Reading Sovereignty in the Fiction of Tara June Winch ...

• Main Author: Compton, Sophia
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: UNSW Sydney 2023
• Subjects: First Nations Literature; Tara June Winch; First Nations Sovereignty; Aboriginal Literature; Aboriginal Women's Fiction; Aboriginal Sovereignty; Settler Readings; 450109 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literature, journalism and professional writing; First Nations
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/25042; http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/101335

The Australian Government’s recent commitment to the 2017 Uluru Statement from The Heart suggests that relations between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the Australian nation state may be at a turning point. However, missing from these burgeoning discussions in mainstream (settler-colonial) discourse is any developed or nuanced understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sovereignties. In this thesis, I propose that literary portrayals of First Nations sovereignties can be read within a range of Aboriginal authored contemporary fiction. I suggest that these texts create a unique space wherein settler Australians can gain an understanding of the complexities around this concept, particularly related to First Nations spiritualities and relationships to Country. To do this I focus on Wiradjuri woman Tara June Winch’s two novels, Swallow the Air (2006) and The Yield (2019) – work that has not yet received the scholarly attention it deserves. I explore the novels’ portrayals of First ...