AustLit

'In 1984, artist Krim Benterrak, a Moroccan Berber resident in Australia since 1977, white Australian academic Stephen Muecke, and Aboriginal Australian Paddy Roe published Reading the Country: Introduction to Nomadology, (q.v.) dedicating the volume 'To the/nomads of Broome, always there and/always on the move'. Movement sets the course of the book. Hearing Aborigine Paddy Roe's expression for the production of Aboriginal culture, 'We must make these things move', Muecke 'reflect[s] on the potentially static nature of our project: the production of a whiteman's artefact, a book' and askes himself, 'How could I make this thing move?' (p. 148)

'In Australia, reconciliation between Aboriginal and European Australians has become a field of dominant utopian discourses in the public sphere. Not unexpectedly, reconciliation has become a significant theme for contemporary white Australian travel writers. But the meaning of reconciliation is not uniform or uncontested, and discourses of reconciliation have evolved in response to significant political events. This chapter examines how the discourse of reconciliation becomes manifest in recent travel narratives, and how the 'script' of the performance of reconciliation has changed subtly over time.' (p. 167)