Rethinking ‘the Human’ in Memory of Fay Gale (AO) |
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Authors: | KAY ANDERSON |
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Institution: | Institute for Culture and Society, University of Western Sydney, Building EM, Parramatta Campus, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia. Email: k.anderson@uws.edu.au |
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Abstract: | In 1972, the late Fay Gale (AO) published a characteristically self‐styled book titled Urban Aborigines. It launched a richly diverse career that delivered an exceptional legacy to the academic discipline of geography, aboriginal justice, university administration, and women's professional advancement. This article, based on a 2010 lecture in her honour, takes up Fay's intellectual contribution to one of these fields. It pursues her critical interest in the clash of indigenous/settler cultures in Australia through a novel account of the notorious head‐measuring practices of 19th century racial craniometry. Probing the Western premise that ‘mind’ is the assured marker of human distinction from nature, the article explores a question of fundamental contemporary relevance for Australian audiences and others across the globe: are there fresh prospects for reconciling settler and indigenous, as well as ‘green’ and ‘growth’, values if the conceit of this distinction can be overcome? This question is provoked from a peculiarly southern perspective in the spirit of the insistently geographic project that was Urban Aborigines. |
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Keywords: | Race humanism mind culture nature Gale |
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