Outlaw one

Defending identity in the native title area

Featured in

  • Published 20170207
  • ISBN: 9781925498295
  • Extent: 264pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm), eBook

‘THE WIND IS my hairdresser,’ says Sue Coleman Haseldine, known locally as Aunty Sue, stepping out into her dusty yard and letting the hot north wind rush through tangled thick black hair. A wire clothesline stretches across the dirt yard, tractors and car carcasses rust away in a nearby paddock, dogs run out to greet approaching cars, and in the middle of this scene Sue stands with a cigarette in a curled hand. She lives on a wheat farm with her whitefella husband, Gary, near the small, isolated South Australian town of Ceduna. From her yard, a strip of flat grey-blue sea can be glimpsed to the south. North of the chip-dry paddocks, ‘out the back’, lies a vast stretch of bush – stunted mallee shrublands roll away on sandy waves.

The task of the hairdresser is to subdue and shape hair, human hands and tools bringing this naturally occurring stuff under their control. But Sue styles herself in conscious opposition to this, subverting the hierarchy of human will/natural forces. She is drawn to images of wildness and rebellion, joyfully submitting to the wind, which here represents the unpredictable and powerful forces of the natural world and its capacity to overpower human designs.

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

More from author

Confusions of an economist’s daughter

EssayDad wore his "It's time" badge with its rusted pin to our small country school to vote. He wore it to irritate the National Party voters and Christian fundamentalists whose community was ours. But it was important not to be selfish, our parents said, so we were a Labor-voting family. We were lucky because life was comfortable, but others were not so lucky and deserved a break.

More from this edition

Adelaide detours

PoetryFrom the southWhat is the smoke?Is this a city or somethingmore inexplicable?Don’t talk of alleys, this isa suburb, see the trees.There is no river,...

The new wave

GR OnlineLATELY, THREE LOCALLY made films have escaped Adelaide for the world, all directed by women. Sophie Hyde’s 52 Tuesdays, Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook and...

Behind every story

EssayIT MAY NOT be the best painting in the Art Gallery of South Australia, and it may not be the most valuable. But one...

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.