NARRATING THE ACCUMULATION OF DISPOSSESSION:STORIES OF ABORIGINAL ELDERS

The lifeworlds of Aboriginal people and the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australia continues to bear the scars of a colonial past and present. Liberation oriented approaches within psychology have emphasised the role of storytelling and the recovery of historical memory in processes of community healing and restoration. In this article we draw on stories shared as part of a community arts project and in conversational interviews, to explore the ways in which Aboriginal Elders have understood oppression in their lives. Following data analysis,three community narratives were identified that collectively narrated the history,continuity, and psychosocial legacy of colonial dispossession. These reveal circuits and consequences of dispossession and can be mobilised to challenge dominant cultural narratives that minimise, deny, or silence the history of dispossession.Aboriginal people are not passive victims or the problem in need of being “fixed”. The Elders expressed agency and communicated knowledge of an ongoing history of dispossession and its cumulative and insidious impacts.