Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

Abstract

Indigenous voices emerged within Australian detective fiction with the greatest clarity in the 1990s. This chapter examines the figure of the Indigenous Aboriginal detective created by Indigenous writers as an underrepresented character and speaking subject within Australian detective fiction that both traverses and disrupts conventional elements of literary style. Certainly, the conventional characteristic elements of crime genre are present within detective fiction written by Indigenous writers, but this literary post-colonialist analysis explores how Indigenous writers such as Mudrooroo (“The Westralian,” “The Healer,” and “Home on the Range”), Philip McLaren (Scream Black Murder), and Sally Morgan (My Place) juxtaposed elements of style to both highlight constructs of reality in Australian detective fiction while simultaneously providing fresh perspectives on both the Indigenous detective as a figure of political interest and Australian Indigenous detective fiction as political writing.