Sarah Maddison

Australia is wreaking devastation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Whatever the policy--from protection to assimilation, self-determination to intervention, reconciliation to recognition--government has done little to improve the quality of life of Indigenous people. In far too many instances, interaction with governments has only made Indigenous lives worse. Despite this, many Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders and commentators still believe that working with the state is the only viable option. The result is constant churn and reinvention in Indigenous affairs, as politicians battle over the 'right' approach to solving Indigenous problems. The Colonial Fantasy considers why Australia persists in the face of such obvious failure. It argues that white Australia can't solve black problems because white Australia is the problem. Australia has resisted the one thing that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people want, and the one thing that has made a difference elsewhere: the ability to control and manage their own lives. It calls for a radical restructuring of the relationship between black and white Australia.

Why white Australia can't solve black problems

The Colonial Fantasy

Drawing on extensive interviews with activists and politicians, Maddison explains the dynamics of Aboriginal politics. She reveals the challenges and tensions that have shaped community, regional and national relations over the past 25 years.

Inside the complexity of Aboriginal political culture

Black Politics

Sana Nakata

This book examines contemporary Indigenous affairs through questions of relationality, presenting a range of interdisciplinary perspectives on the what, who, when, where, and why of Indigenous–settler relations. It also explores relationality, a key analytical framework with which to explore Indigenous–settler relations in terms of what the relational characteristics are; who steps into these relations and how; the different temporal and historical moments in which these relations take place and to what effect; where these relations exist around the world and the variations they take on in different places; and why these relations are important for the examination of social and political life in the 21st century. Its unique approach represents a deliberate move away from both settler-colonial studies, which examines historical and present impacts of settler states on Indigenous peoples, and from postcolonial and decolonial scholarship, which predominantly focuses on how Indigenous peoples speak back to the settler state. It explores the issues that inform, shape, and give social, legal, and political life to relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, both in Australia and globally.

Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Questioning Indigenous-Settler Relations

Clive Hamilton

For over a decade, the Howard government has found ways to silence its critics, one by one. Like the proverbial frog in boiling water, Australians have become accustomed to repeated attacks on respected individuals and organizations. For a government which claims to support freedom of speech and freedom of choice, only certain kinds of speech and choices appear to be acceptable. Silencing Dissent uncovers the tactics used by John Howard and his colleagues to undermine dissenting and independent opinion. Bullying, intimidation, public denigration, threats of withdrawal of fundi.

How the Australian government is controlling public opinion and stifling debate

Silencing Dissent

Marian Sawer

The death of feminism is regularly proclaimed in the West. Yet at the same time feminism has never had such an extensive presence, whether in international norms and institutions, or online in blogs and social networking campaigns. This book argues that the women’s movement is not over; but rather social movement theory has led us to look in the wrong places. This book offers both methodological and theoretical innovations in the study of social movements, and analyses how the trajectories of protest activity and institution-building fit together. The rich empirical study, together with focused research on discursive activism, blogging, popular culture and advocacy networks, provides an extraordinary resource, showing how the women’s movements can survive the highs and lows and adapt in unexpected ways. Expert contributors explore the ways in which the movement is continuing to work its way through institutions, and persists within submerged networks, cultural production and in everyday living, sustaining itself in non-receptive political environments and maintaining a discursive feminist space for generations to come. Set in a transnational perspective, this book trace the legacies of the Australian women’s movement to the present day in protest, non-government organisations, government organisations, popular culture, the Internet and the Slut Walk. The Women’s Movement in Protest, Institutions and the Internet will be of interest to international students and scholars of gender politics, gender studies, social movement studies and comparative politics.

Sarah Maddison

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