Drawing on extensive interviews with activists and politicians, Black Politics explains the dynamics of Aboriginal politics. It reveals the challenges and tensions that have shaped community, regional, and national relations over the past 25 years. Since the early 1990s Aboriginal Australia has experienced profound political changes with very real and lasting implications, from the Mabo land rights case in 1992 and the abolition of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) in 2005, to more recent attempts to reduce the autonomy of remote communities. Sarah Maddison identifies the tensions that lie at the heart of all Aboriginal politics, arguing that until Australian governments come to grips with this complexity they will continue to make bad policy with disastrous consequences for Aboriginal people. She also offers some suggestions for the future, based on the collective wisdom of political players at all levels of Aboriginal politics.
Author(s): Sarah Maddison
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 336
Part Title......Page 2
Title Page......Page 4
Contents......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Foreword......Page 8
Acknowledgments......Page 12
Interviewees......Page 14
Abbreviations and Acronyms......Page 23
Introduction......Page 26
1 A history of policy failure......Page 44
2 Autonomy and dependency......Page 67
3 Sovereignty and citizenship......Page 87
4 Tradition and development......Page 105
5 Individualism and collectivism......Page 126
6 Indigeneity and hybridity......Page 146
7 Unity and regionalism......Page 167
8 Community and kin......Page 187
9 Elders and the next generation......Page 208
10 Men, women and customary law......Page 228
11 Mourning and reconciliation......Page 249
Epilogue: Looking to the future......Page 272
Notes......Page 286
Bibliography......Page 294
Index......Page 323
