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Talkin’ Up to the White Woman:
Indigenous Women and Feminism (20th anniversary edition)

by

With a new 20th anniversary preface and review essay by the author.

A$24.99
(Paperback)
Available. Dispatched 2-3 business days
Overview

In this ground-breaking book, Distinguished Professor Aileen Moreton-Robinson undertakes a compelling analysis of the whiteness of Australian feminism and its effects on Indigenous women. From an Indigenous woman’s standpoint, as a Goenpul woman and an academic, she ‘talks up’, engages with and interrogates western feminism in representation and practice.

Through examining an extensive range of feminist literature written mainly by white scholars and activists, Moreton-Robinson shows how whiteness dominates from a position of power and privilege as an invisible norm and unchallenged practice. She illustrates the ways in which Indigenous women have been represented in the publications and teachings of white Australian women, revealing that such renderings of Indigenous lives contrast with how Indigenous women re/present and understand themselves.

Persuasive and engaging, this book is a necessary argument for the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives in the teachings and practices that impact on Australian society. This new edition proves the continued relevance of this classic work as a critique of the whiteness of western feminism.

Details
Aileen Moreton-Robinson
Photo by The Wheeler Centre

Aileen Moreton-Robinson

Dr Aileen Moreton-Robinson FAHA HMAAAS is a Goenpul woman of the Quandamooka people (Moreton Bay). She is Australia’s first Indigenous Distinguished Professor and is Professor of Indigenous Research at the University of Queensland. In 2020, Professor Moreton-Robinson was the first Indigenous scholar elected outside of the US as an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and she is also a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities. She was formerly the Director of the Australian Research Council’s National Indigenous Research and Knowledges Network (NIRAKN). Distinguished Professor Moreton-Robinson served as President of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Consortium (NATSIHEC) in 2019. She is the founding President of the Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association.

Professor Moreton-Robinson’s publications have international standing and global reach. The twentieth anniversary edition of her first monograph Talkin Up to the White Woman: Indigenous women and Feminism was released in July 2020 selling 2000 copies in a matter of days. Her monograph The White Possessive: Property, Power and Indigenous Sovereignty (2015) won the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association’s (NAISA) subsequent book prize in 2016. Her edited collection entitled Critical Indigenous Studies: First World Locations and Engagement was published by Minnesota Press in 2016. She is co-editor of the Handbook of Critical Indigenous Studies, published by Routledge in December 2020. Professor Moreton-Robinson served on several editorial boards including American Quarterly, the Journal of the Native American and Indigenous Studies, Australian Feminist Studies, Cultural Studies Review and Critical Ethnic Studies. She is the founding editor of the International eJournal of Critical Indigenous Studies.

Prior to her life in the academy, Professor Moreton-Robinson worked in public administration and served as a board member on Indigenous community organisations such as the Indigenous rights advocacy organisation: the Foundation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research Action LTD (FAIRA) of which she is a current board member.