They and other Native and Indigenous writers of SF challenge Western conceptions of historical reality, time and space, and the very universe itself, intending to liberate the past, present, and future from the tyranny of linearity, false history, and binary logic. The interventions Vizenor initiated in Bearheart, and that Coleman develops in Terra Nullius, expand the horizons of speculative fiction and SF to include Indigenous ontological frameworks predicated on radically different conceptions of the world and reality. In much the same way that Vizenor infused Anishinaabe epistemology and other forms of Indigenous knowledge in his writing, featuring “trickster hermeneutics” that overturn the “terminal creeds” of American and European imperialism in the Americas, Coleman offers readers a Noongar Aboriginal perspective on Australian history that challenges colonial conceptions of history. Vizenor’s story also serves as a reminder that colonialism is not a destination but an ongoing process, a point Coleman reiterates in Terra Nullius.

Responding to the economic chaos, geopolitical instability, and warfare resulting from conflicts over oil and other nonrenewable resources in the 1970s, Vizenor’s story offered a glimpse into the future of Native writing, on the “slipstream” of history, as he called it. COLEMAN’S 2017 novel Terra Nullius joins a body of texts expanding on Gerald Vizenor’s groundbreaking 1978 apocalypse novel, Darkness in Saint Louis: Bearheart.

She wrote her black&write! fellowship- winning manuscript Terra Nullius while traveling around Australia in a caravan.CLAIRE G.

Claire grew up in a Forestry's settlement in the middle of a tree plantation, where her dad worked, not far out of Perth. Her family are associated with the area around Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun. She identifies with the South Coast Noongar people. Coleman is a writer from Western Australia. All he had was a sense of what was behind, what he was running from. There was no sense he was getting anywhere, no plan, no destination, no future. There was no thought in his head, only an intense drive to run. Shortlisted for the 2018 Stella Prize Indie Book Awards and Highly Commended for the Victorian Premiers Literary Awards, Terra Nullius is an incredible debut from a striking new Australian Aboriginal voice. Terra Nullius is something new, but all too familiar. This is not the Australia of the history books. The Settlers are eager to have a nation of peace and to bring the savages into line. NPR Best Books of 2018 'Coleman's timely debut is testimony to the power of an old story seen afresh through new eyes.' - Adelaide Advertiser 'In our politically tumultuous time, the novel's themes of racism, inherent humanity and freedom are particularly poignant.' - Books + Publishing The Natives of the Colony are restless.

Terra nullius claire g coleman