Clare Bradford – The story teller helping Indigenous people to tell their stories

When she was a little girl growing up in New Zealand, Professor Clare Bradford could see that the Maori children in her class at school were different.

They didn’t wear shoes, even in the middle of winter. They lived in houses in low-lying parts of her town that were frequently flooded, while she lived in a drier, warmer area.

Understanding those differences, especially how the stories behind them are recorded – or are not recorded - in modern children’s literature, has now become Clare’s life work.

“Traditionally, settler nations like New Zealand and Australia, Canada and the United States, haven’t been very good at telling the stories of their Indigenous people in a way that gives a better understanding of those communities,” said Professor Bradford, who holds a personal chair in Literary Studies at Deakin University.

“For instance, in a lot of children’s literature in New Zealand, when you read about the Maori Wars, you read about them as if it was the Maori who started them.

“But of course, that was not the case, the Maori were resisting an invading force.

“When children read those stories, and I was no different, it tends to form your views in a certain way.”

In recent times Professor Bradford’s research has spread from New Zealand and Australia to the northern hemisphere – Canada and the United States.

In May this year, she will publish the results of her work, a new book titled: Unsettling Narratives: Postcolonial Readings of Children’s Literature – a comparative study of settler cultures texts for children.

“I soaked myself in texts, visiting libraries in Canada and the United States,” she said.

“I also visited a number of Indigenous publishers to learn first hand about the books they produced and the problems they faced.”

For Clare, one thing became clear, Native Americans struggle even more than First Nations people in Canada, Aboriginal Australians or Maori in New Zealand to have their stories told in their own voice by their own people.

“They are simply not the dominant theme,” she said.

“When the issue of race is addressed it is more in terms of the Afro-American experience.”

In the southern hemisphere, Professor Bradford sees there has been a slow improvement in the way Indigenous narratives are recorded in children’s literature.

“The cultural stereotypes aren’t dredged up as often as they used to be,” she said.

“But there are still some stock figures that keep coming up, the wise old sage, the tragic young figure torn between two cultures.

“There is little sense in contemporary texts by non-Indigenous authors of Australian Aborigines being a modern people who live in the same world as the rest of us.”

This was an issue Clare addressed in 2001 through her award-winning book: “Reading Race – Aboriginality in Australian Children’s Literature.”

The positive response to this book and the work behind it encouraged Professor Bradford to extend her research to the Americas, assisted by research grants from Deakin and also a Canada-Asia-Pacific Award.

“There are a number of reasons to bring the American element in,” she said.

“Canada and the United States are settler nations, so I was interested to see what the literature is like there compared to Australia and New Zealand.

“It is also very hard to get American readers to read non-American books, and so I have included many US texts in my book so as to attract the American market.

“I am hopeful that writing this book about what is happening in Canada and the United States will have a positive impact on the way that Indigenous stories are told in North America.

“A book like this will be read by scholars and librarians and most importantly, by publishers and teachers and that will influence the sort of books publishers produce and teachers present in class rooms.

“Children’s books are very influential and shape the way young people see the world.

“One of the most important changes in settler nation children’s literature is that since the 1970s more Indigenous authors have produced books, drawing on their experience.

“These books enable Indigenous children and young people to read stories where Indigenous characters are on centre stage rather than merely sidelined as peripheral figures. They deal with questions and topics important to Indigenous readers and engender a positive view about Indigenous culture and values.

“They also help the broader community to gain a better understanding of Indigenous people because their stories will help break down stereotypes and produce a better level of understanding and appreciation.”

As well as her academic works, Professor Bradford has written five fictional children’s books.

Unsettling Narratives – Postcolonial Readings of Children’s Literature will be her ninth book overall. It is published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press: www.wlu.ca/press

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