Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

The Indigenous Aboriginal Detective: A Literary Overview

A number of unique voices effectively co-opted the genre of contemporary Australian crime fiction for Indigenous title during the 1990s. Works by Philip McLaren, Mudrooroo, and Sally Morgan, among others, contributed to the liberation of the formerly displaced Indigenous voice in the realisation of Indigenous detectives as strong protagonists of a particular literary type. These writers, then as now, occupy unique positions as Indigenous Australians and as internationally published authors of fiction. Their works remain the focus of robust and extensive critical review and literary enquiry because their perspectives effectively explore postcolonialism from the inside-out. The novels and short stories under examination here bear out both a patriotic obligation to Aboriginal Australians and an ongoing engagement with the complexities of Aboriginal cultures while simultaneously moving the genre of crime fiction forward by situating Aboriginal protagonists at the forefront of crime detection. Importantly, these literary protagonists—Gary and Lisa in Scream Black Murder (1995), Sally Morgan in My Place (1989) and Detective Watson Holmes Jackamara in “Westralian Lead” (1990), “The Healer” (1991) and “Home on the Range” (1993)—also offer original counterpoints to the “black-tracker” construction in Anglo-Celtic crime fiction; those stories feature real-life individuals and actual investigations.