However, the resistance that the Aborigines showed not only in a violent form, but also in a form of protest as in 26 January 1938, which is declared as a
Day of Mourning, the Aboriginal conference was held in Sydney. In this conference, many of the Aborigines protested against the inequality, injustice,
dispossession of land and protectionist policies. Then a monthly newspaper was published in Sydney with the name Australian Abo Call. This newspaper demands
the equality of treatment as well as equal opportunities for the Aborigines http:www.creativespirits.info. These reactions proved that the Aborigines were
aware of all the unequal treatments and decided to protest against it and demand their rights back.
Another reaction shown by the Aborigines as an act of resistance was a mass strike called the Cummeragunja Walk-off on 4
th
February 1939. In this strike, there were 150 Aborigines who left Cummeragunja Aboriginal Station as a
protest for the cruel treatment and exploitation that the residents received from the management. These Aborigines walked off 66 kilometers and crossed over the
border from New South Wales into Victoria which was against the rules of the New South Wales Protection Board http:www.creativespirits.info. All these
kinds of resistance efforts made by the Aborigines were done to gain their rights back and that they would also have the same opportunities as other people should
have. Even though the forms of resistance may be different, but it all aims for freedom.
The examples above, most of them showed that the resistance reactions were performed in mass which is also known as the collective resistance.
However, there is also the individual form of resistance as Amal Ibrahim Madibbo Madibbo said that resistance can be performed in either individual or collective
ways Madibbo, 2006: 5. Jefferson Mack suggested the concept of the invisible individual
resistance. According to Jefferson, every person that is acknowledged as freedom- loving would take their roles in fighting against the tyranny Mack, 2002: 5.
Furthermore Mack defined the acts of invisible resistance as Acts of invisible resistance to both tyranny and terrorism occur when
individuals-acting without direction or guidance from any leader-resist, obstruct, frustrate, expose, and interfere with tyrants and terrorists and
those who actively support or execute the orders of tyrants and terrorists Mack, 2002: 5.
Therefore, besides the resistance reactions that were done collectively, there were also individual resistance reactions shown in the Aborigine society. As
Mack defined to expose the tyrants is one of the forms of the invisible individual resistance, then the autobiography by Alice Nannup is one of the examples. It is
an individual resistance, since Alice Nannup is exposing all the unequal treatments that she and her people received as she says ―You won‘t find anything
about the hell we went through I history books, but it happened, every little bit of it is true Nannup, 1992: 218.‖ This means that most of the struggles that the
Aborigines had to go through as an individual struggle are not found in the history book. However, Alice Nannup succeeds in writing down her autobiography When
the Pelican Laughed to picture the struggle as an individual. Through her writing she is not only exposing, but also telling the struggle as an individual who tried to
resist the white dominion power.
D. Theoretical Framework
In this study, the writer‘s focus is on analyzing the character of Alice
Nannup, the practices of racial discrimination towards Alice as the representation of the Aborigines, and how Alice Nannup showed her resistance against the racial
discrimination. To answer all of the questions in the problem formulation the writer uses the theories gathered from both printed and online sources.
The theory of character and characterization is needed to analyze the character of Alice briefly. The theory on the relation between literature and
society and the review on the background of the Aborigines ‘ society help the
writer to relate the events in the When the Pelican Laughed, which are discussed in this undergraduate thesis, with the society during the time the autobiography
was written. Review on racial discrimination towards the Aborigines would also help in analyzing by showing the indications of racial discrimination acts in the
conflicts and the background of the Aborigines society is to help the writer understand the life of the Aborigine back in the past, especially how they were
dealing with the white settlers. Then the review on the resistance of the Aborigines is to help in analyzing how Alice Nannup as an Aborigine resisted the
racial discrimination acts she received from the white people. All these theories would help the writer in answering in the problem
formulation.
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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The object of the study that is used is the autobiography When the Pelican Laughed. In this autobiography, the writer takes
Alice‘s reactions towards the whites as the object of the study to reveal her resistance towards the
discrimination she experienced from the whites. When the Pelican Laughed is an autobiography work written by Alice Nannup herself together with Lauren Marsh
and Stephen Kinnane. When the Pelican Laughed was first published by the Fremantle Arts Centre Press in 1992 in Western Australia. This autobiography
consists of four parts. The first part is the ―Wari, a young girl‖ which tells about
the life of Alice during her childhood. The second part is ―Alice Basset, a young
woman ‖ that describes Alice‘s life as a young woman. The third part is ―Alice
Nannup, Ngangka ‖ that describes Alice‘s life after her marriage and as a mother
of 10 children, and the last part is ―Nan, a great grandmother‖ that tells the life of
Alice as a grandmother even a great-grandmother, as well as the story in her old life of how she finally found her way back home to her family and her people
after 42 years being taken away.
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B. Approach of the Study
The approach that the writer thinks is appropriate for this study is the Postcolonialism approach. In The Post-Colonial Studies Reader by Bill Ashcroft,
Garet Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin the post-colonial is described as Post-colonial theory involves discussion about experience of various
kinds: migration, slavery, suppression, resistance, representation, difference, race, gender, place, and responses to the influential master
discourses of imperial Europe such as history, philosophy and linguistics, and the fundamental experiences of speaking and writing by which all
these come into being Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin, 1995: 2.
It means that the post-colonial theory pays attention to the issues of migration, slavery, suppression, resistance, representation, difference, race,
gender, and other issues that are related to the imperial Europe that has influenced the life of people being colonized.
Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffins also ar gue that ―post-colonial studies are
based in the ‗historical fact‘ of European colonialism Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin,
1995: 2,‖ which means that the post-colonial studies deals with the European colonialism and its impacts to its colonizers.
A part of postcolonial studies concerns on the struggle of the indigenous people against the white occupations. Thus, the struggle of the indigenous people
is seen through the writings of the indigenous writers as Elleke Boehmer states in Colonial Postcolonial Literature
that Indigenous writers rightly remain wary of other implications of the
postcolonial. For they see themselves as still-colonized, always invaded, never free of a history of white occupation Boehmer, 2005: 221.
