’s notes, as well as memories and experiences. Harley and his family have undergone a process of colonial scientific experimentation called “breeding of the colour” which separated individuals from their
Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
families and origins.


Characters

°Ernest Soloman Scat - Harley's paternal grandfather and scientist. His Experiments include the focus of "breeding out the color" from mixed children to form "first white man". °Harley Scat - The main character of the novel °Auber Neville - Ernest's Cousin °Kathleen Chatalong - Jack's sister °Harriette Coolman - Harley's maternal great-grandmother °Daniel Coolman - Twin #1 who is Harley's maternal great-grandfather and cousin to the Chatalongs (Irishman) °Will Coolman - Daniel's son °Patrick Coolman - Twin #2 °Jack Chatalong - Kathleen's Brother °Constable (Sergeant) Hall - Father figure to Kathleen °Sandy One Mason - White great-great-grandfather °Fanny - Nyoogar great-great-grandmother


Passages, Quotes and Themes

* As reluctant as I am to face it, I may be the successful end of a long line of failures. Or is it the other way round? So… So, by way of introduction, here I come:
The first white man born. (Page 10/12) * And it was in the subsequent search for the biological family of one of my girlfriends that so much trouble began, and led me to reconsider who I am. Raised to carry on one heritage, and ignore another, I find myself wishing to reverse that upbringing, not only for the sake of my children, but also for my ancestors, and for their children in turn. And therefore, inevitably, most especially, for myself. (Page 19/21) * Various people, all classifiable as ''Aboriginal''. There were portraits arranged in pairs; one a snapshot labeled ''As I found them'', the other a studio photograph captioned ''Identical with above child''. There were families grouped according to skin color. And, sudden enough to startle me, my own image. (Page 25-26/27-28) * Captions to the photographs; full-blood, half-caste (first cross), quadroon, octoroon. There was a page of various fractions, possible permutations growing more and more convoluted. Of course, in the language of such mathematics it is simple; from the whole to the partial and back again. This much was clear; I was a fraction of what I might have been. * ''Breeding Up. In the third or fourth generation no sign of native origin is apparent. The repetition of the boarding school process and careful breeding … after two or three generations the advance should be so great that families should be living like the rest of the community.'' (Page 26/28) * There were a couple of family trees inscribed on the flyleaf. Trees? Father, they were sharply roll diagrams. My name is finished eat one. On another page there was a third, fourth. All leading to me. ? Routed in the margins of those diagrams, and I was sowing my own. Books everywhere, with strips of paper protruding from them like dry and shriveled tongues. The need for both biological and social absorption. Dilute the strain. * 'Well, old man, f*** me white.' (Page 27/29) * I understood that much effort had gone into arriving at me. At someone like me. I was intended as a product of a long and considered process which my grandfather had brought to a conclusion. (Page 28/30) * It appeared that in the little family history my grandfather had bequeathed options had disappeared. It seems an inexorable process, this one of we becoming I. (Page 31/33) * Whatever the confusions of my genealogy, there seems little doubt my grandfather intended to be my creator. (Page 32/34) * Perhaps, perhaps it is not so much a question of the colour of the skin as the colour of the mind... (Page 48/50) * Following branches of my family tree, I discovered a series of white men who—because they married Nyoongar woman and claimed their children—were exceptional. But their children grew in a climate of denial and shame that made it difficult for even a strong spirit to express itself. And there were other children those same fathers did not claim. * Searching the archives I have come across photographs of ancestors which have been withdrawn from collections, presumably because evidence of a too-dark baby has embarrassed some descendant or other. (Page 97/99) * Benang? Consider the spelling of hard-of-hearing and ignorant scribes: Benang, Pinyan; Winnery, Wyonin. The same people. We are of the same people. (Page 103/105) * The birth of even an unsuccessfully first-white-man-born-in-family-line has required a lot of death, a lot of space, a lot of emptiness. All of which I have had in abundance. Sandy One was no white man. Just as I am no white man, despite the look of me...(Page 494/496) * Yes, I am something of a curiosity—even for my own people. * I offer these words, especially, to those of you I embarrass, and who turn away from the shame of seeing me; or perhaps it is because your eyes smart as the wind blows the smoke a little toward you, and you hear something like a million million many-sized hearts beating, and whispering of the waves, leaves, grasses... We are still here, Benang. (Page 495/497)


Reviews

Reviewing the novel for ''
The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
'', K. Kunhikrishnan wrote: :"For writing his second novel Benang Kim Scott conducted research for five years, tracing his family history through welfare files and from a diversity of sources. He confirmed that the novel was "inspired by research into his family and my growing awareness of the context of that family history". The novel is hence an imaginative blend of fact and fiction and archival documentation to explore in historical and emotional terms the shameful history of the White treatment of Australian aboriginal people without didacticism and bitterness or moral propaganda. It makes compelling reading, as it is a moving depiction of cultural oppression and the resilience of the
Nyoongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...
people from the time of first contact with the White colonial power.""Literary Review: Identity narratives"
''
The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
'', April 06, 2003 Reading ''Benang'', one could see that the narration could be seen as unreliable. Narration and writing style used are similar to that of
stream of consciousness In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. The term was coined by Daniel Oliver (physician), Daniel Ol ...
, factual information, history and memories. All of these help compose the complex and sometimes confusing narration of Benang. Writing styles can be compared to the novel ''
Beloved Beloved may refer to: Books * ''Beloved'' (novel), a 1987 novel by Toni Morrison * ''The Beloved'' (Faulkner novel), a 2012 novel by Australian author Annah Faulkner *''Beloved'', a 1993 historical romance about Zenobia, by Bertrice Small Film ...
'' by
Toni Morrison Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist. Her first novel, ''The Bluest Eye'', was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed '' So ...
, in the way the narrator speaks through his memories or stream of memories and facts. It is difficult to find what the narrator is going for but upon further reading all the memories, thoughts and emotions presenting in this novel finally come together.


Awards

* The
Kate Challis RAKA Award The Kate Challis RAKA Award is an arts award worth , awarded annually by the University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia to Indigenous Australian creative artists. It is awarded in a five-year cycle, each year in a different area of the arts: ...
, Creative Prose, 2001: winner *
Miles Franklin Literary Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–19 ...
, 2000: joint winner *
Western Australian Premier's Book Awards The Western Australian Premier's Book Awards is an annual book award provided by the Government of Western Australia, and managed by the State Library of Western Australia. History and format Annual literary awards were inaugurated by the Wes ...
, Fiction Award, 1999: winner


See also

*
Cultural genocide Cultural genocide or cultural cleansing is a concept which was proposed by lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944 as a component of genocide. Though the precise definition of ''cultural genocide'' remains contested, the Armenian Genocide Museum defines ...
*
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP or DOTROIP) is a legally non-binding resolution passed by the United Nations in 2007. It delineates and defines the individual and collective rights of Indigenous peoples, including th ...
*
Genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
*
History of Australia The history of Australia is the story of the land and peoples of the continent of Australia. People first arrived on the Australian mainland by sea from Maritime Southeast Asia between 50,000 and 65,000 years ago, and penetrated to all parts ...
*
History wars The history wars is a term used in Australia to describe the public debate about the interpretation of the history of the European colonisation of Australia and the development of contemporary Australian society, particularly with regard to th ...
*
Moseley Royal Commission The Moseley Royal Commission, officially titled the ''Royal Commission Appointed to Investigate, Report and Advise Upon Matters in Relation to the Condition and Treatment of Aborigines'' was a Royal Commission established by the Government of We ...
* Our Generation (film) *
Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church miss ...
*
White Australia policy The White Australia policy is a term encapsulating a set of historical policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origin, especially Asians (primarily Chinese) and Pacific Islanders, from immigrating to Australia, starting i ...
* White Stolen Generations


References


External links


Middlemiss.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benang 1999 Australian novels Miles Franklin Award-winning works Novels set in Western Australia Stolen Generations Indigenous Australian literature Fremantle Press books