P Wright

Last orders for the English Aborigine

The following article is an expanded version of a talk first presented at the National Heritage Lottery’s Conference, ‘Who do we think we are; Heritage and Identity in the UK Today’ (held at the British Museum on July 13, 2004). In revising it, I have benefited from the discussions of that day, and also from comments made by Paul Gilroy and Melvyn Bragg. An edited version was published in Soundings, ‘After Identity’ Issue, No. 29, Spring 2005, pp. 21-34, and reprinted in Sally Davison & Jonathan Rutherford (eds), Race, Identity and Belonging: A Soundings Collection, London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2008, pp. 60-71. An abbreviated version of the same article, adjusted to address the rhetoric of the Conservative Party’s election campaign under Michael Howard, was printed as ‘Last orders’ in the Guardian Review, 9 April 2005, pp. 4-6