ABSTRACT
The history of the Australian nation, like most other nations, comprises traumatic pasts, and the darkest of these is the history of colonialism. The impact of oral history on distance in historical work has been all the more profound when the past being related is a traumatic one. This chapter argues the outcome of this Stolen Generations narrative entailed, at least for most of its tellers, limited historical understanding; acting out of, rather than working through, the past; and melancholy rather than mourning. Historical approach enables proximity and distance, and by integrating affect and analysis it offers the possibility of constructing a history and mourning the past. The chapter argues that the problem of the Australian patient has been caused by the fact that has too much and too little distance from traumatic pasts. It discusses the manner in which most practitioners of the discipline of history have conventionally gone about the work of relating and relating to the past.
