Review of Melissa Harper and Richard White (eds), Symbols of Australia: Imagining a Nation,Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2021, pbk, ISBN: 9781742237121, 496 + pp, $39.99

Symbols of Australia is an illuminating exploration of national identity through an array of symbols. This collection of 29 essays by Australian scholars and writers begins with 'Land of symbols', a piece by the book's editors, Melissa Harper and Richard White. Harper and White explain that the book is interested in 'symbols of nation' as distinct from icons. Kylie Minogue is offered as an example of an Australian icon but not a symbol, in that she can apparently 'physically embody an essential Australianness' while reproductions of her image hold 'little symbolic weight' (p. 4). Some may disagree, which is perhaps indicative of a conundrum that the book tackles: how Australia's complicated past and its present diversity might be represented through symbols.