Unsettling the Settler State

Cover artwork : The Way of the Walawalarra (Two Women Ancestors): Kapululangu Women's Two Way Governance
Courtesy and Copyright : Artists of Kapululangu Aboriginal Women’s Association of Balgo.

Debates in contemporary Indigenous affairs rarely question the settler-state framework and its accompanying institutions and processes. This silence persists despite Indigenous efforts to engage the settler-colonial order through repeated calls for treaties, for constitutional change, for self-determination and for better representation on the national political stage. These Indigenous efforts to enter into dialogue with mainstream Australia have thus far received little or no reciprocal movement from the settler state and its associated institutions.

To advance Indigenous affairs governance and develop a dialogue for improved Settler-Indigenous relations in the 21st century requires unsettling the silences around the settler-state and its institutions and processes. Instead, we need dialogue and exchange between Indigenous and Settler orders. Only by embracing the challenges of governance in an open an unapologetic way will we be able to address the anxieties associated with Indigenous governance and contribute to healing the persistent sore of the wider Indigenous-Settler relations that continue to trouble the Australian community.

To address these challenges, Unsettling the Setter State documents and analyses contemporary Indigenous efforts to engage with the settler state and its institutions. Chapters by Indigenous authors and settler interpreters and counterparts highlight Aboriginal creativity, vibrancy, and resistance while providing a crucial resource and pathways for rethinking governance and decolonising Australia in the 21st century.

Sarah Maddison is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the Indigenous Policy and Dialogue Research Unit at the University of New South Wales, a research unit she helped to establish in 2009. She has published widely in the areas of Indigenous political culture, social movements, non-government organisations and democracy. Her books include Activist Wisdom (UNSW Press 2006), Silencing Dissent (Allen & Unwin 2007), Black Politics (Allen & Unwin 2009) and Beyond White Guilt (Allen & Unwin 2011). Sarah's current research interest is focused on the role of conflict in creating social change. This interest is reflected in many of her publications and most recently in her focus on dialogue as a means of creating change in divided societies. Her Future Fellowship project will explore models of dialogue as they have been used in post-conflict and reconciliation processes in South Africa, Ireland, Guatemala and Australia. Morgan Brigg is lecturer in the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland. His research and professional practice examines the challenges and opportunities posed by the politics of difference for the resolution of conflict and maintenance of political community from the local to the international. He is the author of numerous academic articles in the areas of international relations, mediation and peacebuilding, Indigenous studies and politics, and international development. His books include The New Politics of Conflict Resolution: Responding to Difference (Palgrave Macmillan), and (co-edited with Roland Bleiker) of Mediating across Difference: Oceanic and Asian Approaches to Conflict Resolution (University of Hawai'i Press). He is a nationally accredited mediator with training and practice experience in mediation in Aboriginal Australia, Solomon Islands and Indonesia. His current projects include an exploration of alternative regional diplomacies, and ongoing work on cultural difference as a resource for conflict resolution.

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