Review of Marlo Morgan's“Mutant Message Down Under” in the context of “Understanding or Appropriation?” (used for oral presentation)

Mutant Message Downunder by Marlo Morgan. Is basically a book about a spiritual odyssey a woman undertakes with a desert group of Aborigines who remain unknown and ambiguous to the reader. It is a book that has become highly controversial in its appropriation of Aboriginal culture in order to sell New Age philosophies to readers who are spiritually hungry to “get down to basics.” One critic of the book stated it was “Cultural imperialism masquerading as harmless new age spiritualism.” My own perceptions of the book? Firstly let me just say I hated the book. I thought it was badly written and was obviously deceptive in its representation of Aboriginal culture, both traditional and modern, and I thought from the beginning the whole idea was absurd.

Let me put it into context; the book itself is an autobiographical account by the author, Marlo Morgan, who is a white American health practitioner. In this book she chronicles a three month walkabout she undertakes across the Aust...