Jackie Huggins

An interesting and rewarding collection of short insightful pieces from one of our learned Australians. Just don’t call her Aunty.

(This review will contain mention of Aboriginal people who are or may be deceased).

I read this when I was at university and studying Aboriginal Political History.

I really liked it, but as always I think having to break it down and write about it and write an essay about it changed my perspective on it.

It's interesting to me that the author and the person who the book is being written about, Auntie Rita, are both sort of characters and narrators? It's a very interesting idea because these show more women are taking up multiple different spaces in time and place, and they're alright with that.

It's a humble little book. Feels much like a diary, or a very long letter. It was an easy read for me and pretty accessible and domestic as far as books go. Although I feel like there was something missing from it in general?

So I'll give it 3 stars, even though that's a totally arbitrary rating when it comes to someone else's personal story. show less

Readers of my post Decolonising a Blog...a work in progress #2, Learning about the emergence of Indigenous Life Writing may remember that I consulted Writing Never Arrives Naked, Early Aboriginal cultures of writing in Australia by Penny Van Toorn. Referring to Auntie Rita (1994) written by Jackie Huggins in collaboration with her mother Rita Huggins (i.e. the wife of Jack Huggins, the subject of Jack of Hearts), Van Toorn noted the difference in style between mother and daughter. Rita's show more tone was intimate, and the readers for whom she was writing were people she knew. It was story telling for entertainment and she omitted distressing elements because she wanted to give enjoyment, and her Aboriginal readership all knew and shared a similarly painful personal history. Jackie OTOH was addressing a wider public in a more formal tone, providing background information that placed her mother’s life in its historical context. Her purpose was to educate the reader-as-stranger about Australia's black history.

It seems to me that Jack of Hearts shares this innovative blend of collaborative writing to meld the personal with the political. It tells of an emotional journey to 'know' the father that the authors lost when they were young, and it also educates the Australian public about First Nations service in WW1 and WW2. Through both these narrative lenses, the authors also compare the life chances of their parents and grandparents: how those who were 'exempt' under the Aborigines Protection and Preservation Acts of 1897 had more freedom of movement and opportunities but lost connection with their culture and family members, while those who lived on missions, reserves and settlements under the restrictions of the Act were used as unpaid labour, were often subjected to abuse, and had only rudimentary education, if any at all.

This hybrid approach to history storytelling puts a human face on events and speaks to the emotional toll in researching and telling important stories.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/09/23/jack-of-hearts-qx11594-by-jackie-huggins-and... show less

Auntie Rita is the autobiography of an Aboriginal Australian women, Rita Huggins, written in dialogue with her daughter, Jackie Huggins, a university professor. Read for the Australian Women Writers Challenge.

Working together, Jackie and Rita Huggins create a full account of Rita’s life. Rita is the primary narrator, telling her story in her own style and words. Jackie, a college professor specializing in Aboriginal issues, inserts comments. Sometimes she fills in useful history to give show more readers an overall context for Rita’s life. Sometimes she gives another interpretation to her mother’s account, for example, trying to relieve her mother’s guilts. Sometimes, the two “fight with their tongues,” disagreeing but allowing the other to be heard. Jackie explains that the use of both their voices in the book means that she is not speaking “for her mother but to her, with her, and about her.”

Read more on my blog: me, you and books
http://mdbrady.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/auntie-rita-by-rita-huggins-and-jackie-h... show less