Jt. Wells et Mf. Christie, Albert Namatjira and the burden of citizenship (Australia, indigenous, aboriginal peoples), AUST HISTOR, 31(114), 2000, pp. 110-130
Albert Namatjira (1902-59), an Arrernte (Aranda) born at Hermannsburg in Ce
ntral Australia, is one of the best known of Australia's Indigenous artists
. In the 1950s, many non-Indigenous Australians, concerned about the regime
of discriminatory legislation that governed Aboriginal people and influenc
ed by the assimiliationist discourse, wanted to create an opportunity for N
amatjira to live 'like us'. This article examines the context in which sett
ler Australians' ideas about citizenship were shaped and in particular the
common conflation of equality with sameness, the events that lead to Namatj
ira effectively being made a citizen and why his citizenship finally was no
thing more than a terrible burden to him.