Assistant Professor Travis Franks recently published an article in ariel: A Review of International English Literature. Travis’s article, “Remaking Contact in That Deadman Dance: Australian Reconciliation Politics, Noongar Welcoming Protocol, and Makarrata,” considers how Noongar novelist Kim Scott’s That Deadman Dance (2010) decenters settler contact narratives and moves Aboriginal literary imaginings to the center. In so doing, Travis argues, Scott draws attention to the “superficial performativity of settler-centric reconciliation politics” and calls for narratives that engage at a deeper level with Aboriginal concerns.

Travis says, “I love Kim Scott’s writing so much. The novel is about Aboriginal (Noongar) people and the British colonization of Western Australia, but I think my article might appeal to anyone here who's interested in reconciliation politics, land acknowledgements, etc. That's been happening in Australia for a while now and I talk about it in some detail in relation to the novel.”