Speculating reality: a review of Claire Coleman’s "Terra Nullius"

Samantha Lejeune

doi:10.5130/nesais.v5i1.1578

Abstract

Fiction has the power to show the reality of people’s experiences and spark emotion in those who read it. Speculative fiction especially has been used to observe our political and cultural climate and project an image of what is possible, even probable, through speculating about worlds that are unlike our own reality. My shelf is filled with speculative dystopian novels; George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, exploring surveillance and censorship in an authoritarian State, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, studying conservative approaches that tyrannize women. Terra Nullius, written by Wirlomin Noongar woman, Claire Coleman, sits beside these classics in its own right, detailing the dystopia generated by colonialism in Australia.

Highlights

NEW: Emerging scholars in Australian Indigenous Studies is a Student Journal from UTS ePRESS showcasing outstanding student works
Coleman’s parallels between the reality of British invasion and the dystopian experience prove to the reader that Aboriginal people are living in their own post-apocalyptic world
Intergenerational trauma - trauma transferred from the first generation of survivors directly experiencing traumatic events to further generations - ‘reduces the capacity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to fully and positively participate in their lives and communities’ (Healing Foundation 2013)

Summary

Introduction

NEW: Emerging scholars in Australian Indigenous Studies is a Student Journal from UTS ePRESS showcasing outstanding student works. Coleman’s use of the genre challenges the history of British invasion to expose the devastating trauma endured by Aboriginal people throughout these encounters. Analogies to Australia’s colonisation are used as a strategy to create this dystopian environment, which emphasises the violence and confusion that Aboriginal people endured.

Results

Conclusion