****THIS WEEK'S HOTTEST NEW RELEASES: Murder befouls the outback...
[A] gr**ipping work of true crime. **--USA TODAY ****
Return to Uluru explores a cold case that strikes at the heart of
white supremacy--the death of an Aboriginal man in 1934; the iconic life
of a white, outback police officer; and the continent's most sacred and
mysterious landmark.
Inside Cardboard Box 39 at the South Australian Museum's storage
facility lies the forgotten skull of an Aboriginal man who died
eighty-five years before. His misspelled name is etched on the crown,
but the many bones in boxes around him remain unidentified. Who was
Yokununna, and how did he die? His story reveals the layered,
exploitative white Australian mindset that has long rendered Aboriginal
reality all but invisible.
When policeman Bill McKinnon's Aboriginal prisoners escape in 1934, he's
determined to get them back. Tracking them across the so called dead
heart of the country, he finds the men at Uluru, a sacred rock
formation. What exactly happened there remained a mystery, even after a
Commonwealth inquiry. But Mark McKenna's research uncovers new evidence,
getting closer to the truth, revealing glimpses of indigenous life, and
demonstrating the importance of this case today. Using McKinnon's
private journal entries, McKenna paints a picture of the police
officer's life to better understand how white Australians treat the
center of the country and its inhabitants.
Return to Uluru dives deeply into one cold case. But it also provides
a searing indictment of the historical white supremacy still present in
Australia--and has fascinating, illuminating parallels to the growing
racial justice movements in the United States.
