Colouring The Rainbow: Blak Queer and Trans Perspectives - Life Stories and Essays By First Nations People of Australia

by Dino Hodge (Editor)

Colouring the Rainbow uncovers the often hidden world of Queer and Trans Blak Australia and tells it like it is.

Twenty-two First Nations people reveal their inner reflections and outlooks on family and culture, identity and respect, homophobia, transphobia, racism and decolonisation, activism, art, performance and more, through life stories and essays. The contributors to this ground-breaking book not only record the continuing relevance of traditional culture and practices, they also explain the emergence of homonormativity within the context of contemporary settler colonialism.

Colouring the Rainbow is a real, searing and celebratory exploration of modern culture in post-apology Australia.

Genres: Nonfiction, Indigenous, History, Queer, LGBT, Australia

311 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2015

About the author

Dr Dino Hodge - Konstantino Hadjikakou - was introduced to notions of empire and colonisation by his Cypriot family, and to fluidity in identity and intimacy through his Greek cultural heritage. His publications include 'Did You Meet Any Malagas?' (1993), an oral history book about intersections of racial and sexual identities in Darwin's gay community, and 'Don Dunstan, Intimacy and Liberty' (2014), a biography of South Australia's great reformist premier. He is co-editor of 'You Don't Get Degrees in Weetbix Boxes' (1994), a social studies text about Indigenous education and career experiences.

Reviews

[LaanSiBB]

Focusing on the intersection between race and queer and trans subjectivity within a country with a colonial past, this series resonates with research coming from different African Sexuality, curated by Sylvia Tamale, such as African Sexualities. In certain cases, Painting the Rainbow's flaws are its strengths too. The presence of non-academic authors whose writing skills are not inherently refined means that certain aspects of some of the arguments can be difficult to follow, and it can be difficult to create a clear line of argument. Collecting a diverse variety of narratives from very different authors means that it is a very choppy read while themes do reoccur throughout the series. Especially Part Two does not cohere quite as a grouping. However, what makes the collection so important is the very presence of this multitude of very different contributors. The way the collection questions its packaging's tidy confines demonstrates the difficulty of attributing any particular narrative to the diverse subjectivities that arise at the intersection of queer/trans and Aboriginal, belying the Aboriginal's conceptualization as 'purely wild.' It seems to me that the line is repeated in the essay by Sandy O'Sullivan-' This is an Aboriginal lesbian's experience. And it's not. '(222) – could cover the whole set as a refrain. By putting together individual storeys, the collection tells both the tale of a larger culture and shows the reader that individual experiences experienced can never be entirely contained within social labels such as 'queer,' 'trans' or 'Aboriginal.'

[Han Reardon-Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read cover-to-cover after engaging with this diverse collection of storytelling and essays for several years. This is an important gathering of texts and an excellent beginning for those engaging with the thoughts and experiences of queer First Nations people on this continent, AND I would argue for anyone thinking with queer studies on stolen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land. It deeply challenges settler conceptions of rigid gender roles and gender/sexual conservatism within Indigenous communities, exploring the ways that such ideas are in fact founded in settler-colonial gender/sexual enforcement (regularly violently applied and policed), that it is part of the systems of control forced onto First Nations societies. Later essays explore the difficulties in unlearning and disentangling these ideas in the present day, especially given they are still subject to violent control in many ways. Essential, but also just a beginning. Used as a launching pad, it can help to point the reader in the direction of texts that build on these works and ideas.

[Steve Maxwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of stories of First Nations peoples who also identity as LGBT+. These people, a minority within a minority, share their experiences of coming out, being accepted, or not and the trials they go through on an almost daily badis. These stories give hope to other First Nations and LGBT+ people. A great read!!!

[Tamsin Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very important text in understanding some of the queer Indigenous experience in Australia. Very readable, definitely recommend for Australian queer people to understand a broader view of their community and how they can be greater allies to Indigenous people

[Maddy - Madstoicreads]

* Read for Uni

[sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved some essays, skipped others. Read the first 2/3s in like a day or two and then had a really hard time staying for the rest of the book. Shoutout to crystal Johnston literally wtf so cool