No foreign country: Indigenous history is essential to counter neoliberal ideology

The Quarterly Essay has become something of a literary institution in the world of Australian affairs since the first one rolled off the press in 2001. Focussing on the Uluru Statement from the Heart - with its call for a Makarrata Commission to supervise agreement-making and truth-telling about history, and a First Nations "Voice" to advise parliament on Indigenous matters - McKenna argues that the gradual shift of Indigenous Australians "from the periphery of Australia's national imagination to its centre" has been "the most significant shift in Australia's historical consciousness since European settlement began." The first effect of exploring their connections is the recognition that Australia's history looks different to people of Australia's First Nations - particularly the idea of "government." But while Australia's history stands as evidence of the importance of government to economic development, "only a trickle of that wealth," as Gunditjmara woman Jill Gallagher points out, reached Indigenous communities. The "fuller expression of Australia's nationhood" envisioned by the Uluru Statement would more likely be achieved in the revived democratic context that Richard Denniss envisages.