Uncanny Australia: Sacredness and Identity in a Postcolonial Nation

TLDR

Aboriginal claims for sacredness in modern Australia, though seemingly minor, have profoundly disrupted the nation’s self‑image, creating an uncanny sense where minorities appear overly influential and familiar aspects become unsettling. The authors aim to demonstrate how Aboriginal sacred claims ripple through and shape the fortunes and misfortunes of contemporary Australia. They analyze case studies such as Coronation Hill, Hindmarsh Island, Uluru, and sacred object repatriation, exploring themes of secret commerce, contested sacred sites, mythic entities, nostalgic mapping, reconciliation, democracy, postcolonial racism, and New Age enchantments. The book concludes that Aboriginal sacredness profoundly inhabits and reshapes modern Australia, offering a novel perspective on national identity.

Abstract

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