Reimagining Aboriginality in the Circus Space

Holland explores the politics of Australian Aboriginal identity as mediated and reconstructed by the circus in the late 19th century. She discusses the complex and multifaceted readings of racial positioning in 19th century Australia through the life of Harry Cardella--her great-grandfather--and the politics of his position with regard to the circus where, it could be argued, he became a commodity as the "exotic other."