Hi. I couldn't see if you had already answered a similar ask at some point - please do ignore this if you have/for any other reason.
I am a white settler and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on [white] settlers using Mob collectively/interchangeably with Aboriginal Peoples*/First Nation Peoples*. There's some other white settlers in my local activist scene who use Mob interchangeably which is largely what prompted this.
*Would it be generally more appropriate to use a capitalised or lowercased 'p'? I've seen both being used by Indigenous Peoples when referring to their Indigeneity, and I don't know quite how that difference is here.
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I was also wondering if you knew of any children's lit. or fantasy* series written by Blak authors. If you do have any recs., I am hoping to pass them on to my younger family members at some point.
(*I've recently been talking about the children's fantasy series which helped kickstart my interest in the genre/"monster" designs to someone. Seeing the author is also a white settler, settled on Colomatta Gulumada, a lot of my recent musings have been on how much her settler-colonial thinking/worldview affected how the worldbuilding was framed, how much of the fauna/flora was specifically written in/for a colonial perspective. Why is the fauna contextualised as so-called "monsters" - or uniquely "horrific"/"grotesque" for the flora - to begin with except when it comes to the European inspired dragons? [Oh. Right.]
So I would personally be interested in looking into any fantasy recs. for any age demographic you have, especially if they ft. monstercreatures/are a creature feature.
For monsters in general, I already have The Moogai on my watchlist for this Oct.)
Apologies for the length and if I have disturbed your day with it. Thank you if you do decide to answer either. ♡
hi there :)
i really do try to emphasise I am not an authority by any means on Blakfella cultures. No one Blakfella can be a cultural authority. Different Mob in different areas will have different ways. when you're in doubt, it's best to ask someone from the Mob you're referring to ot contact the appropriate Mob/Nation's land council. every Aboriginal land council has a contact who advises non-Aboriginal people on cultural matters.
wrt capitalisation of the *p* in Aboriginal Peoples, I've seen it either way and do not think it matters as much as ensuring the A for Aboriginal is capitalised. Personally, I'd capitalise the P anyway. But it's the same grammatical rules that would apply to any ethnic group, ie. Arab people, Chinese people, Hungarian people, etc. You capitalise it as a title, but not in a general sentence. Again, I could be wrong. please, always consult with Mob you're referring to in how they like to be called by asking and/or contacting their land council.
it's worth noting that non-Aboriginal Australians will often say "mob" colloquially to mean a group of people. For example, "oh, i used to work for that mob", etc. if you're writing Mob to refer to Aboriginal people, its best to capitalise to distinguish it from the colloquial use.
As for the fantasy book recs, I am not that familiar with kids/teen literature at all, unfortunately. But! Magbala Books is a First Nations-led publishing house that publishes books for all ages and has a directory of First Nations books-
Australia's leading Indigenous publisher.
Hope that all helps! all the best <3 enjoy The Moogai !
