Abstract
Revisiting two literary journalism texts as case studies—Huckstepp by John Dale and Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara—this chapter interrogates each through the lens of Standpoint Theory, a theory raising the stories of the marginalised through differing power hierarchies, shedding light on the machinations of this power and cogently performing as a remedy, in the name of social justice. This raising up through story is often the work of literary journalists, seeking to distil through narrative the lives of the marginalised. Likewise, this retelling of marginalised truths reconstitutes as advocacy journalism, informing both public interest and the public’s right to know upholding a social justice imperative. And hopefully courting change. The two case studies revolve around a sex work and government assimilation policy. Voices both silenced and repressed by powerful forces, intent on maintaining a status quo for variant reasons, finally heard, and with the literary journalist as witness, retold widely, attendant with the impulse for amelioration, restitution and social justice.
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Notes
- 1.
Alison Wylie, Why Standpoint matters in The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader, ed. Sandra Harding (New York: Routledge), 339.
- 2.
Wylie, Why Standpoint matters, 344.
- 3.
Wylie, Why Standpoint matters, 339.
- 4.
Bunty Avieson and Willa McDonald, “Dangerous liaisons: undercover journalism, standpoint theory and social revelation,” Media International Australia, 163, no. 1 (2017): 138.
- 5.
Wylie, Why Standpoint matters, 344.
- 6.
McDonald and Bunty Avieson, Journalism in Disguise: Standpoint Theory and the Ethics of Günter Wallraff’s Undercover Immersion, (March 26, 2019): 2
- 7.
McDonald and Avieson, Journalism in Disguise: Standpoint Theory and the Ethics of Günter Wallraff’s Undercover Immersion, 4.
- 8.
Amartya Sen, The Idea of Justice (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2009), 52.
- 9.
Sen, The Idea of Justice, 54.
- 10.
Sen, The Idea of Justice, 8.
- 11.
Iris Marion Young, Justice and the Politics of Difference, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990), 3.
- 12.
Nancy Cook and David Butz, “Moving Toward Mobility Justice” in Mobilities, Mobility Justice and Social Justice, ed. Nancy Cook & David Butz (New York: Routledge, 2018), 6.
- 13.
Nancy Cook & David Butz, “Moving Toward Mobility Justice,” 6.
- 14.
Sandra Harding, 2004, “Introduction” in The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader, ed. Sandra Harding, (New York: Routledge), 3.
- 15.
Julia T. Wood, “Feminist Standpoint Theory and Muted Group Theory: Commonalities and Divergences,” Women and Language, 28, no.2, (2005): 61.
- 16.
Anusha Kassan, Ada L. Sinacore, and Amy R. Green. “Learning About Social Justice Through a Self-Reflexive Field Activity,” Psychology of Women Quarterly, 43, no. 2 (2019): 250.
- 17.
Young. Justice and the Politics of Difference, 3.
- 18.
Sen, The Idea of Justice, 117.
- 19.
Avieson and McDonald, “Dangerous liaisons: undercover journalism, standpoint theory and social revelation,” 138.
- 20.
60 Minutes, “The Last days of Warren Lanfranchi, television program,” Channel 9, 60.00, July 5, 1981. https://www.9now.com.au/60-minutes/rewind/clip-cipq90v4700060mmg134fclxu/crime.
- 21.
Meshel Laurie and Emily Webb, “Sallie-Anne Huckstepp: The Woman Who Knew Too Much,” Australian True Crime Podcast, March 12, 2017.
- 22.
60 Minutes, “The Last days of Warren Lanfranchi.”
- 23.
Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Whistleblowing, at: https://asic.gov.au/about-asic/asic-investigations-and-enforcement/whistleblowing/. (accessed October 21, 2019).
- 24.
60 Minutes, “The Last days of Warren Lanfranchi.”
- 25.
In 2014, Rogerson was arrested and charged with the murder of UTS student Jamie Gao; he and former detective Glen McNamara were found guilty in 2016 of his murder, and sentenced to life in prison.
- 26.
A little less than a decade after her murder, Royal Commissioner Justice James Wood convened the Wood Royal Commission between 1995 and 1997. The final report was tabled on May 15, 1997. The commission discovered instances of bribery, money laundering, drug trafficking, evidence fabrication, destruction of evidence, fraud and serious assaults.
- 27.
Dale, Huckstepp: A Dangerous Life, (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2000), 215.
- 28.
Sue Joseph, Behind the Text: candid conversation with Australian creative nonfiction writers (Melbourne: Hybrid publishers, 2016), 101.
- 29.
Joseph, Behind the Text: candid conversation with Australian creative nonfiction writers, 101.
- 30.
Dale, Huckstepp: A Dangerous Life, 27.
- 31.
Dale, Huckstepp: A Dangerous Life, 129.
- 32.
“Sallie-Anne Huckstepp: The Woman Who Knew Too Much/ Australian True Crime Podcast”.
- 33.
60 Minutes, “The Last days of Warren Lanfranchi.”
- 34.
Justine Seran, “Australian Aboriginal Memoir and Memory: A Stolen Generations Trauma Narrative,” Humanities 4 (2015): 663.
- 35.
Seran, “Australian Aboriginal Memoir and Memory: A Stolen Generations Trauma Narrative,” 663.
- 36.
Fordham, “Remediating Australia’s cultural memory: Aboriginal memoir as social activism,” 45.
- 37.
Sue Joseph, Behind the Text: candid conversation with Australian creative nonfiction writers, 39.
- 38.
1917–2004.
- 39.
Doris Pilkington-Garimara passed away on April 10, 2014.
- 40.
Sue Joseph, Behind the Text: candid conversation with Australian creative nonfiction writers, 101.
- 41.
Sue Joseph, Behind the Text: candid conversation with Australian creative nonfiction, 33.
- 42.
Sue Joseph, Behind the Text: candid conversation with Australian creative nonfiction writers, 34.
- 43.
Fordham, “Remediating Australia’s cultural memory: Aboriginal memoir as social activism,” 45.
- 44.
Fordham, “Remediating Australia’s cultural memory: Aboriginal memoir as social activism,” 49.
- 45.
Sue Joseph, Behind the Text: candid conversation with Australian creative nonfiction writers, 35–36.
- 46.
Sue Joseph, Behind the Text: candid conversation with Australian creative nonfiction writers, 37–38.
- 47.
bell hooks, “Choosing the margin as a space of radical openness” in The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader, ed. Sandra Harding (New York: Routledge, 2004), 159.
- 48.
Wood, “Feminist Standpoint Theory and Muted Group Theory: Commonalities and Divergences,” 62.
- 49.
Wood, “Feminist Standpoint Theory and Muted Group Theory: Commonalities and Divergences,” 62.
- 50.
Sen, The Idea of Justice, 130.
- 51.
Dick Pels, “Strange stand-points, or how to define the situation for situated knowledge” in The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader, ed. Sandra Harding (New York: Routledge, 2004), 273.
- 52.
hooks, “Choosing the margin as a space of radical openness” in The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader, 159.
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Author Interviews
John Dale in Sydney, NSW, 2009 & 2018.
Dorothy Pilkington Garimara, in Exmouth, Western Australia, 2009.
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Joseph, S. (2022). Standpoint Theory and Trauma: Giving Voice to the Voiceless. In: Alexander, R., McDonald, W. (eds) Literary Journalism and Social Justice . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89420-7_7
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