How does Malouf re-imagine Australian colonial history in Remembering Babylon ?
How does Malouf re-imagine Australian colonial history– David Malouf’s Remembering Babylon is one of the most profound literary works to come out of late twentieth-century Australian fiction. It is a meditation on identity, belonging, cultural encounter, and the fragile boundaries between civilization and wilderness. Through this novel, Malouf does not merely retell history — he reimagines it, using fiction to explore the psychological and moral complexities of Australia’s colonial past.
By weaving together the story of a European boy raised among Aboriginal people and his subsequent encounter with white settlers, Malouf transforms historical events into a broader philosophical reflection on what it means to be human, civilized, and part of a community. His novel becomes a space where colonial history is revisited, interrogated, and humanized — a space where the boundaries of culture, race, and belonging are blurred.
Historical Background and Setting
Set in the mid-19th century in a remote Queensland settlement, Remembering Babylon opens with a dramatic scene: a ragged figure, half-naked and sun-blackened, stumbles toward a group of white children, declaring, “Do not shoot. I am a British object!”
This man is Gemmy Fairley, an English cabin boy who was shipwrecked as a child and lived for sixteen years among the Aboriginal people. His sudden reappearance among the settlers triggers deep fear, curiosity, and reflection.
Through this narrative, Malouf revisits a key historical moment — the early period of colonial expansion when European settlers were struggling to understand, control, and survive the Australian landscape. The novel’s rural setting mirrors the isolation and tension of frontier life, where settlers felt trapped between the familiarity of European culture and the alien vastness of the Australian wilderness.
Malouf uses this backdrop to explore the psychological dimensions of colonization — not just the physical conquest of land, but also the internal struggle to define identity in a world where boundaries are uncertain.
Reimagining Colonial Encounters
How does Malouf re-imagine Australian colonial history-Unlike traditional colonial narratives that glorify exploration and settlement, Remembering Babylon questions and destabilizes these heroic myths. Malouf presents colonization as a deeply unsettling process — one that disorients both the colonizers and the colonized.
Gemmy’s character embodies this tension. He is neither entirely white nor Aboriginal; he occupies a liminal space between two worlds. His presence among the settlers becomes a mirror reflecting their anxieties about racial purity, civilization, and the fear of “going native.”
For the settlers, Gemmy represents the terrifying possibility of contamination — that the line separating them from the Aboriginal people is thinner than they believe. This fear is vividly expressed through their reactions: suspicion, hostility, and even violence.
Through this, Malouf reimagines colonial history not as a tale of conquest but as a psychological crisis — a moment when European identity begins to fracture under the weight of the unknown. The settlers’ obsession with defining themselves against the Aboriginal “other” reveals how fragile their sense of civilization truly is.
The Land as a Living Presence
One of the most striking features of Malouf’s reimagining of colonial history is his portrayal of the Australian landscape. In Remembering Babylon, the land is not a passive backdrop but an active, almost spiritual presence.
To the settlers, the land is alien, threatening, and incomprehensible — a place they must tame and cultivate. But to the Aboriginal people, and eventually to Gemmy, the land is alive — a web of stories, spirits, and connections.
Malouf’s descriptions of the landscape are lyrical and symbolic. The environment mirrors the settlers’ inner turmoil: its vastness represents both freedom and terror. For Gemmy, however, the land is home — he has learned to move through it with ease and reverence.
In this contrast, Malouf rewrites the colonial myth of “terra nullius” — the idea that Australia was an empty land waiting to be claimed. Instead, he portrays it as a deeply inhabited and spiritually resonant space, misunderstood by European eyes.
By giving the land a voice and agency, Malouf challenges the historical mindset that viewed nature as something to be conquered. His reimagined history is thus ecological as well as human — emphasizing coexistence rather than domination.
Hybridity and the Question of Identity
How does Malouf re-imagine Australian colonial history– A key theme in Remembering Babylon is hybridity — the blending of cultures and the transformation of identity. Gemmy’s life between two worlds becomes a metaphor for Australia itself: a land where identities are fluid and boundaries uncertain.
Gemmy cannot fully belong to either group. To the settlers, he is contaminated by his association with the Aboriginal people. To the Aboriginals, he is an outsider who can never entirely share their spiritual understanding of the land.
Through Gemmy, Malouf exposes the artificial nature of racial and cultural divisions. He shows that identity is not fixed but constantly negotiated, shaped by experience and environment.
Other characters, like the McIvors (Jock and Janet) and their children, begin to sense this truth. Janet, in particular, perceives a spiritual connection between Gemmy and the land. She understands that civilization and savagery are not opposites but part of a shared human spectrum.
By reimagining history through the lens of hybridity, Malouf dismantles the rigid binaries of colonial thought — civilized/savage, white/black, self/other — and replaces them with a vision of interconnected humanity.
Language, Silence, and Communication
Language plays a crucial role in Malouf’s reimagining of colonial history. In the novel, communication between settlers and Aboriginal people is fraught with misunderstanding and silence.
Gemmy’s broken English and his partial knowledge of Aboriginal speech make him a linguistic hybrid — he belongs to both languages yet is fluent in neither. His fragmented speech symbolizes the fractured nature of colonial communication, where meaning is lost between worlds.
Malouf uses this linguistic tension to question the dominance of English as the language of power. The Aboriginal language, though largely unspoken in the text, represents an alternative way of knowing — one based on listening, intuition, and connection with the land.
Thus, Remembering Babylon reimagines colonial history not only through events but through the medium of language itself, revealing how power operates through words, and how silence can hold its own truth.
Fear and the Psychology of Colonization
How does Malouf re-imagine Australian colonial history– Another aspect of Malouf’s reimagining lies in his exploration of the psychology of fear. The settlers’ fear of the unknown — of the land, the Aboriginal people, and even of Gemmy — drives much of the novel’s tension.
Their fear is not merely external; it reflects an inner insecurity about who they are and what they are doing in this strange land. They have brought with them the structures of European civilization, yet these structures seem fragile in the face of an environment that refuses to conform.
Through subtle psychological insight, Malouf reveals that colonization is not only an act of domination but also one of anxiety and self-doubt. The colonizers are haunted by the fear of regression — of losing their “civilized” identity.
By exposing this inner turmoil, Malouf humanizes the settlers without excusing their actions. He invites readers to see colonial history not in black-and-white moral terms but as a complex human drama filled with ambiguity and vulnerability.
Spiritual Vision and Reconciliation
In the later parts of the novel, Malouf introduces a spiritual dimension that transcends historical conflict. Janet McIvor’s mystical vision of bees entering her mouth, for instance, symbolizes a merging with nature and a moment of revelation — an acceptance of the land’s mystery.
Through such imagery, Malouf gestures toward reconciliation — not in a political sense, but as a spiritual awakening. He suggests that true belonging in Australia requires listening to the land and acknowledging its original inhabitants.
By blending myth, memory, and history, Malouf offers a poetic reimagining of national identity — one rooted in empathy, respect, and a recognition of shared humanity.
Conclusion
How does Malouf re-imagine Australian colonial history-In Remembering Babylon, David Malouf reimagines Australian colonial history as a story not of conquest, but of encounter — between races, languages, and worlds. He transforms historical conflict into a meditation on the nature of belonging, identity, and civilization.
Through the figure of Gemmy Fairley and the microcosm of the colonial settlement, Malouf dismantles the myths of white supremacy and national purity. He portrays the colonial frontier as a zone of transformation, where fear and curiosity coexist, and where the boundaries of self and other blur.
By giving voice to the land, by exposing the settlers’ psychological fragility, and by celebrating hybridity, Malouf turns history into a space of moral reflection. His novel is not a record of the past but a reimagining of how we remember — a reminder that history, like identity, is something continually made, questioned, and redefined.
Ultimately, Remembering Babylon invites Australians — and all readers — to confront the ghosts of their colonial past and to imagine a future built on understanding rather than division.
