Nationalism,Aesthetic Redemption and Aboriginality

In this paper I analyse some contemporary cultural constructions of the Australian national psyche and how these involve constructions of the otherness of Aboriginality and of modernity. In particular, I am interested in analysing how the spiritualised otherness of Aboriginality is produced and employed within nationalist discourses which are concerned with establishing the cultural integrity and authenticity of Australian culture. Aborigines have became a cultural category to be used within discourses which assign themselves a redemptive function in relationship to curing the ravages inflicted by modernity.