Response to Natalie Harkin: A Labor of Love

Abstract

This response to Narungga poet Natalie Harkin’s epistle echoes questions posed by Cherokee academic Daniel Heath Justice: “How do we honor those mysteries that both connect and distinguish us? How do we respect the silences and recognize when and where to tread lightly, if to tread at all?” While settler students misconceptualize trauma and deficit as the only forms of subjecthood available to Aboriginal peoples, this chapter asserts a range of activist modes by which we may overcome what Toni Morrison terms “national amnesia.” Reflecting on the selfless engagements of Wiradjuri activist, poet, and author Aunty Kerry Reed-Gilbert, we see an exemplar who refused the State’s desire to have Australians forget colonial histories of injustice that determine contemporary life. As she knew, something lingers in Australia; our work remains in articulating this unfinished business.