The evolution of historical redescription in Israel and Australia - The question of the 'founding violence'

This article compares two processes of historiographical redescription. Two themes appear central to each: the final acknowledgement of the dispossession of the Indigenous inhabitants-what can be defined as the 'founding violence'-and the defective nature of the legitimacy of the institutions of the state until a settlement with the dispossessed is finally reached. The 'founding violence' emerges in both cases as a crucial site for the production and reproduction of historical and historiographical discourses-a contested ground in the process of redefinition of national identity.