Judy's Reviews > Return to Uluru

The first part of this book focusses on Bill McKinnon, a NT policeman who was a hero in his own eyes. He was involved in the shooting of Yokununna, an Aboriginal man in 1934. At this time, Australia was blighted by violence and racial prejudice against the Aboriginal people.
In the later part of this book, when Mark McKenna was completing his research, the Anangu were "allowed" to return to Uluru, their home. He was able to speak to relatives of McKinnon and Yokununna and uncover new details about the incident.
There is growing hope that all Australians will respect their spiritual connections to Uluru. Recent events held there resulted in the significant Uluru Statement Voices from the heart.


A killing. A hidden history. A story that goes to the heart of the nation.
When Mark McKenna set out to write a history of the centre of Australia, he had no idea what he would discover. One event in 1934 – the shooting at Uluru of Aboriginal man Yokununna by white policeman Bill McKinnon, and subsequent Commonwealth inquiry – stood out as a mirror of racial politics in the Northern Territory at the time.
But then, through speaking with the families of both killer and victim, McKenna unearthed new evidence that transformed the historical record and the meaning of the event for today. As he explains, ‘Every thread of the story connected to the present in surprising ways.’ In a sequence of powerful revelations, McKenna explores what truth-telling and reconciliation look like in practice.
Return to Uluru brings a cold case to life. It speaks directly to the Black Lives Matter movement, but is completely Australian. Recalling Chloe Hooper’s The Tall Man, it is superbly written, moving, and full of astonishing, unexpected twists. Ultimately it is a story of recognition and return, which goes to the very heart of the country. At the centre of it all is Uluru, the sacred site where paths fatefully converged.