By Jane Seymour
The West Australia newspaper 1.4.95
A WA Aboriginal group wants a best-selling book taken from the world's
bookshelves, saying it denigrates Aboriginal culture.
A meeting of Aboriginal Elders this week at the Dumbartung Aboriginal
Corporation in Perth condemned the book, 'Mutant Message' which was
written by American Marlo Morgan.
They will now seek support from Aboriginal groups around the county in an
effort to form a cohesive opposition to the book.
Morgan, 59, wrote the book in 1990 after she claimed she had been
summoned by an Aboriginal tribe to go walkabout around Australia.
She referred to a tribe of 63 people she called the wild people who had
been untouched by European settlement.
She claims she traversed Australia with the tribe for four months, was
taken to sacred sites and involved with spiritual ceremonies involving
Aboriginal women and men.
The first book's publishing rights were sold for $1.8 million and she is
ready to complete a second volume for which it is estimated she will get
about $3 million.
Dumbartung director Robert Eggington said Morgan could make up to $90
million out of the publishing and movie rights and lecturing.
She is also lecturing throughout the US and Europe, telling of her
spiritual experience with the tribe.
Mr Eggington said Aborigines were concerned that a non-Aboriginal person
had exploited Aboriginal culture for profit.
"A lot of US people have come to Australia thought the teachings of Marlo
Morgan looking for the so-called wild people," he said.
But early investigations did not show any evidence of the Aboriginal
community that Morgan spoke about in her book and Dumbartung planned to
consult Aboriginal communities nationwide to determine the authenticity
and to seek their opinion on what should be done with the book.
University of WA anthropology specialist John Stanton said the context
and content of the book appeared to be nonsense.
"It concerns me a great deal and belittles the intensity and spirit of
Aboriginal people," he said.
He had heard from several Aborigines who were upset about the book.
Aboriginal Elder Andy Nebro, of Bunbury, said the book had damaged
Aboriginal women in Australia because Morgan had supposedly seen and done
what Aboriginal women were spiritually and culturally forbidden to do.
Morgan has a university science doctorate but she claims the most
valuable education she received was during her four-month walkabout in
the Australian desert.
end.
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AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL ELDERS IN THE US TO PROTEST MOVIE DEAL
Australian Aboriginal Elders are travelling to the United States on
January 26 to meet with film makers who are in the final stages of
negotiations for a movie based on the best-selling book - 'Mutant
Message'.
"We want to block the move by Hollywood executives at United Artists to
turn Marlo Morgan's lies and distortions into a major motion picture",
says Robert Eggington, an Aboriginal activist spearheading the trip.
United Artists has agreed to meet with the Aboriginal Elders at a high
level meeting in Los Angeles. Scriptwriter Ann Hamilton Phelan, who
wrote the script for "Gorillas in the Mist" is expected to attend.
'Mutant Message' is written by American New Age author Marlo Morgan. It
chronicles an alleged four-month "walkabout" that Morgan alleges she took
in the Australian Outback in the mid-1980's with an obscure tribe of
Aborigines.
The book has outraged members of the Aboriginal community for
misrepresenting sacred religious and cultural beliefs. 'Mutant Message'
appeared on the US best seller list for 25 weeks.
Morgan continues to lecture nationally on Aboriginal culture, saying it
can teach Westerners about "their inner selves".
Eggington, however is not amused. "Marlo Morgan has taken away the
right for Aboriginal people to tell their own story as she saturates the
American market with a complete fabrication."
"As Aboriginal people, we have the right to ownership of our heritage. We
are the custodians of the oldest living culture in the most ancient land
mass on the face of the Earth."
The group of eight elders will arrive at LAX airport on January 26th.
They will hold a media conference at the Roosevelt Hotel, Hollywood Blvd
on Tuesday, January 30th at 11:00am.
For further information, please contact:
In Australia: Robert Egginton, Perth's Dumbartung
Aboriginal Corporation
Tel: 011 619 4514977
In the US: Patricia Friedel,
Tel: (415) 673-9102 Fax: (415) 788-1119
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mktrecon@iinet.net.au Perth Australia
http://www.iinet.net.au/~mktrecon/index.html
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