Stolen Ground

This book offers a rare, direct confrontation with the most fundamental issue facing Australians: namely, the often-avoided issue of reparations and what settler Australia owes for colonization.Offering deep, comprehensive coverage of the histories and present politics of settler colonialism in Australia, award winning scholar Elise Klein steps non-Indigenous readers through the case for, and dimensions of, reparations. Through a series of short, digestible chapters containing illustrative vignettes and explanations articulated in clear, straightforward prose, Klein shows how the settler economy of Australia relies on stolen land, stolen labour and stolen lives; and how intergenerational wealth transfer, the gendered expropriation of unpaid Indigenous care, global capital flows and ecological destruction, and even one-off compensation payments continue to entrench settler colonialism and settler advantage more and more deeply. Ultimately, Klein shows how reparations--not only the redistribution of prosperity but also a remaking of the colonial economy and society in Australia--offer a concrete pathway towards genuine transformative justice and a better future for all. Stolen Ground contributes to global debates around reparations by drawing connections with movements for reparations for colonial violence and slavery elsewhere in the world, ultimately locating settler colonialism in Australia within broader circuits of ongoing coloniality, ecological demise, and global imperialism.