Previous
Terms
Aboriginal Australians are the indigenous peoples of Australia. They are an extremely diverse group of people who have lived on the continent for at least 65,000 years. Aboriginal Australians were violently subjugated during colonization of Australia in the 18th century, their population drastically reduced by disease outbreaks and deliberate slaughter by colonizers. Aboriginal Australians still struggle in the present day with poorer health and financial outcomes, and various social movements have advocated for them to receive recognition, support, and reparations.
Aboriginal Australians Quotes in The Hate Race
The The Hate Race quotes below are all either spoken by Aboriginal Australians or refer to Aboriginal Australians. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 9
Quotes
‘How could Captain Cook discover Australia if there were already people here?’ I asked Mrs Hird dubiously.
‘He discovered it, because nobody knew it existed,’ Mrs Hird explained patiently. ‘Nobody had been to Australia before he arrived here as an explorer.’ She returned to writing on the blackboard, as if what she said had made perfect sense.
‘But, Mrs Hird, if the Aborigines were already here—’
‘They’re…they’re different. Only they knew they were here.’
I stared at my teacher, perplexed, as she continued writing the Explorers’ Timeline.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11
Quotes
As I read on, I became more and more uncomfortable. The Aboriginal characters in the book I’d been given were cheerful and simple-minded. Sarah, the matriarch of the Cleveland family, treated her son’s Indigenous wife with contempt, declaring the marriage was not real and referring to her grandchildren as blackmoor half-breeds. The tight-chested feeling started to creep in. The walls of my bedroom felt like they were slowly caving in on me. I felt the anger, throbbing again.
Get the entire The Hate Race LitChart as a printable PDF.
Aboriginal Australians Term Timeline in The Hate Race
The timeline below shows where the term Aboriginal Australians appears in The Hate Race. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
...people. She is also exposed to the Aboriginal land rights era, watching footage of Black Aboriginal Australian s celebrating as their land is returned to them. When she asks Cleopatra about them,...
(full context)
Chapter 9
...nice time for Aboriginal people.” Maxine thinks of a movie she saw in which the Aboriginal Australian people’s absence was explained away by them being scared away by bunyips (evil spirits from...
(full context)
...settlers are renowned for being the “pioneers” to first discover Australia, which confuses Maxine since Aboriginal Australian s were already there when the settlers arrived. One day, Cleopatra discovers that Cecelia has...
(full context)
...but in reality, she’s upset by what she’s learned about the brutalization and erasure of Aboriginal Australian s. Cleopatra has her participate in the parade anyway, but Maxine has begun to think...
(full context)
Chapter 11
...becomes more and more uncomfortable with the novel’s treatment of race, with its portrayal of Aboriginal Australian s as simple and dimwitted and its frequent use of racial slurs. Incensed, Maxine throws...
(full context)
Chapter 15
...Adams says that it wasn’t good, and that white Australians should have wiped out all Aboriginal Australian s when they had the chance. Miss Cooke, enraged, kicks Greg out of the classroom....
(full context)
