Cirrus@Austlit

'This article first explores the place of stories and poetry in constructing nationalism, examines some early instances of pioneering in poetry, then focuses on the ways pride in pioneering was expressed in communities in the years before federation. In particular, this paper emphasises the literacy of the gold rush generation, the cultural importance they attached to pioneering, and what that meant politically.' (95)

'This paper explores the work of Matilda Evans, a prolific writer of domestic novels, and argues for her books' highly political status as works that were engaged in narrating the "nation" in nineteenth-century South Australia and creating a foundational narrative for the young settler community. The body of literature Evans produced represents a homely, familiar South Australian landscape and its ideal colonists. In these texts, Indigenous peoples are almost totally absent. Within Evans's texts, belonging is evaluated according to the criteria of middle-class domesticity. By these benchmarks, the presence of Idigenous people in South Australia is contested and their rights of belonging are denied. Evans's words, far from being trivial, are seen as performing the ideological work of "Terra Nullius".' (105)