From White Nation to White Caution: Non-Indigenous Reflections on Indigenous Difference

Distinguished lecture: Native title—Implications for Australian senses of place and belonging

“…Their study finds substantial talk about how Indigenous difference poses compelling and important questions for the wider society. The authors also note the conclusion from the Reconciliation Australia organisation, based on a 2016 survey of 2,277 respondents from all states and territories, that many people ‘wish to honour Indigenous Australians’ (Rowse and Pertierra, 2019, 2).…”

“…I also note, but set aside, the complex politics whereby some Australians pursue reconciliation with Indigenous interests, seeking to deal with uncomfortable aspects of the history of colonisation. A recent article by Tim Rowse and Anna Pertierra (2019) draws on 31 interviews with mostly city dwelling persons from diverse social class locations. The authors document positive views, albeit cautiously articulated, and at times with some uncertainty and apprehension.…”

“…Investigating factors influencing what is doubtless a broad and diverse range of such elicited views is complex. Rowse and Pertierra (2019, 4‒5) address the emergence of an ‘anti‐racist, pro‐reconciliation subjectivity’, taking us beyond and complicating Ghassan Hage’s (1998) proposed ‘national subject’ that is portrayed largely as a ‘paranoid nationalist’. However, just how far beyond middle class urban Australia an articulated anti‐racist subjectivity extends is, in my view, an open question for further research, with inquiries needing to be conducted well beyond the bounds of the major cities.…”

Frontier Narratives That Take on Flesh: Tracing Legacy, Labour, and Legitimacy in Outback Queensland, Australia

“…While we hope that this paper contributes to broader discussions about life in settler colonial states, we do not make claims about settler‐descendant belonging 2 . Much has already been written in social science on the different but overlapping ways people in Australia present their connections to place, including in pastoral lands (Krichauff 2017; Reardon‐Smith 2021; Strang 1997; Trigger and Martin 2016), national parks (Dominy 1997), and towns and communities (De Rijke 2012; Furniss 2001; Henry 2012; Martin 2015; Ottosson 2014, 2016) and how these are expressed in popular culture and everyday interactions (Kowal 2015; Moreton‐Robinson 2003; Rowse and Pertierra 2019; Trigger 2008; Trigger and Mulcock 2005). What has been less explored ethnographically is the relationship between settler‐colonial fabulations, racial and environmental impacts of pastoralism, and embodied acts of world‐building among settler‐descendants.…”