Cirrus@Austlit

'In defining Australian national identity, two issues of major concern are simply inevitable. One is Australia’s link with the British Empire and British culture; the other is the relation of the white people with other ethnicities, particularly with the Australian aborigines. Both issues have played significant and even decisive roles in Australian national history, and both cast shadows over the contemporary Australian mind. Discussion of Aboriginal history should not be restricted to its own ethnic culture, tradition and identity alone; instead, it should include as a necessary part of its concern how the aborigines have helped define white identity in history and how they found their way into the Australian national consciousness. Among the many Australian authors who take up the task of representing either early Australian history or the colonizing of the Aborigines, Thomas Keneally is one of the few who weave both into his narrative. ' (159-160)