In the indigenous traditions of the Victoria River region of Australia's Northern Territory, the bushranger Ned Kelly has become a spiritual ancestor of the Dreamtime. His defiance of authority is seen by aboriginal people as a powerful echo of their own profoundly unjust treatment at the hands of European colonisers. Kelly is viewed there as an indigenous defier of white colonialism and its attendant injustices. In some versions of the tradition he has even become Jesus Christ, a conflation similar to that found in some European carnival depictions of local bandit heroes and in the religious cult surrounding the image of Pancho Villa. As the documenter of these Victoria River beliefs puts it: ‘Ned Kelly is a whitefellow and he is indigenous; he is the Dreaming answer to invasion and injustice.’

Such permutations help us understand why outlaw heroes have existed for a very long time and in a great many different places. They continue to operate today. Whenever and wherever significant groups of people believe themselves to be oppressed and unfairly treated, especially to the benefit of another such group or groups, the many variations of Robin Hood are likely to continue rising up and striking back.