Legitimacy dilemmas and genocidal pasts in West Germany and Australia.

Compares the way West Germany and Australia have dealt with their genocidal past. The Germans have forged a moral and political consensus so that the events can be narrated into a new national story taking into account the victims' perspective. Australians have not yet achieved this. There is a "reconciliation" debate today and each side proffers an absolute answer to the past but as yet there is no hybrid within which the victims' perspective can be integrated.