Politics of the Canon and Literary Activism: A Select Reading of Indigenous Narratives by Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Maria Campbell

Abstract

Indigeneity functions as a vital hermeneutic for interrogating race as a socially constructed category. Entangled within hegemonic power structures encompassing ideology, political economy, and cultural politics, indigenous social formations remain susceptible to systemic violence and subjugation. Literature, situated at the nexus of the liberal humanities and social sciences, provides a crucial site of critical intervention. It not only maps the aesthetic modalities of racial representation but rigorously interrogates the attendant ethical and political dimensions. Consequently, literary authorship precludes objective neutrality; rather, an author's ideological subjectivity fundamentally mediates the aesthetics and ethics of their representational praxis. The textualisation of indigenous histories, systemic marginalisation, and identity formation thus operates as a modality of ethical activism, significantly shaping public discourse. This essay examines select works by Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Maria Campbell to analyse their literary engagement with racial politics, indigenous historiography, and the articulation of selfhood. Both authors, prominent activists within indigenous liberation movements, inextricably link their political praxis with their literary output. Ultimately, this study investigates how these writers negotiate their authorial subjectivities to articulate indigenous realities.