Conclusion

Abstract

The conclusion reprises the three narrative threads of the book: a history of attempts by scientists to understand the original occupants of the Australian continent, a shorter history of attempts by Indigenous activists and their allies to claim their civil and human rights, and the story of ghostly presences, spectral tendencies, and outright hauntings that complicate the linear narratives of the first two threads. The protagonists of the first two parallel histories wish to see themselves as moving inexorably toward truer knowledge (on the part of scientists) or truer justice (on the part of Indigenous activists). But the past and the present will not cease to intrude on each other, to the consternation of everyone. In weaving these narrative layers together—scientific discovery, antiracist change, and ghostly presences—the book has told stories of attempts to move beyond a past that can never be completely left behind.