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Cultural and Political Diversity: Three Views of Self-determination in Aboriginal Political ThoughtGeoffrey Stokes. The cultural, social and economic contexts within which indigenous self-determination is exercised and sought vary widely. Diverse indigenous communities have different cultural traditions, uneven access to material resources, and varied levels of engagement with, or reliance upon, the state. Out of these circumstances have arisen a variety of political goals, priorities and agendas involving claims against local, State and federal governments across Australia. Such claims to recognition and resources have brought conflict between indigenous people and government, as well as within and between indigenous communities themselves. This paper examines how three prominent Aboriginal figures—Michael Mansell, Larissa Behrendt and Noel Pearson—have argued for indigenous self-determination in Australia. It is contended that their arguments grow out of three different kinds of cultural, historical and philosophical contexts. Furthermore, in these competing, and sometimes complementary, views of self-determination, we may find a distinctive Aboriginal political thought.
Presenters  Geoffrey Stokes
(Australia)
Chair, Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation Faculty of Arts Deakin University Geoffrey Stokes is Professor of Politics at Deakin University. He works on political theory and Australian politics with particular interests in democratic theory, Australian political thought and indigenous politics. He has edited The Politics of Identity in Australia (CUP, 1997) and Australian Political Ideas (UNSW Press, 1994).
Keywords
(30 min. Conference Paper,
English)
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