Spatial Belonging: Approaching Aboriginal Australian Spaces in Contemporary Fiction Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Philosophie des Fachbereiches 05 der Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen vorgelegt von: Lisa Bach aus Frankfurt am Main 2019 Dekan: Prof. Dr. Thomas Möbius 1. Berichterstatter: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hallet 2. Berichterstatter: Prof. Dr. Lars Eckstein Tag der Disputation: 5. Mai 2020 Versicherung über selbstständiges Verfassen der Arbeit Hiermit versichere ich, dass diese Dissertation von mir persönlich verfasst ist und dass ich keinerlei fremde Hilfe in Anspruch genommen habe. Ebenso versichere ich, dass diese Arbeit oder Teile daraus weder von mir selbst noch von anderen als Leistungsnachweis andernorts eingereicht wurden. Wörtliche oder sinngemäße Übernahmen aus anderen Schriften und Veröffentlichungen in gedruckter oder elektronischer Form sind gekennzeichnet. Sämtliche Sekundärliteratur und sonstige Quellen sind nachgewiesen und in der Bibliographie aufgeführt. Das Gleiche gilt für graphische Darstellungen und Bilder sowie für alle Internet- Quellen. Frankfurt am Main, 5. Juni 2019 ........................................................ Unterschrift Table of Contents Acknowledgements 1 1 Putting the Project on the Map 3 1.1 Aboriginal Spatiality Matters: Introducing Field of Research and Epistemological Interests 6 1.2 Locating Literary Representations of Aboriginal Spatiality: Presenting the Current State of Research 18 1.3 Aboriginal Literatures from a European Perspective 23 1.4 From Indigenous Australian Spatiality to Aboriginal Space as a Form of Belonging: Identifying Objectives and Research Questions 25 1.5 Corpus Selection or Tracing Representations of Spatiality in Contemporary Aboriginal Fiction 27 1.6 Structuring Space and Spatialising Structure 37 2 Narratives of Land: Historicising Aboriginal Politics of Space 40 3 Indigenous Australian Space as a Form of Belonging 59 3.1 Conceptualising Belonging 59 3.2 Identifying Spatial Manifestations of Aboriginal Belonging 70 3.3 Indigenous Australian Space as a Form of Belonging: A Working Definition 89 3.4 Aboriginal Spatial Belonging and Non-Indigenous Approaches to Space 95 4 Contemporary Aboriginal Fiction as a Means of Spatial Indigenous World- making 101 4.1 The Worldmaking Potential of Indigenous Australian Narratives of Space 101 4.2 The Narrative Structure of Aboriginal Spatial Belonging 111 4.3 The Narrative Diversity of Aboriginal Spatial Belonging 120 5 Conflicted Belonging: Reading Kim Scott’s That Deadman Dance from a Spatial-Narratological Perspective 124 5.1 Introducing the Methodological Framework 124 5.2 Reading Kim Scott’s That Deadman Dance from a Spatial-Narratological Perspective 130 6 Balanced Belonging: Reading Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria from an Ecocritical Perspective 158 6.1 Introducing the Methodological Framework 159 6.2 Reading Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria from an Ecocritical Perspective 165 7 Urban Belonging: Reading Anita Heiss’s Not Meeting Mr Right from an Intersectional Perspective 191 7.1 Introducing the Methodological Framework 192 7.2 Reading Anita Heiss’s Not Meeting Mr Right from an Intersectional Perspective 198 8 Conclusion: Sketching the Future Relevance of Aboriginal Australian Spatial Belonging for Literary and Indigenous Research 225 9 Bibliography 233 9.1 Primary Literature 233 9.2 Secondary Literature 233 9.3 Further Online Sources 249 1 Acknowledgements From the very first ideas to its final completion, this study has accompanied me for more than seven years. This long and exciting journey would not have come to a successful end without the great help and encouragement of so many people who supported me along the way. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hallet. With his feedback and his excellent conceptual and methodological support, he was a constant source of advice, and I am particularly grateful for his assistance in narrowing down and framing the contents of this thesis. Furthermore, I would like to express my gratitude to my second supervisor, Prof. Dr. Lars Eckstein, who graciously welcomed me in Potsdam and supported me with his superb insights into Australian cultures and the literatures of its Aboriginal peoples. Moreover, I would like to thank my fellow members of the International PhD Programme Literary and Cultural Studies (IPP) for helping me find the focus and structure of this study, particularly Dr. Catharina Löffler and Dr. Julia Michael for their on-going support in many different ways. The IPP also funded an extended research stay in Australia, for which I am especially grateful for. Thanks also go to Assoc. Prof. Anne Brewster from the University of New South Wales in Sydney as well as Chiara Gamboz and Dr Benjamin Miller, whom I met in Australia and who provided me with invaluable insights into indigenous Australian literatures and helped me to finalise my primary text corpus. Special thanks go to Dr. Katharina Luh. Her great motivation and influence constituted one of the major sources of inspiration to start writing this thesis at all. Last but not least, no words can express my gratitude for the never-ending help and motivation of my family and friends, who supported the completion of this study in every possible way. 2 Danksagung Von der ersten Idee bis zur Fertigstellung hat mich die vorliegende Arbeit mehr als sieben Jahre begleitet. Diese lange und aufregende Reise wäre nicht möglich gewesen ohne die Hilfe vieler Menschen, die mich auf diesem Weg unterstützt haben. Ein besonderer Dank geht an meinen Betreuer Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hallet. Sein Feedback und seine großartige Hilfe waren eine entscheidende Unterstützung bei der inhaltlichen und methodologischen Konzeptionierung meiner Arbeit. Weiterhin möchte ich mich bei Prof. Dr. Lars Eckstein bedanken, der mich herzlich in Potsdam aufgenommen und mit seinem Wissen zu den Kulturen und Literaturen der australischen Aborigines entscheidend zur Gestaltung meines Promotionsprojektes beigetragen hat. Bedanken möchte ich mich auch bei den Mitgliedern meines Promotionsjahrganges am Internationalen Promotionsprogramm Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaften (IPP), deren wertvolle Hinweise mich bei der Themenfindung und -strukturierung besonders unterstützt haben, v.a. Dr. Catharina Löffler und Dr. Julia Michael für ihre vielfältigen Hilfestellungen. Das IPP hat mir außerdem einen ausgedehnten Forschungsaufenthalt in Australien ermöglicht, wofür ich besonders dankbar bin. Danke auch an Assoc. Prof. Anne Brewster von der University of New South Wales in Sydney sowie Chiara Gamboz und Dr Benjamin Miller, die ich in Australien treffen durfte und deren Hinweise mir die Auswahl der zu analysierenden Romane maßgeblich erleichterten. Ganz besonders danken möchte ich Dr. Katharina Luh, deren Motivation und Inspiration eine der wichtigsten Einflüsse für die Entstehung dieser Arbeit waren. Zuletzt geht der größte Dank an meine Familie und Freunde. Mit ihrer unendlichen Hilfe und Geduld haben sie die Entstehung dieser Arbeit auf jedem nur denkbaren Weg unterstützt und ihre Fertigstellung erst ermöglicht. 3 1 Putting the Project on the Map Imagining a broad map of Western academia, one can find a plethora of different disciplines, objects of research and possible approaches to these topics. Although all of these items are somehow interrelated with one another, their ultimate overlap is constituted by one specific element: knowledge. The construction, circulation and continuous development of knowledge is the starting as well as the terminal point, the alpha and omega of Western academic thinking. Nevertheless, with its focus on Western academia this map is spatially limited, as it only covers the territory of the West – but what about the rest? Where are non-Western academic traditions and disciplines to be found? And in what way are the West and the rest connected to each other in scholarly terms? These fundamental reflections on the overall design and status of Western scholarship mark the beginning of the following study, which sets out to approach Aboriginal manifestations of spatial knowledge with the help of contemporary indigenous Australian novels while being situated within non-indigenous, European academic contexts. In order to carry out this endeavour in an adequate manner1, it is crucial to acknowledge, first of all, that [t]he European world view tends to separate the spiritual, natural and human domains whose characteristics and attributes are ever open to challenge, debate and reinterpretation. In this lies [an] important distinction between the two cultural traditions as expressed in attitudes towards knowledge. In the Aboriginal world view, knowledge is an extension of the cosmic order and comprises the accumulated wisdom of the group since time immemorial, handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. (Gostin/Chong 1994: 123) While Western perceptions of the world clearly categorise knowledge, Aboriginal peoples understand their existence as related to a more holistic system of knowledge free of clear-cut classifications. Therefore, this basic difference is one of the fundamental concepts that has to be kept in mind when examining indigenous knowledge, here in relation to literary representations of spatiality, from a non-indigenous point of view. It is also important to see these differences not as a legitimation for hierarchies or as an obstacle, but to question ways in which it is possible to approach Aboriginal knowledge nonetheless. Zooming in on the cultural context of this study and indigenous Australian manifestations of knowledge, in a first step it is necessary to recognise that the “central values [of Aboriginal cultures] are embodied as knowledge that is spatially organised because the land and relationships to it underpin everything” (Turnbull 2003 [2000]: 34). Therefore, 1 For a detailed description of the approach of this study to Aboriginal literatures from a non-indigenous perspective and the development of a viable methodological framework, see Chapter 1.3. 4 investigations into indigenous Australian spatialities are able to uncover culturally specific forms of knowledge, as they take into consideration one of the key elements of indigenous Australian knowledge construction and structuring. Moreover, Tony Swain (1993) notes that “[r]ather than a world creation, Aboriginal narratives affirm a multitude of independent place- shaping Events. […] The world is not made, but worlds take shape” (ibid. 32). Hence, spatial knowledge referring to indigenous Australian cultures can be particularly accessed with the help of narratives, because they contain information on how Aboriginal lifeworlds came into being in the first place and have a distinct focus on the creation of spatiality and, thus, the basis of the existence of these cultures. Finally, Stephen Muecke (2005) conflates indigenous Australian forms of knowledge, spatiality and narratives by stating that “[i]n Aboriginal country bodies are integrated with places via stories. It is not an anthropocentric world, so the bodies are also those of trees and stones. A stone is a body because it is simultaneously the egg of a rainbow serpent” (ibid. 50). This means that, due to the overall Aboriginal spatialisation of knowledge and the fact that this knowledge is constructed, stored and passed on with the help of narratives, narrative representations of indigenous Australian spatiality recommend themselves as a point of departure for approaching Aboriginal knowledge cultures. In a next step, it needs to be clarified in which academic disciplines knowledge intersections of Aboriginal cultures, narratives and representations of spatiality are to be found. Most obviously, the study of literature and culture constitutes the perfect foundation here, as it provides narratives in the form of Aboriginal novels that contain representations of indigenous Australian spatial knowledge. For those working in the field of literary studies, the subject is of specific interest as it is easily compatible with the available methodological and theoretical tool set for analysing narrative texts. Indigenous spatialities referring to the Australian continent, for instance, can be related to the narratological category of space or to the diversity of approaches to space discussed on the story-level of a novel. Aboriginal spatiality is also interesting for literary scholars because the medium of the novel can open up culturally specific insights into the construction of (spatial) knowledge on the basis of its reciprocal interrelation with the extratextual world. As literary narratives “do not merely represent life, but they constitute and indeed ‘form’ life” (Nünning/Nünning 2010a: 12), they are themselves a means of constructing and transmitting indigenous Australian knowledge that can lead to new perspectives on how spatiality constitutes and influences Aboriginal lifeworlds. With this worldmaking2 potential, indigenous Australian novels shape their culturally specific context 2 For an introduction to the world-making approach as a tool for the study of literature and culture, see Grabes (2010) and Nünning/Nünning (2010a, 2010b). For a more detailed consideration of this concept within the analysis of Aboriginal literatures in this study, see Chapter 4.1. 5 and highlight that spatiality is the product of multi-layered processes of constructing and compiling knowledge. Such a perspective on the construction of knowledge with the help of narratives has been conceptualised by Christoph Reinfandt (1997). He differentiates between three different meaning orientations3 of literary narratives that define the most essential characteristics of the relationship between literary text and extraliterary world. Apart from a confirmation of the order and meaning of the world, as well as subjective experiences and perceptions of the non- literary surroundings with the help of narratives (cf. 149-152), Reinfandt introduces a third dimension. This literary ‘meaning orientation’ refers to the observation that the fictional means of a story, which are inherent in the narrative and do not directly relate to reality, also contribute to the construction of meaning. According to Reinfandt’s understanding, the narrative structuring of events unearths culturally specific patterns of meaning production. This circumstance is, therefore, only to be found within literary texts; there is no other medium that would be able to perform likewise. In this way, this third level points to the distinct qualities of narratives in terms of their potential to construct knowledge and shape extraliterary contexts (cf. 152-154). Hence, indigenous Australian novels provide an exceptional possibility to approach Aboriginal spatiality via the knowledge these narratives contain. Such an understanding of the functions of narratives is, for example, brought to the fore by Hanne Birk (2008), who, in her study on indigenous memory cultures from Australia, New Zealand and Canada, highlights that narrative space can serve as a tool for conveying knowledge about culturally specific manifestations of memory (cf. 243-273). By pointing to this specific field of indigenous cultures, Birk indirectly shows that narrative fiction has an overall potential in terms of comprising and sharing diverse forms of indigenous knowledge. This gives reason to expect that this holds true for contemporary Aboriginal fiction as well, meaning that it contains a huge range of knowledge that can shed light on the cultural constitution of indigenous Australian spatiality and belonging. Taking Reinfandt’s and Birk’s ideas as paradigmatic starting points, this thesis will analyse Aboriginal novels predominantly under the premise that they provide unique insights into the constructions and the contemporary cultural conditions of indigenous Australian spatial knowledge4. Apart from the potential of these distinctly literary studies, the analysis of narrative representations of spatiality is able to consider a second dimension that must not be neglected within spatial approaches to indigenous Australian cultures: the politics of Aboriginal space. 3 Translation by the author of this study (Lisa Bach). Original text: “Sinnorientierung” (Reinfandt 1997: 149). 4 For a detailed conceptualisation of this approach, see Chapter 4. 6 For indigenous Australian people, spatiality has always been interwoven with politics, because their lands have been and still are the central venue for staging conflicts between Australia’s indigenous and non-indigenous population. Beginning with the European colonisation of the continent in the eighteenth century and the often violent taking possession of ancestral lands up to the non-acknowledgement of the pre-colonial presence of indigenous communities until the early 1990s and the Aboriginal struggles for getting back their land that are still prevalent today, space has always been a controversial topic within the Australian nation. Therefore, discussions of Aboriginal spatiality are, due to the country’s history, immediately political and also the examinations of indigenous Australian cultures in literary studies have to consider this circumstance. This centrality of spatiality in debates on Aboriginal cultures also points out that indigenous space is a highly important topic for pan-Australian discourses and has a huge cultural, social and political impact. Therefore, every analysis of Aboriginal spatial knowledge, including this study, has to recognise that this thematic field is politically charged5 and that an apolitical approach would disregard the culturally specific conditions of indigenous Australian space. Ultimately, the observations of the previous pages show that, although it is essential to reflect on the Western embeddedness of this study and the differences of indigenous and non- indigenous forms of knowledge, there is a way of approaching Aboriginal manifestations of spatial knowledge from a European point of view. Through an initial introduction of the crucial cultural and political meaning of space for Aboriginal lifeworlds and for literary studies, the knowledge domains of indigenous Australian spatiality, narratives as well as literary representations of space are finally conflated and, in this way, put on the global, not solely Western, map of acadamia, more precisely the study of literature and culture. 1.1 Aboriginal Spatiality Matters: Introducing the Field of Research and Epistemological Interests As already briefly addressed, the category of space within indigenous Australian cultures is related to a huge range of different matters: the social structures of communities, the occupational organisation of everyday life, spiritual beliefs and narratives and the relation between human subjects and their environment. This centrality of spatiality for indigenous peoples that resonates in the title of this subchapter – underlined by James Clifford (2001), who 5 The structure of these very first pages and the difference between the rather lengthy literary studies and the rather short political focus is not meant to lead to the false assumption that this study will only pay minor attention to the politics of Aboriginal space. As this topic, especially from an indigenous Australian perspective, is not to be disregarded and must be dealt with as soon as approaching Aboriginal spatial knowledge, Chapter 2 will provide a comprehensive overview of the political dimension of Aboriginal space. 7 states that “when thinking of differently articulated sites of indigeneity, however, one of the enduring constraints in the changing mix will always be the power of place” (ibid. 481) – highlights that space also matters in the context of these cultures: space and the lives of indigenous peoples are closely related when referring to the Aboriginal peoples of Australia. Nevertheless, it is absolutely crucial to not essentialise indigenous Australian manifestations of spatiality but to highlight their diversity, as “Australia cannot and should not be one culturally uniform nation. We need to recognise that from times beginning, this continent has been occupied by many nations in the sense of cultural, linguistic and economic difference” (Gale 1999: 12). There is not one or the form of Aboriginal space but many manifestations that belong to different indigenous communities all over Australia. While dealing with the diversity of indigenous Australian cultures, it is also significant to note that they not only comprise the Aboriginal population on the mainland but also the Torres Strait Islander Peoples from the eponymous islands in the northern part of Queensland. As Torres Strait Islander Eddie Koiki Mabo, one of the most prominent figures in the indigenous Australian land rights movement, pointed out in his talk Landrights in the Torres Strait, which was presented in Townsville in 1981, “[i]n the Torres Strait, land ownership […] is different from Aboriginal land ownership on the mainland.” (Attwood/Markus 1999: 294). Therefore, it is not only necessary to acknowledge these differences when approaching indigenous Australia from a Western perspective but to locate and spatially frame the working context of the following chapters. As this study will solely analyse literary representations of Aboriginal spatiality referring to the Australian mainland, the theoretical conceptualisation will be tailored to the demands of this particular context. Nevertheless, Torres Strait Islander peoples have heavily contributed to contemporary spatial discourses and the progression of indigenous politics of space in Australia, which is why their influences will be considered when dealing with the developments and current conditions of indigenous Australian spatiality and the struggle for land rights. Referring to the overall contexts of this study, it is essential to question why Australia and its Aboriginal population serve as adequate cultural agents for the investigation of contemporary literary representations of indigenous spatiality. First and foremost, space is assigned a pivotal status within indigenous Australian cultures. Not only does material space play a crucial role in the organisation of everyday life, but the spiritual and cosmological dimensions of spatiality are of great importance as well: Aboriginal culture is spatialised linguistically, socially, religiously, artistically, and epistemologically. […] Dreams and narratives are cast in a framework of spatial coordinates. […] The pervasiveness of spatiality in Aboriginal daily life jointly derives from the semantic structure of the language in which the 8 subjects of sentences are not things but relations and from the centrality of the land in Aboriginal cosmology. (Turnbull 2003 [2000]: 34) According to Turnbull, space structures indigenous Australian languages, cosmologies and the Aboriginal way of understanding and making sense of the world. In this way, spatiality is a central element when attempting to approach indigenous Australian cultures from a non- indigenous perspective. Interestingly, Turnbull also connects Aboriginal land with narrativity by mentioning the spatial entrenchment of indigenous narratives. Both space and narratives form an integral part of indigenous Australian cultures and shape the lives and realities of Aboriginal people and communities all over Australia. Apart from these characteristics that can be applied to pan-Australian contexts, aspects of locality, spatial specificity and their linguistic realisation are highly relevant for Aboriginal cultures as well: Country in Aboriginal English is not only a common noun but also a proper noun. People talk about country in the same way that they would talk about a person: they speak to country, sing to country, visit country, worry about country, feel sorry for country, and long for country. People say that country knows, hears, smells, takes notice, takes care, is sorry or happy. Country is not a generalised or undifferentiated type of place […]. Rather, country is a living entity with a yesterday, today and tomorrow, with a consciousness, and a will toward life. Because of this richness, country is home, and peace; nourishment for body, mind, and spirit; heart’s ease. (Rose 1996: 7) Instead of laying emphasis on the economic and environmental exploitation of the land, indigenous Australians are involved with their spatial surroundings in a non-hierarchical manner. Particularly relevant for literary investigations into the field, Aboriginal peoples refer to space as a very important person or even family member on the linguistic level and they are emotionally affiliated with their land and integrate space as a vivid and polymorphic entity into their everyday lives. Taking into consideration that “the fact that [Aboriginal] knowledge is localised and specific is one of the keys to its value” (ibid. 32), and the dimensions of locality and the spatialisation of knowledge also come into play when dealing with indigenous Australian spaces. Based on these insights, there is an inferred assumption of a great diversity of Aboriginal spatial knowledge bound to a variety of places all over Australia and related to numerous Aboriginal communities. Gina Wisker (2007) subscribes to such a perspective and distinctly links Aboriginal space with the notion of belonging: Location, geography and land ownership contribute fundamentally to people’s sense of belonging, and in many cultures, such as the Australian Aboriginal, they provide a fundamental sense of the wholeness of existence, of which all creatures and people belong, the mythical element known as ‘The Dreaming’. (Ibid. 47) Although Wisker notes the global and transcultural scope of the relationship between space and 9 belonging, she particularly brings to the fore the pervasiveness of spatiality within indigenous Australian cultures and in this way suggests an exploration of the culturally specific intersections of space and belonging in the Aboriginal context, which will be explicated in detail in the third chapter of this study. Furthermore, Wisker points to the relation between belonging, which “is about an emotional (or even ontological) attachment, about feeling ‘at home’” (Yuval-Davis 2011: 10) and spiritual Aboriginal narratives and suggests a further area of investigation that is connected to indigenous Australian notions of space. Thus, Aboriginal cultures contain a huge range of linguistic, cosmological, historical, ideological, political and narrative manifestations of spatiality that make it possible to uniquely examine in which ways ancestral land, country and distinct localities function as influencing factors and structural forces for indigenous Australian belonging. As already mentioned, indigenous Australian space also has a distinctly narrative dimension and attributes meaning to nearly every aspect of indigenous Australian cultures. Since “[a]s a means of understanding the world, literature takes the data of life and organizes it according to this or that plan, which can then aid readers in comprehending and navigating a portion of their own world” (Tally 2013: 42), it is appropriate to assume a negotiation of spatiality in contemporary indigenous Australian literatures. As Tally’s statement also articulates the reciprocal relation between literary texts and the extraliterary world, literature seems to be a viable instrument for grasping narrative negotiations of Aboriginal space and belonging from a literary studies viewpoint as well. Linking these findings with the overall interpretation of cultures as “ensembles of narratives”6 (Müller-Funk 2008: 171), which are circulated and represented via diverse media (cf. ibid.) such as literary texts, contemporary indigenous Australian fiction presents an ideal starting point for approaching diverse formations of Aboriginal space as a form of belonging. Bringing together the considerations on the selected context with the characteristics of narrative fiction and its potential to negotiate and discuss spatiality, this study will argue that belonging within indigenous Australian lifeworlds manifests itself particularly via spatiality and the interrelation between subject/human being and space and that spatial belonging7 is mirrored in contemporary novels by Aboriginal authors. Therefore, the central hypothesis of this thesis is as follows: As spatiality is a central feature of indigenous Australian lifeworlds and can be examined as a manifestation of belonging, contemporary Aboriginal literary works, which are reciprocally interlinked with the 6 Translation by the author of this study (Lisa Bach). Original text: “Ensembles von Narrativen” (Müller-Funk 2008: 171). 7 This study is not the first text that employs the term of spatial belonging. For other publications using this idea or concept see, among others, Davis/Gorashi/Smets (2018), Jones (2007), Kuusisto-Arponen (2014) and Lee (2014). 10 extraliterary world, shed light on and can thus be discussed with a focus on their diverse illustrations of spatial belonging. Apart from the legitimation of the Aboriginal context as matching the central issue of this study, it is essential to point to its epistemological interests and to reason why it makes sense to investigate indigenous Australian spatiality from a scholarly viewpoint. The key interest lies in approaching Aboriginal space, place and land with the help of contemporary fiction written by indigenous Australians as well as the associated utilisation of these texts for the study of literature and culture. In this respect, recent Aboriginal narratives will be understood as a means of representing indigenous Australian spatiality and spatial knowledge that allows for an innovative conflation of Aboriginal spatiality with belonging and an exposition of the spatial diversity of this culturally specific context. Taking a look at the developments in the literary and cultural disciplines – currently “[s]pace, it would seem, is everywhere” (Riquet 2018: 11) – the focus of this study is in line with current insights into the significance of space for textual as well as extratextual worlds because “[s]pace, many scholars of various disciplines have come to acknowledge in recent years, is a fundamental category of both human life in general and cultural production in particular” (Sarkowsky 2007: 21). This thesis will further enhance this field and give particular insights into the crucial meaning of spatiality for Aboriginal cultures and their respective literary negotiations of this topic. This is supported even more, since research on the interrelations between spatiality and literature suggests that “[s]pace, place and mapping […] are crucial to literary and cultural studies, just as these concepts and practices are required for living in an ever-changing social and geographical milieu” (Tally 2013: 43). The narrative investigations in this study will enhance these discourses by analysing specific Aboriginal manifestations of fictional spatiality that point to the current pluralities and dynamics of indigenous Australian space and belonging from a historical, an environmental as well as an urban perspective.8 Within the discipline of (post-)colonial studies, spatiality has highly influenced the perception of the contemporary literary production as well. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin (2002 [1989]) support such a view, stating that “[a] major feature of post-colonial literatures is the concern with place and displacement” (ibid. 8). This fundamental condition of (post-)colonial texts is mirrored in indigenous Australian literatures since narrative Aboriginal spatiality is inextricably linked with and represents the struggle for country, the agricultural or 8 For more information on why the genre of the indigenous Australian novel particularly lends itself to an investigation into Aboriginal spatiality and belonging, see Chapter 1.5. 11 geological utilisation of ancestral land and the resulting displacement of indigenous communities all over Australia. Along with these topics, the theoretical and literary engagements with space are viable means for referring to current (post-)colonial discourses, since “[l]and, and its extensions into theories of the construction of space and place, has emerged […] as one of the most important recent sites for articulating contemporary cultural concerns” (Griffiths 2001: 445). As literary representations of spatiality contain cutting-edge insights into the situatedness of indigenous cultures in Australia, they can serve as a seismograph for the current social, political and economic status of Aboriginal peoples. Concerning a further specification of spatial issues in (post-)colonial studies, Pramod K. Nayar (2010) suggests that “[t]he theme of space and belonging in postcolonial literatures could be organized around the […] themes” of “[s]pace, [i]dentity and [b]elonging” as well as “[h]ome/lands and [c]ultural [b]elonging” (ibid. 142). The interweaving of space and belonging in this study not only bridges the conceptual gap between both notions but also facilitates a unique analysis of the narrative diversity of Aboriginal spatiality in relation to historical, urban and environmental aspects of belonging. This thesis also brings together the quintessential spatial topics of (post-)colonial studies within the framework of indigenous Australian cultures and provides a thematic overview of contemporary narrative discussions of Aboriginal land, space and country. From an indigenous viewpoint, literary texts are remarkable cultural representatives and make it possible to approach Aboriginal lifeworlds from various ethnic angles, which is particularly relevant when taking into consideration the Western perspective of this study: “For many authors, ‘writing Aboriginality’ is a means of catharsis, and we use our writing as a tool to help non-Indigenous readers better understand Aboriginal Australia, which in turn improves race relations between Black and white Australians” (Heiss 2007b: 42). Although this statement might oversimplify the complex processes of cross-cultural dialogues in Australia, it nevertheless points to the communicative potential of Aboriginal fiction. For this reason, this thesis will uniquely employ narrative representations of indigenous Australian spatiality as a platform for approaching Aboriginal cultures from a non-indigenous perspective. This also relates to what Linda Tuhiwai Smith (2012 [1999]) remarks on the overall functions of indigenous cultural representations: Representation is also a project of indigenous artists, writers, poets, film makers and others who attempt to express an indigenous spirit, experience or world view. Representation of indigenous peoples by indigenous people is about countering the dominant society’s image of indigenous peoples, their lifestyles and belief systems. It is also about proposing solutions to the real-life dilemmas that indigenous communities confront, and trying to capture the complexities of being indigenous. (Ibid. 152) 12 Hence, the selected primary corpus presents a distinctly Aboriginal perception on spatiality as well as the related political, social and cultural discussions. Incorporating current spatial discourses, the examinations of Aboriginal fiction in this thesis might also open up these debates by pointing to novel indigenous perceptions on pan-Australian issues such as mining, the exploitation of the environment or the living together in urban areas. Linking Smith’s statement to Heiss’s observations, it is worth noting that Aboriginal fiction deals with spatiality as a means of illustrating the complexity of indigenous (spatial) cultures to a global, also non- indigenous readership. Taking stock at the intersection of spatiality and literary studies – characterised by the fact that “[i]n recent literary and cultural studies, […] space has reemerged as a principal concern” (Tally 2017: 2) – it has to be said that “[d]espite the rareness of systematic treatment, the category ‘space’ is and has been an important one for the analysis of literature” (Sarkowsky 2007: 27). Nevertheless, there are only a few studies that focus on the importance of literary texts in terms of their negotiation of space and spatial practices (cf. Neumann 2009: 116), which is why this thesis seeks to contribute to these discussions by bringing together indigenous Australian notions of spatiality and belonging, their contemporary literary representations and literary studies approaches to narrative spaces. Taking a closer look at the discipline of narrative theory, which will be of particular importance for the analyses of Kim Scott’s (2012 [2010]) That Deadman Dance, literary scholars like Nünning (2009) emphasise that the narratological category of space, compared with others such as narrative time, has not yet undergone a thorough theorisation and systematisation, particularly due to the diversity of available spatial manifestations in narrative fiction (cf. 34). Based on these observations, Nünning sees a “discrepancy between the uncontested significance of narrative spatiality as a central element for the construction of fictional reality and the […] research desideratum”9 (ibid.) concerning adequate narratological instruments for the analysis of narrative spaces. Of course, there are initial terminologies and seminal models of space (cf. Dennerlein 2009, Ryan 2009), but as “narratologists have long privileged time over space, narrative space remains a relatively unexplored territory” (Ryan 2009: 431) 10 . Therefore, this study will advance the spatial area of narrative theory by innovatively applying narratological instruments 9 Translation by the author of this study (Lisa Bach). Original text: “Diskrepanz zwischen der unbestrittenen Bedeutung der Raumdarstellung als zentralem Teil fiktionaler Wirklichkeitskonstruktion und dem [...] Forschungsdesiderat” (Nünning 2009: 34). 10 In an interview from 2014, Ryan (2014) has confirmed such a perspective on narrative space: “The representation and conception of time in narrative has received a lot of attention, and justly so, because time is a very difficult but also very rich issue, but space, which is much easier to conceive than time, has been largely neglected” (ibid. 81). 13 – on the basis of a model of narrative space by Marie Laure Ryan (2009) – within an indigenous literary context and asking in what ways Aboriginal texts are able to inform and thus refine these narratological methodologies. Apart from this dissemination of narrative theory in the indigenous Australian context, the use of spatial narratology for Aboriginal texts will lead to innovative perspectives on the diversity of indigenous notions of space and give new insights into the interrelations between indigenous and non-indigenous spatialities. Since Aboriginal spatiality and belonging will also be examined from an ecocritical angle, which accounts for the circumstance that “the convergence of critical practices attuned to both environmental and the spatial relations is especially timely” (Tally/Battista 2016: 3), this combination will open up unprecedented perceptions on the potential of the ecocritical approach for the study of (indigenous) literary works as well as cultures. As “[t]he global discourse on Indigenous knowledge […] runs into and across a range of interests such as sustainable development, biodiversity and conservation interests, commercial and corporate interests, and Indigenous interests” (Nakata 2007b: 7), this study will uniquely combine an ecocritical perspective with indigenous Australian spatiality and shed light on the ways in which Aboriginal texts and the negotiated spatial knowledge are able to contribute to indigenous, non- indigenous as well as national Australian and global discourses on ecology and the human dealing with nature, land and space. Supporting this epistemological interest of this thesis, the (post-)colonial scholars Graham Huggan and Helen Tiffin (2010) have already pointed to the huge potential of an association of ecocriticism and (post-)colonial literary texts: What the postcolonial/ecocritical alliance brings out, above all, is the need for a broadly materialist understanding of the changing relationship between people, animals and environment – one that requires attention, in turn, to the cultural politics of representation […]. This suggests (1) the continuing centrality of the imagination and, more specifically, imaginative literature to the task of postcolonial ecocriticism and (2) the mediating function of social and environmental advocacy, which might turn imaginative literature into a catalyst for social action and exploratory literary analysis into a full-fledged form of engaged cultural critique. (Ibid. 12) With an ecocritical investigation of recent narrative representations of Aboriginal spatiality, this study is not only able to prove the usefulness of ecocriticism for the discussion of distinctly indigenous approaches to spatiality and their respective literary representations but also fruitfully blend topics such as environmental exploitation with the more balanced indigenous Australian way of dealing with nature and land. Peter Minter (2012) supports such an application of ecocriticism, as he recognises that “drawing on contemporary ecocritical theory, a compelling disciplinary development can be found in theorising Aboriginal literary representations of Country and their ecopoetic terrain and potential” (ibid. 3). 14 Focusing on the Alexis Wright’s (2009 [2006]) novel Carpentaria in this study, an ecocritical reading of the narrative discussions of spatiality in this text will unearth new perceptions on the equal relationship between Aboriginal communities and their lands and bring to the fore a plurality of spatial approaches to the Australian continent. With respect to the conceptual progression of ecocriticism, spatiality seems to be an adequate analytical focus, because “[a]s ecocriticism has developed, its questions and theoretical interests have become more refined and complex. One of these interests concerns concepts of place and space” (Berensmeyer 2009: 138). This thesis will further demonstrate the strength of this interrelation and, with its concentration on current literary manifestations of indigenous Australian space and belonging, introduce a new field to the study of spatial ecocriticism. Due to the fact that “[t]he ecocritic seeks to contribute to improving our ecological awareness by suggesting the Romantic view of the interdependence between human beings and their natural environment as a model for the present” (ibid. 137), the analyses of Aboriginal fiction will also make it possible to question in which ways the discussed forms of spatiality can extend ecological or environmental awareness within indigenous as well as non-indigenous contexts and cultures. Moreover, Aboriginal literatures can innovatively help to inform ecocritical readings of indigenous texts by illustrating conceptual alternatives to non-indigenous utilisations of nature and land. From a historical viewpoint, this study can also fill a blank in Australian literary studies, because “there is yet to emerge a scholarly reframing of Australian literary history from an eco-critical perspective” (Clark 2007: 440). Hence, this thesis illuminates a so far unnoticed facet of the continent’s indigenous literary production and will bridge the gap between ecocriticism, (post- )colonial studies and literature as well as narrative negotiations of Aboriginal manifestations of space. Finally, the concept of intersectionality, which refers to “relationships among multiple dimensions and modalities of social relations and subject formations” (McCall 2005: 1771), is also a productive means for the examination of literary representations of Aboriginal spatiality and belonging. Since “[f]or the literary scholar […], there is rather little flesh to the intersectional bones and methodologically intersectionality remains underdeveloped and largely related to empirical or quantitative research” (Luh 2013: 40), this study will refine the already existing intersectional instruments for the analyses of narrative fiction. This is also required as there is a “tremendous heterogeneity that currently characterizes how people use and understand intersectionality” (Hill Collins/Bilge 2016: 2). Drawing particularly on Katharina Luh’s (2013) seminal study on intersectionality as an instrument for the examination of indigenous and non-indigenous fiction from Aotearoa New Zealand, this thesis will illustrate 15 the great methodological usefulness of intersectionality within a distinctly indigenous Australian context. In order to fulfil this epistemological interest, this study will follow Susan Lanser (2013), who notes that “[i]ntersectionality theory maintains that no coherent female or male experience exists even within a single culture let alone across cultures, since cultures are always constituted within, and in turn constitute, aspects of identity, location, individual agency, and discursive realm” (ibid. unpaginated). This means that spatiality is a central force within the construction of male and female identities as well as individualities and that every human subject is related to certain identity-shaping spaces. This insight suggests space be regarded as an additional category that needs to inform intersectional research and to investigate its interrelations with masculinities, femininities and other parameters of difference such as ethnicity or indigeneity. As “[t]he local is an active and constitutive force in the formation of social categories and the uneven operations of power between them” (Jacobs 1996: 34), this study will innovatively integrate space within the intersectional analysis of Anita Heiss’s (2007a) chick lit novel Not Meeting Mr Right and combine the spatial parameter with indigeneity and femininity. Referring once more to the realm of narratology, this thesis will also shed light on the intersectional potential of (spatial) narrative theory (cf. Lanser 2010) while exploring literary representations of Aboriginal spatiality. In terms of content, intersectionality will uniquely allow for an association of narrative indigenous Australian spatiality with the topic of urban belonging. With this focus, this thesis will illustrate the importance of an aspect of Aboriginal cultures that has, according to Larissa Behrendt (2006b), only received minor attention in the twenty-first century: Little attention […] is paid to the vibrant and functional Aboriginal communities throughout the metropolitan area. There is no media coverage of the successful – and rather uneventful – day-to-day lives of Aboriginal people that show participation in a broad range of community activities. (Ibid. 8) Therefore, the intersectional investigation of narrative negotiations of urban belonging will underpin the diversity of (female) Aboriginal lifeworlds in cities like Sydney and point to the existing thematisation of urban indigenous cultures in contemporary fiction. Since “[i]n the eyes of some people, an ‘urban’ Aboriginal is considered non-traditional, inauthentic and a cultural outcast” 11 , the intersectional analysis of Heiss’s novel is also able to introduce particular female Aboriginal urban lifeworlds as an indispensable feature of contemporary indigenous Australian cultures. Due to the fact that scholars such as “Diane Bell and Deborah Bird Rose confirm a significant shift in anthropological and academic understandings of 11 http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/70percent_urban/home, last retrieved 2014-08-15. 16 Aboriginal knowledges of the land, a shift in which women’s business and environmentalist and feminist projects are at one” (Jacobs 1994: 179), the intersectional approach to urban belonging can contribute to this novel perception of indigenous Australian spatiality by emphasising the narrative relationships between Aboriginal spatiality, female self- determination and potential feminist endeavours in a distinctly urban landscape as well. For these reasons, an integrated examination of intersectionality and fictional indigenous Australian spaces will result in new perspectives on urban Aboriginal lifeworlds and their relationships with diverse notions of femininities. As Aboriginal spatiality will be innovatively interpreted as a form of and connected with the concept of belonging, the investigations of contemporary indigenous Australian fiction can be expected to broaden the scope of current spatial and indigenous debates within the study of literature and (post-)colonial cultures. Since the outlined research endeavours include the conflation of Aboriginal space and belonging with spatial narratology, ecocriticism and intersectionality in a dialogic way, these approaches will be exposed as viable means for reflections on indigenous spatiality in general and for the examination of narrative representations of indigenous Australian notions of land in particular. Due to the fact that the terms ‘(post-)colonial’, ‘Aboriginal’ and ‘indigenous’ play a crucial role in the investigation of indigenous Australian texts and have already been used several times, the final paragraphs of this introductory section are dedicated to a discussion and definition of these concepts. Beginning with the more global item ‘indigenous’, Linda Tuhiwai Smith (2012 [1999]) provides an initial problematisation of the concept: The term ‘indigenous’ is problematic in that it appears to collectivize many distinct populations whose experiences under imperialism have been vastly different. Other collective terms also in use refer to ‘First Peoples’ or ‘Native Peoples’, ‘First Nations’ or ‘People of the Land’, ‘Aboriginals’ or ‘Fourth World Peoples’. (Ibid. 6) Smith not only points to the essentialising potential of the word ‘indigenous’ but she also names further generalising phrases used within various contexts all over the world. She also emphasises the difficulties of denoting certain communities by means of language while at the same time not aiming to neglect their diversity. Nevertheless, this study will employ the word ‘indigenous’ as a reference to Australia’s first peoples keeping in mind these cultures are not to be understood as a uniform mass but are made up of many distinct groups. Regarding the term ‘Aboriginal’, tracing of its evolution leads to the following result: The term ‘aboriginal’ was coined as early as 1667 to describe the indigenous inhabitants of places encountered by European explorers, adventurers or seamen. While the terms ‘aboriginal’ and ‘aborigine’ have been used from time to time to describe the indigenous inhabitants of many settler colonies, they are now most frequently used as a shortened form of ‘Australian Aborigine’ to describe the indigenous inhabitants of Australia. (Ashcroft/Griffiths/Tiffin 2007 [2000]: 3) 17 Thus, the term ‘Aboriginal’ mostly relates to Australia today and will only be used as a reference to this particular space in this study and not in connection with peoples from other continents or places. Nevertheless, the indigenous Australian context not only concerns the Aboriginal communities from the mainland and has to be defined in more detail with regard to the peoples from the Torres Strait Islands in the country’s north: [T]he term Indigenous can be confusing in that its use in Australia includes not only all of the diverse Aboriginal nations that make up Australia, but also Torres Strait Islanders who became Indigenous to Australia when in 1879 the islands of the Torres Strait were annexed to Queensland through an act of Parliament. (Heiss 2012: 4) While this study acknowledges the Torres Strait Island Peoples as belonging to Australia’s indigenous population and contributing to their cultural conceptions of spatiality in various ways, the spatial conceptualisations and analyses in the following chapters will mostly refer to indigenous communities on the continent, which will henceforth be referred to as ‘Aboriginal people’ or ‘indigenous Australians’ (cf. Behrendt 2012: 27). If Torres Strait Islander people, for instance Eddi Koiki Mabo, or their cultures play a major role at certain points in this thesis, this will be made clear within the respective text passage. Regarding the overall positioning of the conceptualisations mentioned, this study is in line with what Marcia Langton (1993) mentions on the definition of Aboriginality: ‘Aboriginality’ arises from the subjective experience of both Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people who engage in any intercultural dialogue, whether in actual lived experience or through a mediated experience such as a white person watching a program about Aboriginal people on television or reading a book. Moreover, the creation of ‘Aboriginality’ is not a fixed thing. It is created from our histories. It arises from the intersubjectivity of black and white in a dialogue. (Ibid. 31) For this reason, this thesis positions indigeneity and Aboriginality as situated in an ever- changing process of construction instead of seeing them as stable and invariable concepts. With its examination of narrative spatiality in indigenous Australian fiction, this study thus seeks to take part in a dialogue as described by Langton and does not aim to essentialise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures but to highlight their spatial, literary and cultural diversity. Just like ‘indigenous’ and ‘Aboriginal’, the term ‘(post-)colonial’ is equally complex and problematic with regard to its application to indigenous Australian literatures and cultures. In a first step, it is important to recognise that insisting that Australian literature as a whole is solely postcolonial or not is reductive and essentialist. Clearly, many works of Australian literature are postcolonial in terms of subject matter and technique, and Australian society is postcolonial in many ways. However, many Australian texts do not engage with postcolonial issues at all, and Australian society can legitimately be viewed as other than postcolonial. (O’Reilly 2010: 6) 18 Hence, it would be too simplistic too assume a sole and uniform positioning of contemporary Aboriginal fiction as (post-)colonial, because it would disregard the multilayered social, political and historical environments in which indigenous Australian cultural production is situated. This is even more the case as “[a]ll writers have their own relationship to colonising and indigenous traditions, depending upon personal experience, artistic aims and the context within which they write” (O’Reilly 2001: 63). Aboriginal writers regard these very critical stances towards an identification of Australian literatures or society as (post-)colonial, as they see the marginal position and significance of their indigenous cultures today still being highly influenced by colonial attitudes and patterns of behaviour (e.g. in the case of land rights) (cf. Lucashenko 2000) and the divergence of colonial and indigenous Australian lifeworlds (cf. Scott 2007). Graham Huggan (2007) even notes that “Aboriginal people themselves […] have been much more likely to dismiss the term ‘postcolonial’ altogether” (ibid. 27). In a nutshell, the word ‘(post-)colonial’ is not merely an academic concept or approach but it is related to indigenous Australian peoples and their perceptions of their own lifeworlds in many, even contradictory, ways. Nevertheless, it is not possible to entirely omit the term ‘(post-)colonial’ here, because what has been labelled ‘(post-)colonial studies’ and the associated theories and concepts, especially in relation to spatiality, form a major foundation and overall orientation for the analysis of the selected primary corpus. Therefore, this study will not label indigenous Australian literatures as merely (post-)colonial, but position Aboriginal cultures and literatures as embedded in a complex web of colonial, post-colonial and neo-colonial interrelations informing and influencing each other. Based on this conceptual decision, the spelling (post- )colonial will be employed throughout this study to indicate these interweavings and to refer to indigenous perceptions on this term as well as the theoretical embeddedness of this study. 1.2 Locating Literary Representations of Aboriginal Spatiality: Presenting the Current State of Research During the last two decades, the study of literature and culture has increasingly brought to the fore issues of space, place, location and territoriality. What had been initiated by social geographers such as Edward Soja (1989) at the end of the 1980s and labelled as the ‘spatial turn’ by scholars across various disciplines, led to a realignment of literary and cultural theory in which “temporality as the organizing form of experience has been superseded by spatiality, the affective and social experience of space” (Blair 1998: 544). Based on these developments, more and more studies have centred around a practical application of innovative perspectives 19 on spatiality12 in the last twenty years and formed a new branch of literary research dealing for instance with globalisation, mobility or mapping. Space has also been combined with already existing areas of investigation, which are “particularly […] the fields of post-colonial literatures and history, […] social and cultural geography” (Darian-Smith/Gunner/Nuttall 1996: 2) or the implementation of space in narrative theories. Nevertheless, the intensified debates on space have primarily concerned Western texts and cultures so far and have mostly neglected non- Western manifestations and representations of spatiality. Therefore, this subchapter will provide an overview of the current state of research on indigenous (Australian) spatiality and belonging and locate the central topic and the epistemological interests of this project on the bigger map of the study of literature and culture. While analysing the spatial turn, it has been recognised as a major movement and influential force for the production of new approaches within the literary and cultural research of the last twenty years. Most notably, Doris Bachmann-Medick (2007) traces the growing interest in space from its beginnings in social geography in the 1980s to its current heyday in history, literary studies and ethnology and marks the spatial turn, among others such as the performative or iconic turn, as one of the most essential paradigm shifts in the contemporary study of culture (cf.: 284-327). The overall significance of the category of space for diverse academic disciplines ranging from architecture, archaeology and literary studies to biology, physics, legal studies and mathematics, which can be seen as a result of the insights gained due to the spatial turn, has already been pointed out, for instance by Stephan Günzel (2009). Even though the Western-oriented spatial theories will not play a major role in this project, the spatial turn provides the backdrop for an abundance of research projects in the field of the study of literature and culture that form an important foundation for the analysis of contemporary indigenous Australian cultures. Wolfgang Hallet and Birgit Neumann (2009a), for example, bring together literary concepts of space and motion with questions of genre, memory or knowledge. Their collection contains theoretical perspectives on literary and narratological space (cf. Nünning 2009) as well as practical applications, for instance in the fields of semiotics (cf. Hallet 2009) or (post-)colonial literatures (cf. Neumann 2009). In the discipline of narratology, scholars have underlined the significance of narrative spaces as one essential factor for the construction of meaning within narratives. Katrin Dennerlein’s (2009) narratology of space or Marie Laure Ryan’s (2009) narratological conceptualisation of spatiality contribute innovative terminologies and approaches to recent discourses on narrative 12 For an overview and summary of important spatial theories and texts across diverse disciplines and centuries, see Dünne/Günzel (2006). 20 space and they emphasise the important status of spatial examinations for contemporary literary studies. Very recently, investigations into the spatial structures of narratives and narrative theory itself have been opened towards more interdisciplinary approaches, such as a dialogue between narratology and geography (cf. Ryan/Foote/Azaryahu 2016), which constitute another pivotal influence for the approach carried out in the following chapters of this study. The application of spatial narratology in this study will draw on this concentration of narratology on questions of space but open and sensitise the field for indigenous Australian (con-)texts and narratives at the same time. In this respect, Katja Sarkowsky (2007) has already successfully carried out the link between indigenous texts and narrative spaces. Her study is in line with the heightened exploration of narrative spatiality and stresses the suitability of distinctly indigenous representations of space for literary studies by introducing analyses of North American First Nations’ novels. As the publications mentioned hint to the compatibility of (indigenous) notions of spatiality, literary negotiations of space and representations of indigenous lifeworlds, an examination of contemporary Aboriginal Australian novels is expected to innovatively shed light on the realms of space and belonging in this cultural context and to extend the literary toolset for the analysis of narrative spaces. In addition, spatiality has influenced (post-)colonial literatures in general and the investigation of Aboriginal Australian fiction in particular. Theoretical and practical introductions to the study of (post-)colonial cultures feature chapters on the relationship between colonial histories and spatiality, the construction of colonial spaces with the help of maps and mapping, the spatial dispossession of indigenous peoples or spatially informed areas such as diaspora, hybridity or conceptions of the nation (cf. Chew/Richards 2010, Döring 2008, Innes 2007, Zacharias 2016). These publications render current debates on (post-)colonial literatures as significantly shaped by the category of space. Hence it is worth exploring contemporary indigenous fiction from Australia, which is interlinked with and informed by the study of (post-)colonial literatures, in terms of its manifestations of spatiality and its relations to aspects of the aforementioned discussions, here, for instance the European mapping of Australia or the colonial construction of Australia as terra nullius (cf. Chapter 2). In addition to these publications, seminal works like The Empire Writes Back. Theory and Practice in Post- Colonial Literatures (cf. Ashcroft/Griffiths/Tiffin 2002 [1989]) or Mary Louise Pratt’s (2008 [1992]) Imperial Eyes. Travel Writing and Transculturation reinforce the spatialised condition of (post-)colonial discourses13 and offer, with their individual surveys of colonial cultures, 13 Pratt (2008 [1992]) introduces the concept of the ‘contact zone’ as a means of analysing the meeting of different cultures due to colonisation, whereas Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin (2002 [1989]) employ the notion of ‘writing 21 theoretical links as well as practical impulses for the analysis of spatiality in Aboriginal Australian texts. As already noted, the academic examination of contemporary texts by indigenous Australian authors also takes spatiality into consideration. Alongside with recent works pointing to the nexus between space and identity negotiated in indigenous Australian texts (cf. Schepanek 2017), Beate Neumeier and Kay Schaffer (2014a), for instance, have pointed to the nexus of spatiality, (post-)colonial studies and Aboriginal cultures. They provide a recent approach for the investigation of the spatial diversity of indigenous Australian cultures that is reflected in the open and dialogical methodology of this study. In the introduction to their collection, they state that a diversity of kinship ties and language groups and the varied histories of Indigenous land ownership and dispossession across the vast [Australian] continent foreground the necessity to recognize and respect the cultural differences, spatial diversity, and historical atemporalities of Indigenous lives, while inviting critics to communicate responsibly across these differences. (Neumeier/Schaffer 2014b: x) Mirroring this claim, the publication comprises various essays dealing with specifically literary representations of Aboriginal space. While Sue Kossew (2014) introduces a reading of Kim Scott’s (2012 [2010]) That Deadman Dance as a space for alternative histories, Philip Mead (2014) brings to the fore environmental and geopolitical topics in Alexis Wright’s (2009 [2006]) Carpentaria. Another important source for the discussion of much-debated realms of Aboriginal literature, Graham Huggan (2007) blends issues of location, racism and whiteness in Australian literature with (post-)colonial studies and thus enables scholars to analyse and indicate the status of Aboriginal Australian texts on an (inter-)national scale. Hanne Birk (2008) presents Aboriginal space not only as a distinctive feature of indigenous Australian literatures and cultures but also as a site of memory and thus makes scholars aware of the reciprocity of indigenous temporality and spatiality. By demonstrating the importance of bringing together literary studies and indigenous cultures on a global scale, Chadwick Allen (2007, 2012) not only points to the high status of literary texts as a means of representing indigenous lifeworlds but also to the potential of literary studies and methodologies to approach, for instance, Aboriginal Australian narratives from various perspectives. Besides the distinctly literary discussions of indigenous Australian spaces, disciplines like sociology, geography or anthropology have also vitally contributed to the discourses on Aboriginal spatiality. Cheri Ragaz (1988) sketches the great influence of the spatial parameter on elements of indigenous Australian cultures such as cosmology and spirituality, temporality back’ to conceptualise the relation between texts produced in colonised countries, also known as ‘periphery’, and the ‘centre’, meaning the culture and the country of the coloniser. 22 and the social life within communities. These points are also to be found in the selected primary corpus and emphasise the close relationship between Aboriginal spatiality and its negotiation in contemporary novels. Stephen Muecke (2005) presents a seminal reflection on indigenous Australian cultures and knowledge from a non-indigenous perspective and explains his evaluation concerning the current state of research on indigenous Australian spatiality: “While political issues to do with country are vividly alive in Australian national awareness (Aboriginal land claims and ecological issues are being hotly debated), their cultural representation remains less focused” (ibid. 71). Muecke encourages a detailed consideration and exploration of fictional representations of space within the wider scope of indigenous (spatial) discourses in order to unearth their medium-specific forms and variety and shed light on their functions for already existing discussions about the politics and manifestations of Aboriginal spatiality. The Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia (cf. Arthur/Morphy 2005a) as well as Philip Clarke (2003) illustrate the Australian continent as an Aboriginal space and relate to aspects such as indigenous place names in Australia, Aboriginal art, languages and land ownership as well as historical topics such as the condition of indigenous Australian lifeworlds before and after European colonisation. Bill Gammage (2012 [2011]) illuminates how Aboriginal communities managed the Australian land before the times of colonisation and fosters an understanding of the continent as a distinctly indigenous space as well. Taking a look at current scholarly perspectives on Aboriginal spatiality across various disciplines suggests to transferring the acknowledged influence of land on Aboriginal spirituality, temporality, social life and history to literary studies and connecting these areas with an examination of representations of space in contemporary novels. Since belonging forms one of the central points of departure for the analysis of Aboriginal literatures in this project, it is crucial to take a look at studies already existing that prove the usefulness of such an approach for the indigenous Australian context. Peter Read (2000) foregrounds the compatibility of Aboriginal spatiality and land ownership under the umbrella of belonging and provides an argumentative foundation for the reading of literary negotiations of indigenous space particularly as a form of belonging. Linn Miller’s (2003, 2006) publications, which theorise as well as apply belonging, rank among the most important starting points for this project, because her work also proves the usability of belonging within indigenous contexts. Miller presents a tripartite model of belonging14 that links the latter with the realm of spatiality on the following dimensions: social connections, historical connections and geographical or environmental connections (cf. 2006: 6). Since this study will argue that 14 For a detailed description of Miller’s model and its application within this study, see Chapter 3.1. 23 all of these connections are spatialised in Aboriginal Australian cultures in diverse ways, Miller already hints at a possible elaboration on manifestations of spatial belonging with the creation of her spatially-inspired terminology. Even if neither of the publications focus on literary representations of space, they suggest an overall applicability of belonging within indigenous Australian lifeworlds and point to a conflation of space and belonging as the basis for an investigation into contemporary Aboriginal fiction. Although this subchapter is only able to present the most essential findings relevant for this project, a summary of the current state of literary, narratological, (post-)colonial, indigenous, anthropological and geographical research as well as the themes of contemporary Aboriginal writing emphasise that a conflation of these diverse strands within an examination of literary representations of space and belonging in contemporary indigenous literatures from Australia seems promising. Therefore, this project will tie in with recent interdisciplinary insights into the topic of spatiality and make them available for and applicable to the study of Aboriginal Australian fiction. Ultimately, this is even more necessary as a comprehensive analysis of space as a form of Aboriginal belonging with relation to literary representations of the plurality of indigenous and non-indigenous conceptions of space, the interrelations between belonging, environment and ecocriticism and manifestations of urban Aboriginal lifeworlds is still missing from the map of literary and indigenous research. 1.3 Aboriginal Literatures from a European Perspective “As for you indigenous communities whose struggles for justice I am at all times mindful of, I am neither borrowing from you nor trying to give you anything, except in dialogue when I quote the words of your scholars and offer my own. In the end it will be up to the readers to make their own assemblages, just as I have, for here there can be no final word.” (Muecke 2005: vii) As Western notions of space differ highly from Aboriginal conceptions and literary representations of spatiality, it is necessary to consider the European perspective and academic embeddedness of this study while writing about indigenous Australian texts. In this respect, one of the ‘strategies’ of Stephen Muecke’s (2005) monograph Ancient & Modern. Time, Culture and Indigenous Philosophy will frame this thesis: The production of cross-cultural historical knowledge is not just an epistemological problem concerning the foundations for knowledge (principles we can settle on in order to work from them), but it is also an evolving temporal one occurring in rituals such writing an historical essay. It is therefore crucial continually to contrast accounts of ways in which other peoples come to know things with ways in which Europeans’ institutions organise knowledge rituals. (Ibid. 27) Following Muecke’s positioning of knowledge production as a context-sensitive process, the writing of this study can be seen as exactly such a ritual of Western academia. The perspective 24 on Aboriginal literatures and cultures presented here is highly influenced by its European academic background, theories and knowledge and is, thus, one of an outsider. This is also the reason why this chapter is more than an introduction to its objects and fields of research or a mere presentation of its central aims and methods. As its title already indicates, this initial chapter seeks to locate the main endeavour of this thesis – the conceptualisation of indigenous Australian spaces as a form of belonging and the analysis of their representations in contemporary novels – on the huge map of research dealing with Aboriginal cultures, literatures and spatialities, which requires a contextualisation of the complex culturally specific discourses regarding indigenous Australian manifestations of spatiality and belonging. The following chapters will be based on the awareness that this text is dealing with indigenous literatures from a non-indigenous point of view and that the approaches used are only one possible way among various others. Apart from that, this study will employ Muecke’s idea of contrasting different modes of knowledge rituals. This means that the analyses of the primary texts will not take for granted the selected methodologies and simply apply them to Aboriginal spaces and their literary representations, but that they will attempt to challenge every theoretical instrument by considering indigenous views on the respective object of study. This study will attempt to establish a reciprocal dialogue15 between the theoretical approaches and the indigenous narrative knowledge about spatiality to be found in the primary texts and interpret both as sources that feed back into the methodological framework. Therefore, this dissertation will reflect upon its own approaches and analyse Aboriginal Australian lifeworlds and their literary negotiations not only through the lens of Western academia. Instead, the intention of this project is to understand knowledge as eternally situated within processes of negotiation, construction and deconstruction, which is why non-indigenous and indigenous insights into spatiality will equally inform and influence each other within the proposed readings of That Deadman Dance, Carpentaria and Not Meeting Mr Right. Finally, this thesis and its overall perspective on Aboriginal cultures aims to be in line with what indigenous Australian author Anita Heiss (2003) writes about non-indigenous views on the continent’s Aboriginal population16: “For some white writers, credibility arises from the view that they are providing a voice (however indirectly), to Aboriginal Australia”. As “this attitude is unacceptable to many Aboriginal writers who are tired of competing with white writers for the opportunity to write and be published in the areas directly related to their lives 15 For an illustration and application of this approach, see Miller’s (2008) article on David Unaipon. 16 For further information on Aboriginal publishing and writing in a non-indigenous context as well as indigenous property laws see Heiss (2003, 2010, 2012) and Janke (2009). For the relations between indigenous and non- indigenous Australian literatures and discourses see Ariss (1988). 25 or life opportunities” (ibid. 10), the indigenous primary and secondary sources and their contents are not to be considered as diametrically opposed to the non-indigenous publications and debates about spatiality referred to in the following chapters. Both of them will be part of a complementary process of knowledge-construction, which targets a non-binary analysis of Aboriginal Australian spaces and their representations in contemporary fiction. This stance is also reflected in the decision to use the term ‘approaching’ in the title of this project, because it mirrors the overall positioning of this thesis as an approximation towards indigenous Australian literatures and cultures, not as a mere examination, with the means of self-reflection and – evaluation. 1.4 From Indigenous Australian Spatiality to Aboriginal Space as a Form of Belonging: Identifying Objectives and Research Questions Referring to the central hypothesis outlined in the introductory section of this chapter, the overall aim17 of this study is to approach and analyse contemporary literary representations of Aboriginal space as a form of belonging. Emanating from this major target, there are minor objectives and questions related to literary representations of indigenous Australian spatiality and the methodological and content-related design of this study. First of all, this project seeks to interlink Aboriginal spatiality with the notion of belonging in order to underline conceptually the great importance of space, place and land for indigenous Australian cultures and to bridge the gap between both terms. By innovatively blending social, historical and geographical manifestations of belonging (cf. Miller 2006) this thesis will establish a working definition of Aboriginal spatial belonging, which will serve as the underlying framework for the analysis of literary representations of this topic in contemporary Aboriginal fiction. Apart from this rather theoretical discussion, Aboriginal spatial belonging will be connected with three central areas of indigenous Australian spatiality and diverse approaches while being practically applied to the selected primary corpus. Kim Scott’s (2012 [2010]) That Deadman Dance offers a juxtaposition of indigenous and non-indigenous notions of spatiality and at the same time negotiates the interrelations and differences of Aboriginal and European spatial practices. Therefore, the novel will be investigated with a focus on ‘conflicted belonging’ to transcend binary perceptions of space and expose the latter as related to diverse manifestations that are not opposed to but complexly 17 Although I will introduce the corpus selection and legitimation only in the following subchapter, the contents of the primary corpus were taken into consideration for the formulation of the research questions and objectives in order to follow the overall approach of this project explicated in 1.3. 26 linked with each other. In order to achieve this, ideas from the discipline of narratology will be deployed and extended within a dialogue with the text to indicate the diversity of narrative notions of spatiality and spatial practices referred to in the novel. Carpentaria by Alexis Wright (2009 [2006]) will be explored in terms of its representations of ‘balanced belonging’, meaning the balanced relationship between Aboriginal people and their spatial surroundings. With the help of ecocriticism, this examination aims at illustrating diverse aspects of spatial Aboriginal lifeworlds such as spirituality or the relations to ancestors and showing in what ways this equality of land and indigenous peoples overlaps with environmental issues. The last analysis centres on Anita Heiss’s (2007a) Not Meeting Mr Right, which presents the lives of four young Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women in Sydney and thus aims to reveal the debates on ‘urban belonging’ within the novel. In this chapter, this thesis not only intends to innovatively establish (narrative) space as a category of difference by using intersectionality as a methodological instrument but also seeks to intersectionally conflate the categories of spatiality, indigeneity and femininity in order to shed light on the diverse interrelations between indigenous Australians and urban spatiality. As intersectionality “subverts race/gender binaries in the service of theorizing identity in a more complex fashion” (Nash 2008: 2), the examination of Heiss’s text is also designed towards a deconstruction of a binary perception of indigenous and non-indigenous (urban) spatiality and the conceptualisation of urban space as non-indigenous. Since this study locates itself as embedded in a complex web of miscellaneous cultural and methodological contexts and refers to manifold disciplines, it also seeks to be compatible with future fields of indigenous (Australian) narrative, spatial and literary research. The conceptual merging of Aboriginal spatiality with belonging is intended to indicate its applicability in relation to unmentioned aspects of indigenous and non-indigenous lifeworlds, e.g. temporalities or spiritualities. The possibility of implementing spatial belonging within contemporary fiction aims to underline adaptations to other genres or literary epochs. Regarding the analysis of Scott’s novel, it is intended to show the potential refinement of narratological instruments for the investigation of fictional representations of space. By proving the usefulness of ecocriticism for indigenous Australian literatures, the reading of Wright’s text aims at demonstrating the availability of indigenous contexts that are suitable for ecocritical analyses. Concerning the intersectional approach to Heiss’s novel, the inclusion of the spatial parameter as an intersectional category and its use in an indigenous context points to two potential fields of expansion. Hence, this study will point to the applicability of the developed notion of Aboriginal spatial belonging across various disciplines, medial forms and genres as well as spatial and temporal contexts in its final chapter. 27 As an overall aim, this study finally intends to deconstruct binary constructions of indigenous and non-indigenous cultures and seeks to render dichotomising narrative and extratextual perceptions of European and Aboriginal Australian spatiality as too simplistic. This is also in line with observations by scholars like Lynette Russell (2006), who highlights the importance of overcoming binary oppositions within the Australian cultural context: A cultural politics has emerged in […] Australia that is concentrated […] around the binary opposition of the colonized indigenous (or more commonly Aboriginal) and the colonizing diasporic white newcomer […]. Needless to say, this binary is both oversimplified and essentialized. […] Such a polarity offers little hope to the conceptualization of indigenous/nonindigenous relationships where there can be a multitude of subject positions, […] similarities, and differences developing out of ongoing […] exchange. (Ibid. 2) As Russell remarks, these binaries are still prevalent in contemporary discourses and highly influence the view of Australia’s indigenous and non-indigenous population. In order to not affiliate this study with these very recent tendencies, it will follow David Turnbull (2003 [2000]) and his statement “that there is not just one universal form of knowledge (Western science), but a variety of knowledges” and that “a cross-cultural, comparative form of analysis is required to understand our own knowledge traditions” (ibid. 1). Instead of simply imposing Western theories and approaches on Aboriginal literatures, without taking into consideration distinctly indigenous notions of spatiality and belonging, this project aims at conflating insights gained by indigenous and non-indigenous scholars working with Aboriginal Australian novels and the spatial topics these texts negotiate and, in this way, suggest a detailed analysis. With respect to this approach, this thesis is one form of knowledge production, among many others, that aims at mediating between various manifestations and conceptions of spatiality and cultural contexts. Ultimately, just as “the story [by the indigenous artist] is perpetually in motion across the page because storytelling is an open-ended process” (Knudsen 2004: 63), so this study intends not to be a universalist, closed or normative but an open and flexible endeavour hopefully contributing to a lively and perpetual discourse of indigenous Australian literatures and cultures. 1.5 Corpus Selection or Tracing Representations of Spatiality in Contemporary Aboriginal Fiction From the huge variety of contemporary Aboriginal writing from Australia, Kim Scott’s (2012 [2010]) That Deadman Dance, Alexis Wright’s (2009 [2006]) Carpentaria, and Anita Heiss’s (2007a) Not Meeting Mr Right provide adequate objects of research for analysing representations of spatial belonging and thus form the primary corpus of this study. This subchapter aims at legitimating the selection of these texts by answering the following 28 questions: In what way is the genre of the indigenous Australian novel suitable for an examination of literary representations of Aboriginal spatiality? Why do contemporary texts most adequately contribute to the objectives of this thesis? Which kinds of spatial representations do the three novels provide and how do they fit into the overall conceptual and methodological framework of this project? The selection of the novel as the central object of investigation is owing to its textual and medial characteristics. Initially, it is worth noting that “[i]n its dynamic and productive interrelationship with culture, the novel displays both mimetic and poietic potential” (Luh 2013: 24). Together with the acknowledged centrality of space for indigenous literatures and cultures and recent discussions in literary studies and theory, examining Aboriginal novels with a focus on their individual contributions to the (de-)construction and negotiation of indigenous Australian spatiality is recommended. Since the novel as a genre is made up of narratives which are both historically and culturally contingent and always reflect certain worldviews and ideologies (cf. Nünning/Nünning 2007 [2001]: 119), the decision to analyse this form of Aboriginal writing warrants anticipating manifold representations of indigenous Australian spaces that open up innovative perspectives on spatiality as a form of belonging. Russell West-Pavlov (2010b) also suggests such an inextricable connection between text and extratextual world. He draws his readers’ attention to the “reciprocal enablement between narrative and context” (ibid. 59) and further explicates his observation with relation to narrative spatiality: Narratives […] generate their contiguous spaces of narration again and again only because they need those spaces to enable their own narration. The generative activity of narrative, an activity which spawns stories upon stories is not merely active. It is also profoundly dependent upon the spaces in which those stories can be told. The very act of space-creation betrays the debt that narrative owes to the spaces which sustain it. (Ibid.) According to West-Pavlov, narratives are reliant on and could not exist without referring to extratextual spaces as well as spaces inherent in the text. Taking this extraordinary status of spatiality as an argumentative basis suggests distinctly investigating Aboriginal narratives not only with a focus on their production and construction of textual spaces but also their negotiation of cultural and spatial Australian contexts such as Dreaming stories or the relationship between Aboriginal subjects and their environmental surroundings. Considering its historical development, the novel, with regard to its content as well as its form, has also been pluralised and diversified over the centuries and proven to be a viable genre for a plethora of different topics and purposes (cf. Nünning/Nünning 2007 [2001]: 104). As Virginia Woolf (1958) points out in her essay “The Narrow Bridge of Art”, “[t]hat cannibal, the novel which 29 has devoured so many forms of art will by then have devoured even more. We shall be forced to invent new names for the different books which masquerade under this one heading” (ibid. 18). Therefore, the novel can be adapted to innumerable contexts, including the Aboriginal Australian, and, although it is a Western literary genre, consider indigenous, non-Western manifestations of (oral) narratives or Dreaming stories. This means that the novel is the most adequate genre for investigating Aboriginal spaces, because no other literary form features such an inherently polymorphic character that allows an equal, culturally specific adjustment of the text and its relation to the respective non- literary contexts. The volatility of the novel as narrative genre additionally opens up the possibility of discussing new, alternative or even subversive forms of Aboriginal spatiality and belonging because “[d]esigning characters in fictitious timespace has the potential of opening up territory for exploring identity, reaching beyond traditional boundaries, and testing out novel identities” (Bamberg 2009: 133). In this way, indigenous Australian novels are also able to discuss unprecedented perceptions of Aboriginal lifeworlds and point to innovative political, environmental and historical conceptualisations of spatiality and belonging within this context. From the perspective of culture-specificity, the genre of the novel seems suitable for an investigation of Aboriginal spatiality because it conforms with the research objective of working against binary perceptions of indigenous Australian lifeworlds and spaces. This is due to the fact that the Aboriginal novel is a hybrid and complex text type in itself, which emphasises that “[t]he makeup of all contemporary Aboriginal cultures is a complex mix of pre-European and post-European elements in varying degrees across Australia” (Clarke 2003: 209). It relates to the non-indigenous medium of the book, which “arrived in Australia in 1788 with Governor Phillip and the first shiploads of convicts, officials and marines, as did paper, pens and ink” (Webby 2009: 34), but employs this medial form within an indigenous context by incorporating Aboriginal culturally specific narratives from the Dreaming18. This adds another dimension to the complexity of indigenous Australian novels, as oral and written cultures are blended within contemporary narratives and many texts contain Aboriginal stories that were originally transmitted orally from generation to generation. Nevertheless, this does not mean that indigenous Australian cultures were merely oral before the European colonisation, as Penny van Toorn (2009) explicates: Aboriginal people had for thousands of years been engaged in practices of communication and storing and retrieving information that might broadly be called writing and reading. Consequently, […] the arrival of the British in 1788 did not trigger a shift from Aboriginal orality to European literacy, but rather an entanglement between radically different reading and writing cultures. (Ibid. 52) 18 The Dreaming can be defined as “[a] set of origin myths forming the environmental, cultural and legal backbone of Indigenous society” (Martin Renes 2011: 103). 30 Hence, recent Aboriginal writing can be seen as a continuation of a centuries-long production and dissemination of indigenous narratives across various media and fosters a non-binary reading of these stories as embedded in a complex web of diverse histories and traditions of reading and writing. Since space is a central aspect of these indigenous cultures and writings and, as already outlined in the very first paragraphs of this study, created via Aboriginal Dreaming narratives, it highly influences the production of Aboriginal literatures. Due to this inextricable linkage between the narrative form of the Dreaming stories and the construction of indigenous Australian spatiality through these narratives, the novel with its narrative form is the one literary genre that most closely corresponds to the culturally specific context of Aboriginal peoples and is most likely to enable indigenous Australian authors to present fictional negotiations of their own lifeworlds. This means that, due to its medial affiliation with indigenous and non-indigenous cultures and the huge narrative overlap of novels and Aboriginal spatialities, the indigenous Australian novel finally emphasises that binary conceptualisations of space are too simplistic and helps to deconstruct and de-essentialise notions of spatiality in the manner of indigenous vs. non-indigenous. Moreover, it is essential to note that the primary corpus solely comprises very prominent Aboriginal authors and texts. Wright’s and Scott’s texts belong to what might be called an indigenous ‘canon’ in Australia and Heiss’s novel is widely read and popular all over the continent as well. This selection is primarily due to the diversity of spatial issues and manifestations negotiated in these narratives. Nevertheless, the huge impact of these novels on Australian literary discourses has three further advantages. Firstly, the texts chosen have already been discussed with regard to spatiality as well as many other topics19. This leads, secondly, to the possibility of drawing on a great variety of indigenous and non-indigenous opinions and already existing analyses, which is particularly relevant as this study is carried out from a Western perspective. Thirdly, the popularity of the primary corpus leads to the assumption that the spatial topics addressed in the texts are able to influence and shape discourses on the Aboriginal politics of land, country and environment and thus have a relevance for pan-Australian debates on spatiality. Taking a look at the history of (indigenous) Australian literatures, the concentration on novels seems reasonable from that perspective, too. When regarding the overall progression of the continent’s literary history, the novel has played a major role throughout the last century; according to Richard Nile and Jason Ensor (2009): There seems to be little to dispute the assertion that, despite the often challenging conditions of writing 19 For a thorough overview of secondary literature dealing with the primary corpus of this thesis, see 1.2. 31 and publication, the novel became Australia’s essential literary form from this time [the early 20th century]. Its centrality to Australian literary culture has persisted through many changes in tastes, technologies and markets into the 21st century. (Ibid. 520) Spanning a time frame from the early 20th century up to today, Nile and Ensor mark the novel as Australia’s most important genre and encourage an investigation into its manifold forms and subgenres from a literary studies perspective, indirectly including a focus on narrative representations of spatiality. Although the passage does not mention Aboriginal novels in particular, the huge influence of this genre on the production of Australian literatures gives reason to expect a similar status of novels in the field of indigenous texts, too. Keeping in mind these developments, the distinct focus on contemporary texts seems reasonable, as “[s]ince the early 1980s, the burgeoning interest in and publication of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writing across a number of genres […] has become increasingly well established” (Grossman 2003: 1). The unprecedented engagement with indigenous cultural production, along with the multiplicity of Aboriginal texts published, leads to the establishment of Aboriginal writing, including novels, as one of the most influential branches of contemporary Australian literatures. Texts like Sally Morgan’s (2004 [1987]) My Place, in which the author traces the Aboriginal history of her family, or Ruby Langford Ginibi’s (2007 [1988]) memoir Don’t Take Your Love to Town became Australian bestsellers and laid the foundations for a growing popularity of indigenous writing. Taking a closer look at the recent developments in Aboriginal literatures, indigenous Australian writer Anita Heiss (2003) presents the following evaluation of its genre-specificity: Considering the number of published poets and autobiographers we have, it would be hard to ignore these as our main genres for writing, but as we move more into fiction, […] this is changing. Aboriginal writers are telling their stories through the printed word in poetry, fiction, autobiography and biography, essays, histories, short stories, plays and film scripts. (Ibid. 35) Even though Heiss also and very clearly states that Aboriginal writers “are st