The evolution of historical redescription in Israel and Australia: The question of the ‘founding violence’

This article compares two processes of historiographical redescription. Two themes appear central to each: the final acknowledgement of the dispossession of the Indigenous inhabitants—what can be defined as the ‘founding violence'—and the defective nature of the legitimacy of the institutions of the state until a settlement with the dispossessed is finally reached. The ‘founding violence’ emerges in both cases as a crucial site for the production and reproduction of historical and historiographical discourses—a contested ground in the process of redefinition of national identity. Historical revisionisms and deadlocked ‘reconciliations'’