6/10/2023 0 Comments Claire coleman terra nullius![]() Terra Nullius disrupts the Aboriginal-Settler binary in the second half of the novel. Her deft depictions of the colonial archive – of atrocities so in keeping with their time and place – take the narrative into an apocalyptic future settlement that reminds us that the first invasion has yet to be resolved.Ĭoleman's clever collapsing of time into a swirling mish-mash of past, present and future reflects an Aboriginal realism that defies linear time and says clearly that for the Indigenous people all times are important on Country and no time has been properly resolved. ![]() The early chapters are dense as Coleman draws parallels with current affairs and real-life situations, but the pace picks up in the second half when she charts an unexpected social change. As Jacky runs, he sweeps a set of chaotic narratives together as he evades trackers, troopers and local militia. The story opens with Jacky, a slave, stolen from his parents at a young age, fleeing into a parched, unforgiving landscape from a mission run by a murderous nun. But as the temporal setting of the narrative shifts midway through, the reader is jolted into reading an impending future where the known history of colonial conquest is repeated by a second-wave of settlers – a terra nullius reoccurring. ![]()
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