ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a close reading of Doris Kartinyeri’s autobiography Kick the Tin and Jane Harrison’s drama Stolen. It argues that the mediated immediacy implied in this inflected form of life history makes it the most political art form. The chapter suggests that the generic division allows for reconfiguring the self-representation of the Stolen Generations thereby echoing what Paul John Eakin defines as ‘making selves’. It details the forms and functions of fictional life histories by exploring whether writing one’s life initiates a healing process for the individual, and to what extent drama’s double project of rewriting and performing opens a political space for unveiling the hidden histories of the Stolen Generations.
