Return to Uluru

A killing. A hidden history. A story that goes to the heart of the nation.

When Mark McKenna set out to write a history of the centre of Australia, he had no idea what he would discover. The shooting at Uluru of Aboriginal man Yokunnuna by white policeman Bill McKinnon in 1934 and the subsequent Commonwealth inquiry appeared to typify racial politics in the Northern Territory at the time. However, McKenna's conversations with the families of both killer and victim unearthed new evidence that transformed both the historical record and the meaning of the event for today. As he explains, "Every thread of the story connected to the present in surprising ways." In a sequence of powerful revelations, McKenna explores what truth-telling and reconciliation look like in practice.

Pages: 272, Hardback

Published: 2021