WOMEN IN NATIVE LAND STRUGGLES OF AUSTRALIA AND INDIA: READING THE LIVES OF AUNTIE RITA AND C.K JANU

Abstract

The struggles to regain lands and to ensure land rights of the aboriginal people had been in the pages of history since the beginning of colonisation. Campaigns for land were strengthened by the involvement of women to get back access to the dispossessed land of the original land holders. Europeans described the acquired lands as being ‘waste lands or deserts or uninhabited or unoccupied terrains’ as the aboriginal people were not even considered as human beings. Same is the case with the tribal people of Kerala. The subaltern groups of Dalits (the down-trodden group in the caste hierarchy in India) and Adivasis (the indigenous or aboriginal communities of India) have lost their lands due to illegal encroachments, land seizing, emergence of plantations and various government developmental projects. The women of these ostracised sections showcased great courage to resist and fight for their land rights. This study focuses on the role of women in native land struggles of Australia and India by the close reading of two selected life writing works – the biography of Rita Huggins (aka Auntie Rita) titled Auntie Rita (1994) and autobiography of C.K. Janu titled Mother Forest: The unfinished story of C.K. Janu (2004).

Keywords

land rights, dislocation, alienation, government, land struggles, aboriginal and dalit women.

Works Cited

Davison, Graeme, et al. The Oxford Companion to Australian History. Melbourne: Oxford UP. 2001.

Dobson, Michael. “Land Rights and Social Justice”. Our Land is Our Life: Land Rights — Past, Present, and Future. Ed. Galarrwuy Yunupingu. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1997, p.41.

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Huggins, Rita and Jackie Huggins. Auntie Rita. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press. 1994.

Janu, C .K. Interview by Thaha Madayi. Mathrubhoomi. 25 June 2017.

Janu, C. K. Mother Forest. New Delhi: Kali for Women and Women Unlimited, 2004.

Newbury, Paul. W. Ed.  Aboriginal Heroes of the Resistance from Pemulwuy to Mabo. Australia: Action for World Development, 1999.

Nitishkumar. K. “Keralam Kelkkanam Aralam Apakadathilanu.” Math rubhoomi.24, August 2014, pp. 32-40.

Pillai, K.Raman. Land Reforms. New Delhi: A.P.H, 2010.

To cite this article

Muhsina Najeeb. (2022). Women in Native Land Struggles of Australia and India: Reading the Lives of Auntie Rita and C.K Janu. John Foundation Journal of EduSpark, 4(1), 1-14.