ABSTRACT
Indigenous claims about the presence of the sacred in settler, secular states ‘shake the nation’ (Gelder and Jacobs 1998, 21). Places that were once known, ordered, settled suddenly look different, have different qualities, ones that are unknown (sometimes secret) and unquantifiable. But they are desired. The international images of places like Canada, Aoteoroa-New Zealand and Australia are built on the tourist drawcard of ancientness and authenticity. The Indigenous sacred is re-invented as a form of national identity, even while it is shunned and denigrated.
