'THIS WEEK'S HOTTEST NEW RELEASES: Murder befouls the outback... [A] gripping work of true crime.' -USA TODAY
Return to Uluru explores a cold case that strikes at the heart of white supremacy-the death of an Aboriginal man in 1934; the iconic life of a white, 'outback' police officer; and the continent's most sacred and mysterious landmark.
Inside Cardboard Box 39 at the South Australian Museum's storage facility lies the forgotten skull of an Aboriginal man who died eighty-five years before. His misspelled name is etched on the crown, but the many bones in boxes around him remain unidentified. Who was Yokununna, and how did he die? His story reveals the layered, exploitative white Australian mindset that has long rendered Aboriginal reality all but invisible.
When policeman Bill McKinnon's Aboriginal prisoners escape in 1934, he's determined to get them back. Tracking them across the so called 'dead heart' of the country, he finds the men at Uluru, a sacred rock formation. What exactly happened there remained a mystery, even after a Commonwealth inquiry. But Mark McKenna's research uncovers new evidence, getting closer to the truth, revealing glimpses of indigenous life, and demonstrating the importance of this case today. Using McKinnon's private journal entries, McKenna paints a picture of the police officer's life to better understand how white Australians treat the center of the country and its inhabitants.
Return to Uluru dives deeply into one cold case. But it also provides a searing indictment of the historical white supremacy still present in Australia-and has fascinating, illuminating parallels to the growing racial justice movements in the United States.
A killing. A hidden history. A story that goes to the heart of the nation.
When Mark McKenna set out to write a history of the centre of Australia, he had no idea what he would discover. One event in 1934 – the shooting at Uluru of Aboriginal man Yokununna by white policeman Bill McKinnon, and subsequent Commonwealth inquiry – stood out as a mirror of racial politics in the Northern Territory at the time. But then, through speaking with the families of both killer and victim, McKenna unearthed new evidence that transformed the historical record and the meaning of the event for today. As he explains, ‘Every thread of the story connected to the present in surprising ways.' In a sequence of powerful revelations, McKenna explores what truth-telling and reconciliation look like in practice.
Return to Uluru brings a cold case to life. It speaks directly to the Black Lives Matter movement, but is completely Australian. Recalling Chloe Hooper's The Tall Man, it is superbly written, moving, and full of astonishing, unexpected twists. Ultimately it is a story of recognition and return, which goes to the very heart of the country. At the centre of it all is Uluru, the sacred site where paths fatefully converged.
“I feel sure that this book will become an Australian classic, not the first of its kind, but certainly the most powerful narrative I have read of frontier injustice and its resonance in our lives today.” MARCIA LANGTON
“Mark McKenna has exposed the wounded heart of Australia. Never has a history of our country so assumed the power of sacred myth. Return to Uluru is a spellbinding story of death and resurrection that is Australian to its core.” JAMES BOYCE
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