Cirrus@Austlit

The article challenges the separation of indigenous and migrant discourses and communities through an exploration of the cross-cultural partnerships and alliances between Indigenous and Asian peoples within Australia. It examines the historical links forged between Aboriginal communities and Asian seafarers in the colonies and with non-European migrant communities. It also examines various literary works, the visual arts and other cultural productions in order to outline the conflicts and points of solidarity that structure contemporary relations between Aboriginal and Asian Australians. The last part of the article argues 'for a new imagining of nation that neither separates nor entirely equates Indigenous and Asian peoples and discourses' (58).

This article compares the Australian publication of Walg (1983) and an unabridged version which appeared in German a year earlier, Der Schoss, translated by Annemarie Böll from the original manuscript of the novel. It concludes that whereas the original manuscript and its German translation contained 'colonialist pornography, racialism and racism', appropriated anthropological material and forged a new mythology, the revised Australian version turned out to become quite a different book, a censored version. The author argues that this needs to be considered in a critical assessment of the novel and its author.