Taking a lens to the chase in Australian settler state colonialism

• Main Authors: Anthony, Thalia, Tranter, Kieran
• Other Authors: Weinert, Kim D., Crawley, Karen
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Routledge 2020
• Subjects: Settler State; Australia; First Nations
• Online Access: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/206961/

This chapter takes a lens to the chase in Australian settler state colonialism. It examines the structure and role of the chase in the performance and maintenance of the settler state through and over First Nations lives and bodies. The chase is a profoundly normative, yet flexible, narrative structure. Through representing a pursuit, the chase encodes notions of right, wrong, justice and injustice. In the Australian context, the chase tends to be quite rigid. Through an examination of filmic chases and actual chases witnessed through settler state legal, media and social media lenses, the chapter shows a racialized chase where incensed and angry agents of the settler state chase First Nations persons. Often the First Nations chasee is seeking to escape the imposed settler colonial order and its burdens and return to a place of cultural identity. Too often, the chase ends in the death of the First Nations young person, while the agents of the settler state endure.