Kate Lloyd, Sandie Suchet-Pearson and Sarah Wright Lloyd, K., Suchet-Pearson, S., and Wright, S. 2007 Decentring Fortress Australia: Borderland Geographies as Relational Spaces. In: Mitchell, B., Baum, S., O'Neill, P. and McGuirk, P. (eds) Proceedings of the ARCRNSISS Methodology, Tools and Techniques and Spatial Theory Paradigm Forums Workshop, University of Newcastle, Australia, 15-17 June 2005: 217-228. Decentring Fortress Australia: borderland geographies as relational spaces Kate Lloyd*, Sandie Suchet-Pearson* and Sarah Wright** * Department of Human Geography, Macquarie University **Discipline of Geography, University of Newcastle Contact: Sarah Wright, Discipline of Geography, University of Newcastle, Callaghan NSW 2308 ph work - (02) 4921 7157 fax - (02) 4921 5877 sarah.wright@newcastle.edu.au Abstract This paper looks to the geographies of Australia’s northern borderlands to theorise borders as relational spaces through which identities are (re)created and performed. Dominant Australian perspectives on borders are influenced by a legacy of exclusion and fear including the concept of terra nullius. This fear has been reinforced through the Australian government’s response to asylum seekers in the form of the Pacific Solution. Alternative perspectives of borderlands as sites of coexistence, complexity and situated engagement challenge this dominant conception of borderlands. Seeing borderlands as relational spaces allows for an understanding of borders as having the potential for inclusion or exclusion, as flexible and rigid, as based on fear or respect, depending on the relationships of power at work. We draw upon post-colonial and indigenous studies literature with a case study of the Tiwi Islands to argue interconnected issues of power and identity are central to reimagining borders and borderlands. Introduction ‘…and then Mudangkala the old blindwoman arose from the ground carrying three babies in her arms. As she crawled in darkness across the featureless, landscape, sea water followed and filled the imprints made by her body. Eventually pools became one and formed a channel. The old woman continued her journey overland and once again the moulded earth filled with the flow of water. Before she left, Mudangkala covered the islands she had created with plants and filled the land and sea with living creatures. Finally the land was prepared for her children and for the generation of Tiwi who followed.’