ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how Ginibi embodied Nicole Watson’s concept of ‘Indigenous women’s outlaw culture’ in her writing. The chapter focuses on Ginibi’s book Haunted by the Past, which analyses the experiences of her son, Nobby, and other Aboriginal men in the criminal justice system. Ginibi’s writing operates from a position outside the law, at one level directly confronting ‘the white injustice system’ and at another level confronting the unwritten laws that order civic whiteness and its norms of genre, gender, class and race. The author dissects how Haunted by the Past intertwines personal narratives with broader historical and legal discourses, presenting an alternative genealogy of the Australian prison system that challenges settler law’s conceptions of innocence and credibility.
