Legal Fiction examines how a white Australian nation did not simply emerge as an incidental result of colonial takeover; it was strategically cultivated. Centred on the legal doctrine of terra nullius, the work traces how the fiction of an empty continent became the foundation for a medical and political agenda that developed into a social obsession throughout the 20th century, deliberately maintained to protect the new white population arriving in Australia.
The book features archival photography to explore the obsessive scientific practices of measuring and categorising 'whiteness' to determine where white Australians should live and work during the early 20th century. Each book also contains a centre fold-out, added by hand, which documents some of the sites that were used to house children of The Stolen Generation, a period in Australia’s history in which thousands of First Nations children were forcibly removed from their families and communities under the guise of state protection.
Edition of 30 copies
Softcover Red Colorplan
84 French-Fold pages
21 x 28 cm
$100 AUD
Legal Fiction examines how a white Australian nation did not simply emerge as an incidental result of colonial takeover; it was strategically cultivated. Centred on the legal doctrine of terra nullius, the work traces how the fiction of an empty continent became the foundation for a medical and political agenda that developed into a social obsession throughout the 20th century, deliberately maintained to protect the new white population arriving in Australia.
The book features archival photography to explore the obsessive scientific practices of measuring and categorising 'whiteness' to determine where white Australians should live and work during the early 20th century. Each book also contains a centre fold-out, added by hand, which documents some of the sites that were used to house children of The Stolen Generation, a period in Australia’s history in which thousands of First Nations children were forcibly removed from their families and communities under the guise of state protection.
Edition of 30 copies
Softcover Red Colorplan
84 French-Fold pages
21 x 28 cm
$100 AUD