Systems, Self, and Sovereignty: Non-Indigenous Practitioners Negotiate Whiteness in Aboriginal Partnerships

Abstract

Australia is built upon a foundation of colonial conquest, and it continues to implement government policies and systems of management based on a colonising logic and the denial of Indigenous sovereignty. This study employed qualitative methods and discourse analysis to draw on the experiences of six non-Indigenous Australians employed by the South Australian Government in Aboriginal partnerships and natural resource management. Drawing on critical Whiteness studies, the article reveals that participants in this cohort are largely critical of colonial structures of government and the inequalities that arise. Despite this critical awareness, there was often a difficulty in finding a language to describe the fog of Whiteness, along with the tendency to describe ecological knowledge at the expense of more complex issues of First Nations sovereignty.

“Whiteness” and natural resource management: let's talk about race baby, let's talk about sovereignty!

“…Whiteness shapes the structures of institutions, processes, policy and ecology documents, timeframes and outcomes, discourse, research, and relationships (Al Ariss et al, ; Moreton‐Robinson, ). The translation of policy into practice is muddied by invisible race privileges that place white ways of knowing in the normative centre (Searle & Mulholland, ) and, increasingly, environmental policy is influenced by a monolithic international arena (Keely & Scoones, ). Natural resource management in Western societies is a broad field covering the management of the Earth's resources and is largely controlled by nation‐states, under various legislative and policy arrangements, with a focus on technological sophistication over social and cultural skills (Howitt, ).…”