Law is Story: indigeneity and narrative jurisprudence in Australia after Mabo

The thesis uses a theoretical framework drawn from 'law and literature' studies to explore the intersections between law, narrative and race in post-Mabo Australia. It examines six texts - the reports of two quasi-judicial inquiries and four fictional narratives by Indigenous novelists - and develops a narrative jurisprudence analysis by considering the ways that legal doctrine is problematised when it encounters the stories of people whose knowledge and experience have been marginalised at law. The thesis contends that narrative has been an effective means through which Indigenous peoples have highlighted injustice and articulated aspirations for legal change in post-Mabo Australia.