The opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Sydney showed that indigenous issues and Aboriginal culture have become fashionable accompaniments to contemporary expressions of Australian national identity.

Reconcilation has become so much of a commonplace saying that for many its true meaning has been lost or at the very least obscured. The reconciling of black and white Australians is only truly possible if we analyse and theorise the colonial construction of the nation's power structures. This book begins this process by considering how we know what we think we know about Aboriginal Australia, and suggests ways that we might break out of the constraints of colonialism.