GRACEY - A Journey for Self-Identity
... own brother. Dougy sensed Gracey’s ignorance, and he became angry with her. “Those whities … have stolen her… Gracey doesn’t care about us anymore. I thought she’d care about the bones I found, about all the bodies. But she doesn’t want to know” (p.54) show Dougy’s feelings about Gracey and also his anger towards the whites who had “stolen” his sister. During her coming back to Hamilton College, Gracey started to questions some views about herself and life. When she and her friends attended the formal, a friend said that Gracey was no different with white people, and she was not an Aborigine like most people thought. Gracey was prompted by these words and started to question her identity as an Aborigine. She realized that she had learned to be exactly like the other girls ever since she stepped into the school, and because of that she was now losing her real identity. The question propelled Gracey’s search for identity and raised awareness in her mind about herself being an Aborigine. Later on, Gracey read a number of books on Aboriginals’ history to find out more about the dead bodies found by Dougy. However, all the books never mentioned much about the Aborigines but about the fights and massacres, as though they were considered as “troubles” by white people. Gracey started to feel angry because of the whole negative attitude of white people towards black people. Simultaneously discovering such a thing and living among whites, Gracey started to feel “out of place”. This was the point when Gracey became aware of the racial segregation between whites and blacks, and of her identity in the midst of white community. The very next day, Gracey cried to Angela, “I don’t know Angela, I think maybe I have to get away from here” (p.110). The next incident brought Gracey back home to find her identity. When she was told about her mother’s death, Gracey was feeling very guilty. “I should never have gone away,” (p.116) shows Gracey’s regret for forgetting herself as a part of the family the last time she came back. She blamed herself for preferring to live with white society and did not care about her mother’s illness when she was in Cunningham. After the burial, Gracey realized that her brothers needed her to build a home for them. As she regained her realization as a part of her Aboriginal family and ended her strive to fit herself into white society, Gracey decided to stay in Cunningham to take care of his brothers. She was relieved. “I was home at last from a place I didn’t belong, back with the brother who loved me and needed me… I was an Aborigine again” (p.122). However, Gracey’s journey did not end there. Now that she realized that she was an Aborigine, she wanted to help her people. Later she heard the real story about the bones at the excavation site that the bodies were actually Aborigines who were killed by a white person named Stan McNamarra years ago. Not long after that, Gracey fell in love with Kevin O’Shea who was very determined not to let white people continue building the Community Hall at the excavation site. Initially, their relationship was positive, because Gracey started to join gatherings and participate in the preparation of the march with Kevin as an Aborigine who demanded justice for her people. Unfortunately, Gracey told McNamara’s story to Kevin, who later manipulated it into another version to be presented to black people. Gracey was angry and confronted him, but she later found out that it was his version that people wanted to hear, not the truth. Now, Gracey felt rejected as a black girl in her own hometown. “Now I was amongst my own Murri people, but… they didn’t want me. I was alone again.” The main incident that at last ended Gracey’s search for identity was Raymond’s death. Gracey and her brothers joined the march to make the government give back the bones and build the Community Hall somewhere else. However, Raymond and Dougy were arrested due to some riots, and near the end of the story, Raymond died. The policeman who guarded him lied about the truth, and Gracey in the midst of her anger blamed white p...