AustLit

Examines the issue of Aboriginality in relation to Sally Morgan in the light of some previous challenges to her 'authenticity', and identifies the sites at which Morgan claims difference. The author argues that Aboriginality is 'a concept of identity politics which is developed for strategic and political purposes such as marking out difference. It is contingent and historical' (27). She stresses the importance of revisiting the past in the process of understanding Aboriginality, because of the 'different histories', and the importance of acknowledging the violence indigenous people have experienced in the colonial encounter, and of the continuity and difference of contemporary Aboriginal culture.