Keywords
cultural resistance, stolen generations, Aboriginal autobiography, indigenous identity, trauma and memory.
Abstract
This paper analyses Doris Kartinyeri’s autobiography, Kick the Tin, as a significant narrative of cultural resistance and identity reconstruction within the framework of Australian colonial history. The study emphasises the catastrophic effects of systemic assimilation policies enforced by European settlers, notably through the coercive removal of Aboriginal children referred to as the ‘Stolen Generations’. The text shows how colonial institutions used Christianity, education, and language as weapons to undermine Aboriginal spirituality, kinship structures, and oral traditions. This made people believe that Indigenous people were inferior and that European culture was superior. The story follows Kartinyeri's traumatic childhood, which included being kidnapped, abused in institutions, feeling like she didn't belong to her culture, and later finding out about her Ngarrindjeri heritage. Her memories serve as a form of resistance, revealing the brutality of colonialism while restoring the dignity of Aboriginal identity and cultural continuity. By contrasting Aboriginal holistic and inclusive cosmology with the European worldview characterised by materialism and exploitation, the autobiography contests prevailing historical narratives and emphasises the importance of cultural memory, kinship solidarity, and spiritual connection to the land.
Utilising a postcolonial theoretical framework, the paper contends that Kick the Tin surpasses individual testimony to emerge as a collective voice for Indigenous resilience, converting trauma into agency and positioning autobiographical writing as an essential arena for decolonisation and cultural affirmation.
