This highly original book shows that Australian art, and the writing of its history, has since settlement been in a dialog (although often submerged) with Aboriginal art and culture, and that this dialog is inextricably interwoven with the struggle to find an identity in the antipodes. McLean argues that the colonizing culture invested far more in indigenous aspects of the country and its inhabitants than it has been willing to admit. He considers artists and their work within their cultural context, and in light of contemporary theory.