Analyzing Boori Pryor's 'Maybe Tomorrow'

Nowadays, for Aboriginal Culture to still be known as an important part of Australia’s cultural heritage it is vital that children from a young age are thoroughly educated on this significant part of Australian history. The book “Maybe Tomorrow” narrated by Boori Pryor with Meme McDonald is recognised as a powerful and moving text that tells the the incredible story of an Aboriginal male growing up in the 1950’s where white culture was dominant. This book in detail explains the high and lows, successes and failures, racism and acceptance, achievements and travesties of one man’s life. This book encourages readers to adopt a more open and healthy relationship between white and aboriginal culture. His creative and calm writing techniques allow …show more content…
When viewing this text from an auto-biographical perspective, the reader can see Boori tells his story of dealing with discrimination, employment, education, family tragedy, extreme racial discrimination whilst growing up in a predominantly white culture and still staying true to to his Aboriginal heritage. He explains his experiences in a story telling context about how he dealt with family deaths, missions, Aboriginal rights, racism and, the stolen generation. Boori grew up in Townsville and lived and worked in many places from Palm Island to Perth. His shift in location was mainly due to various employment opportunities, through this he received discrimination. Though there were job that accepted him with open arms, he was rejected as an electrician and as a DJ in a Perth. After being rejected because of his race, Boori channeled his rage and denial into becoming a performer in schools. When reading this from an auto-biographical position, the reader can see how Boori has evolved as a person and has not changed his persona or morals to receive employment. An important quote that was mentioned in the beginning of the book was something his brother would tell him, ‘You have got to try and play the white man’s game and stay black while doing it’(pg. 109). In the first chapter of this book, Boori uses the quote “You have to be the water that puts out the fire. If you fight fire with fire, everything burns”. From this quote the reader already knows that Boori is a calm soul, that approaches every situation with a composed attitude, this guarantees the reader that the events told are not over dramatized. Although Boori does not claim to have an objective view in his auto-biography, from his careful and neutralised language, it can presume that xyz . The sole purpose of Boori writing this book is