Terra Nullius: Colonial Violence in Prynne’s <i>Acrylic Tips</i>

Abstract

Examining J.H. Prynne’s Acrylic Tips through a series of analogous readings, this paper identifies the location, characters, and themes of the poem. By examining the poem and the contiguities with Her Weasel’s Wild Returning, Acrylic Tips is positioned against the historical decree of terra nullius over the sovereign land of Australia. The poem is read against and situated in the colonial and linguistic history of Australia. Read as a pastoral elegy, the poem depicts a hierarchy of human dominance over nature, which finds its ends in the colonial shearing shed, as well as the genetic laboratory. These positions are ultimately argued to be socio-political by-products of the colonial dominance of Indigenous culture and nature.