Dispossession by air: Aero-nationalism, settler colonialism, and First Nations

This paper examines the role of aviation in the dispossessory practices of child removals from Indigenous families and communities in Australia. Synthesising Indigenous and non-Indigenous histories hitherto examined separately, the paper connects aero-nationalism and settler colonialism with First Nations experiences of the aviation industry and its development in Australia. I examine the role of air travel in facilitating child removals and aviation’s cultural, technological, political, and social impacts as interdependent with settler colonisation. The paper interrogates the aero-imaginaries of settler publics and how these overwrite Indigenous histories, mobility, and technological knowledge. I situate child removals within practices of settler infrastructural incursion to illustrate theviolence of aviation on First Nations populations.