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'‘COOKALINGEE’, BY QUANDAMOOKA poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal, tells the story of fragmenting relationships within colonial frontiers. Working as a kitchenhand, Cookalingee, an Aboriginal woman, finds herself having to leave behind the ‘old free ways’ in hope of attaining the so-called ‘safety’ and ‘civility’ that white society has ‘trained’ and ‘blessed’ upon her. It portrays a time when Aboriginal peoples were increasingly beholden to white resources and rations because of colonial dispossession and threats of violence. Cookalingee appears to adopt the ‘white man’s way’ in order to survive, but it comes at a cost. Entering the realm of the colonisers, Cookalingee cries – she is not only removed from kin, but also knows that in the eyes of the colonisers, she will remain something ‘other’.' (Introduction)
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Epigraph:
Wistfully she muses on / Something bartered, something gone / Songs of old remembered days / The walkabout, the old free ways / Blessed with everything she prized / Trained and safe and civilized / Much she has that they have not / But is hers the happier lot? / Lonely in her paradise / Cookalingee sits and cries
‘Cookalingee’, Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1981)
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Last amended 2 Feb 2021 12:51:59
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