Uncanny Australia Sacredness and Identity in a Postcolonial Nation

Aboriginal claims for sacredness in modern Australia may seem like minor events, but they have radically disturbed the nation's image of itself. Minorities appear to have too much influence; majorities suddenly feel embattled. What once seemed familiar can now seem disconcertingly unfamiliar, a condition Ken Gelder and Jane M. Jacobs diagnose as 'uncanny'. In Uncanny Australia Gelder and Jacobs show how Aboriginal claims for sacredness radiate out to affect the fortunes, and misfortunes, of the modern nation. They look at Coronation Hill, Hindmarsh Island, Uluru and the repatriation of sacred objects; they examine secret business in public places, promiscuous sacred sites, ghosts and bunyips, cartographic nostalgia, reconciliation and democracy, postcolonial racism and New Age enchantments. Uncanny Australia is a challenging and thought-provoking work that offers a new way of understanding how the Aboriginal sacred inhabits the modern nation.

Ken Gelder teaches English and Cultural Studies at the University of Melbourne. His previous books include Atomic Fiction: The Novels of David Ireland (1993) and Reading the Vampire (1994). Jane M. Jacobs teaches Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Melbourne. She is the author of Edge of Empire: Postcolonialism and the City (1996).