Description
This paper is about the ‘repeating islands’ of Australia. It traces the role of islands in the constitution of Australia’s settler-colonial borders. It argues that since British settlement, a particular island imagination has occupied a prominent place in the constitution of Australia’s exclusive borders. The paper shows how the islands surrounding the mainland were colonised, emptied, and reassembled as sites of incarceration, leprosy colonies, Indigenous reserves, medical institutions, and internment camps. By investigating how islands have performed a series of possible realities, the paper seeks to understand how they define Australian space and identity, and in doing so, it shows that the historical origins of Australia’s contemporary carceral borders.
