Seminar streaming audio and podcasts: At the discretion of presenters, some CAEPR seminars are now made available through this website as streaming audio and MP3 podcasts, together with appropriate handout materials. Links will be found beneath the seminar abstract. Certain types of seminar presentation, including works in progress and thesis reports, may not be appropriate for podcast. The discussion following a presentation is not recorded.
Occasional Seminars & Lectures
Thursday 18 September, 5.30–7.30pm
ANU Public Lecture Series 2008
First Taste: History & Culture in Indigenous
Alcohol Use
—Dr Maggie Brady (CAEPR, ANU) and Professor Robin Room (University of Melbourne)
The two speakers presenting this public lecture will challenge some of the common beliefs that surround
Indigenous Australians and the history of grog, by discussing the findings of the newly released publication
First Taste: How Indigenous Australians Learned About Grog by Dr Maggie Brady (published by the Alcohol
Education and Rehabilitation Foundation). This publication will be released the morning before the lecture and
is a series of six books. The series is designed to educate and empower Indigenous people on alcohol issues,
to illuminate the influence of history and social learning on drinking behaviour, and to contribute to greater
understanding and reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
Dr Maggie Brady is a social anthropologist holding an ARC QEII Fellowship at the Centre for Aboriginal
Economic Policy Research at ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences. She has researched and published widely
on Aboriginal health, drug and alcohol use, reaching both academic and community-based audiences. Her
publications include the first (and only) anthropological study of petrol sniffing (Heavy Metal, 1992), and the
widely circulated community action manual The Grog Book (1998, 2005).
Professor Robin Room is an Australian sociologist of international renown who has directed alcohol and
drug study centres in the US, Canada, Norway and Sweden as well as being an advisor to the World Health
Organisation. Since 2006, he has been a Professor in the School of Population Health of the University of
Melbourne and the Director of the Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Centre for Alcohol Policy Research at
Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre. He has worked on social, cultural and epidemiological studies of alcohol,
drugs and gambling behaviour, and studies of social responses to alcohol and drug problems.
Thursday 18 September, 5.30–7.30pm
Finkel Lecture Theatre,
The John Curtin School
of Medical Research,
Garran Road, ANU
This lecture is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served following the lecture.
Copies of the publication
First Taste: How Indigenous Australians Learned About Grog
will be available at the lecture.
Effective Indigenous Involvement in The Living Murray – Introducing Use and Occupancy Mapping
—Lee Joachim (Yorta Yorta Nation Leader & The Living Murray Indigenous Facilitator) and Neil Ward (Senior Manager, TLM Indigenous Partnerships Project, Murray Darling Basin Commission)
Abstract: The Living Murray Initiative recognises that the aspirations, interests and contributions of Indigenous people are an integral component of contemporary natural resource management and aims to take into account the social, economic and spiritual objectives of Indigenous communities for each of the Murray’s icon sites. In order to do this, The Living Murray’s Indigenous Partnerships Project is developing and implementing a consultation process that will enable Indigenous communities to effectively participate in the discussion about cultural and environmental flows. Based on experience and expertise from Canada, a rigorous social science methodology, known as Use and Occupancy Mapping, has been adapted and trialled to help illustrate and articulate Australian Indigenous peoples’ contemporary use of land and water.
This presentation will explore Use and Occupancy mapping and its application for the Indigenous people of the Murray-Darling Basin. It is hoped that the information gained using Use and Occupancy mapping will help Indigenous people describe and present their contemporary land and water management objectives in a manner that builds on their traditional knowledge and perspectives and clearly expresses their future association with their country.
CAEPR Seminar Room, Ground Floor,
Hanna Neumann Building #21
12.30-2.00pm
Friday 29 August
Entangled dreams: A discussion of the intercultural appeal of Australian Indigenous tourism
—Anke Tonnaer (Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands)
Abstract: In Australia Indigenous cultural tourism is presented as a treasure trove for economic, social, and cultural opportunities, praised as it is in policy documents, advertising campaigns, travel brochures, and, for instance, in the hospitable invitation of an Aboriginal tourism enterprise in north Australia to 'come share our culture'. The question I will especially address in this paper is: to whom does 'our' refer?
On the basis of ethnography on several Indigenous tourism enterprises in northern Australia I will discuss the nature of the intercultural domain in cultural tourism. I assess the pervasive belief in the benefits of tourism for Indigenous people as a rather straightforward road to economic and cultural empowerment – a belief which underlies much of the upbeat and pivotal rhetoric on 'sharing culture'. However, I do so without disregarding the interest for tourism consistently expressed by Aboriginal people I encountered in this environment; rather I try to explain the active role many Aboriginal tour guides and cultural performers often played in sustaining the appraising view of tourism. In order to gain an understanding of the capacity of tourism, either positive or negative, it is necessary to view Indigenous people as agentive in trying to delve its potential 'riches', at least on the level of everyday life.
Humanities Conference Room, First Floor, A.D. Hope Bldg #14 (opposite Chifley Library),
12.30-2.00 pm.
Please note: This seminar is available in both Streaming Audio and MP3 formats.
Streaming Audio
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Series 2: July - November 2008
The program for this seminar series is also available as a PDF document.
Seminar Topics—Series 2, 2008
July 30
Water flow allocation and Indigenous natural resource mapping: Empowering communities
—Melanie Durette and Manuhuia Barcham (Synexe Consulting)
Abstract: Indigenous people in North America have been mapping aspects of their land and resources for many years. Many First Nations communities in Canada have done this type of mapping which is known by various names such as 'cultural mapping', 'land use and occupancy mapping' or 'tenure mapping'. In the hands of Indigenous groups these maps play a powerful role in negotiations, in the courtroom and in natural resource planning. In New Zealand and Australia, considerable mapping has also been undertaken, however, this is often to record customary land and resource use for heritage or native title purposes.
In this paper we discuss the international context within which this mapping occurs before looking at a project we are currently running in New Zealand with Ngati Hori (a clan in Hawkes Bay) that in part will explore the role of these maps in contemporary land and resource planning as well as policy making. For Ngati Hori the maps will serve as a starting point for generating discussion and knowledge of cultural values in the catchment area. The maps will also be a useful tool for engagement with the regional council on the health of their fish and fish habitat and water allocation policy. The mapping is part of a larger project with the primary objective of creating a model to facilitate Maori engagement on water flow allocation in New Zealand where cultural values in fisheries and fisheries habitat are dependent on the restoration of water flows within a water body. We end the paper with a discussion of the applicability of these ideas to the Australian context.
Please note: This seminar is available in both Streaming Audio and MP3 formats.
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Closing the gap? Monitoring trends in Indigenous Australians' life expectancy
—Len Smith (Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute, ANU)
Abstract: The Prime Minister's commitment to narrow the 17-year gap between the life expectancy of Indigenous Australians and that of the total population, and to report annually on progress, echoes similar promises made over the 40 years since the referendum gave the Federal Government a national responsibility for Indigenous health. The paper reviews the policy background to this commitment, and examines estimates of Indigenous life expectancy over the period, in order to establish the validity of the estimates, and the likelihood of reduction given past trends. The current situation represents a dual system failure: a failure of the national health system to address Indigenous disadvantage, and a failure of the national statistical system to produce the data needed to guide policy and monitor change.
Please note: This seminar is available in both Streaming Audio and MP3 formats.
Streaming Audio
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Saving and Strengthening CDEP: A remote Australia policy treasure
—Will Sanders (Senior Fellow, CAEPR)
Abstract: The Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme has been subject to major criticism in recent years for being part of, or little better than, Aboriginal welfare dependence. In the first half of this seminar I will defend CDEP from its critics, by both recounting its origins and elaborating on some of its strengths; most notably its flexibility and support for Indigenous community-based organisations, particularly in remote areas. I will argue that CDEP is a remote Australian policy treasure, but that despite this labeling CDEP does have some weaknesses. I will note the Spicer Review Committee's identification of some of these weaknesses over a decade ago and argue for the continued relevance of some of its ideas for improvement.
In the second half of this seminar I will seek to answer the question: why, if the CDEP scheme is a remote Australian policy treasure, has it been threatened with closure in recent years? I will offer a number different explanations ranging from macro-economic circumstances and normative discourses about what governments do, to bureaucratic politics, remote/urban dynamics and generational cycles in Australian Indigenous affairs. I will argue that these various perspectives should be seen as complementary, rather than competing explanations and that, if we combine them all, it becomes understandable how even a policy treasure can be thrown away. But perhaps through such understanding, it might be just possible to save and strengthen CDEP rather than destroy it.
Please note: This seminar is available in both Streaming Audio and MP3 formats.
Streaming Audio
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Reflections from above the 60th parallel north: The challenges of development for Circumpolar Inuit
—Annmaree O'Keefe, AM (Senior Associate, Chester Reimer Consulting Inc)
Abstract: There are about 170,000 Inuit, living mostly in Canada (50,000), Greenland (50,000), Denmark (8,000), Russia (1,700), Alaska (44,000) and other parts of the USA (13,000). Their homeland spreads from Greenland across the Arctic stretches of northern America and over the Bering Strait to the eastern tip of Russia. They are a nation living within four nations. Their history is unique as they have survived and prospered for over 4,000 years in one of the harshest and most unforgiving environments on Earth. Today, modern development and its consequences are impacting on all aspects of Inuit life. Theirs is a story of courage, pragmatism and determination in the face of these, some of the greatest challenges they have had to confront.
August 27
Valuing Indigenous harvest and management of dugong and marine turtles: The Bardi Jawi case study
—Geoff Buchanan (Research Officer, CAEPR), Daniel Oades (Turtle and Dugong Project Officer, Kimberley Land Council), Mark Shadforth (Bardi Jawi Ranger, Kimberley Land Council)
Abstract: Since late 2006 CAEPR has worked on a collaborative research project with the Bardi Jawi Rangers based on the northern tip of the Dampier Peninsula in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia. This research was commissioned by the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILMSA) as part of its NHT-funded Dugong and Marine Turtle Project and was also supported by the Kimberley Land Council (KLC) as a major project partner. The research explored the economic, social and cultural value of Indigenous people's customary use and community-based management of dugong and marine turtles in north Australia.
In this seminar we present some of the key findings and the lessons learnt from this 18 month collaborative research project. In particular, we discuss the economic value and customary use of dugong and marine turtles and the benefits, costs and challenges of community-based wildlife research and management. We explore the implications for community-based management on Bardi Jawi country and how this may translate into the broader north Australian setting.
Please note: This seminar is available in both Streaming Audio and MP3 formats.
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Dealing with cards: An anthropological perspective on remote Indigenous gambling
—Marisa Fogarty (Doctoral Scholar, Charles Darwin University)
Abstract: In Australia, Indigenous card games fall outside mainstream government regulation and industry commercialisation. Consequently, these card games, or the act of playing these games is often referred to as 'unregulated', 'non-commercial' or 'community' gambling. Prior to the mid 1990's anthropologists interrogated certain aspects of Indigenous card games as small parts of broader research concerns. However, in the last decade anthropological research in this area has been notably absent. Contributing to this lack of research focus has been the widespread introduction of poker machines around Australia. The field of gambling research has adopted a decidedly psychological focus, based predominantly on electronic forms of gambling (i.e. poker machines). Of concern is that these Eurocentric, individuated, medicalised notions of gambling and problem gambling are becoming the dominant disciplinary lens of Indigenous gambling research. In this paper I will challenge this research approach through findings derived from an extensive ethnographic study of card games in a large remote Indigenous township. In so doing, I argue that dominant theoretical and methodological approaches to Indigenous gambling research are of limited relevance in the remote Indigenous context. Through a detailed analysis of remote card games, the research has revealed complex internal regulatory systems that structure the card games forming an Indigenous harm minimisation strategy. Such rules and regulations exist within the games, intended to protect both the individual and the community against the harmful effects of gambling, as well as to protect the games from corruption and cheating. As a result of these findings, I argue that both policy makers and researchers concerned with Indigenous gambling in remote areas must move beyond medicalized and individuated intervention models towards an Indigenous-centric approach to harm minimisation.
Please note: This seminar is available in both Streaming Audio and MP3 formats.
Streaming Audio
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September 10
Not yet Jerusalem: A preliminary assessment of Nunavut's first decade
—Jack Hicks (Doctoral Scholar, University of Greenland)
Abstract: The Canadian territory of Nunavut ('Our land' in Inuktitut) was created on April 1, 1999, after the 1993 Nunavut Land Claims Agreement (NLCA) resulted in the division of the Northwest Territories and the creation of a 13th jurisdiction at the provincial/territorial level. 85 per cent of Nunavut's population of 30,000 are Inuit, making Nunavut an example of 'effective
self-government through public government.' While the population may be
small, Nunavut makes up 20% of Canada - an area the size of Western Europe.
In addition to the growing pains inherent in the launching of a new
political system and the start-up of a new bureaucracy, Nunavut inherited
huge economic and social challenges: a weak economy, high transportation and
other costs, widespread poverty, low rates of formal education, poor health
status, and high rates of violence and other social dysfunction (e.g.
suicide). The presentation will offer a preliminary assessment of Nunavut's
first decade - focusing on implementation of the NLCA, the start-up of the
Government of Nunavut, and that Government's efforts to address the many
challenges it faces.
The Northern Territory Intervention phase one: Mission accomplished in Central Australia?
—Peter Stewart (Doctoral Scholar, James Cook University)
Abstract: The intervention is the most expensive attempt to change the relationship between remote Aboriginal Australia and the white nation, launched with a budget of $1.5 billion dollars. The Commonwealth government sought to restructure community economies, undertake health check programs for children, increase school attendance, restrict alcohol sales and quarantine income. At the same time the Northern Territory government terminated community councils and began implementing shires, resulting in an absence of community governance.
This paper reflects on diverse opinions expressed by significant stakeholders in the Alice Springs region. The Intervention's first year of operation has closed on a confused note. The overarching objective of phase 1 was to 'stabilise' communities regarded as lawless, dysfunctional and most critically rampant with child sex abuse and so bring this 'moral tsunami' under control. The concept of stabilisation is seen as problematic in conception as it has been in realisation. This intervention, crudely conceived and implemented, retrofitted programs to policy. It is perceived by some as a qualified success, others disagree.
September 24
'Yo, turn around and look at Yolngu people, we are here': Indigenous cultural festivals and wellbeing
—Lisa Slater (Research Fellow, Globalism Research Centre, RMIT)
Abstract: This paper is a part of a larger ARC Linkage project, with the Telstra Foundation, that examines the immediate and longer-term impacts of selected Indigenous festivals on community wellbeing. In recent years wellbeing is a concept that has gained salience and urgency, indeed it has become standard currency in economic and political models of welfare and development. Concerns have been expressed about the indicators of wellbeing and the lack of recongnition that notions of health and wellbeing and socio-economic inclusion and exclusion are culturally constructed. The Globalism Research Centre's previous research on wellbeing in Victoria concluded that social inclusion is a crucial wellbeing factor, and that public celebrations and festivals are one way social policy-makers can support social inclusion. The current project focuses on Indigenous festivals and examines if and how they make a difference to the wellbeing of Indigenous young people and their communities. This seminar will present the preliminary findings of the research, and in so doing, will examine the discourse of wellbeing, and ask what role do these social spaces play in supporting or enabling wellbeing and what might festivals tell us about what makes for a 'good life'?
Please note: This seminar is available in both Streaming Audio and MP3 formats.
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October 1
Aboriginal Poverty: What's social capital got to do with it?
—Julie Lahn (Postdoctoral Fellow, CAEPR)
Abstract: In this seminar I present some initial findings from a project entitled, 'The Social Context of Indigenous Poverty'. The research involved a series of interviews with Aboriginal people in urban and rural SE Australia on issues of poverty, social capital and social exclusion. In the paper I draw together Aboriginal perspectives on the meaning of poverty to reflect on the relevance of social capital concepts for understanding Aboriginal economic disadvantage.
October 8
Are racial and ethnic minorities disadvantaged in Australia? Evidence from two randomised field experiments
—Andrew Leigh (Associate Professor, Economics Program, Research School of Social Sciences, ANU) with Alison Booth and Elena Varganova
Abstract: We conduct a large-scale audit discrimination study in Australia, sending 5000 fake resumes to employers in response to online job advertisements. To denote ethnicity, we randomly changed names on the resumes, using them to denote Anglo-Saxon, Italian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and Indigenous ethnicity. In all cases, we applied for entry-level jobs, and submitted a CV that showed that the candidate had attended high school in Australia. To benchmark our results from this experiment, we conducted a second study, putting the same ethnically identifiable names on letters, and sending them to addresses randomly chosen from the telephone book. Recipients of these wrongly-addressed letters had two choices: they could either put the letter in the trash, or write 'return to sender' and post it back. We then test how the results from this experiment compare with those from the job application experiment.
Note: As the findings from this research are preliminary, please do not cite or quote this abstract.
October 15
Climate impacts in remote communities in Northern Australia
—Donna Green (Research Fellow, Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales)
Abstract: Climate change will increasingly be impacting thousands of Indigenous Australians across northern Australia. But how much do we know about their exposure, sensitivity and capacity to adapt to these changes? This talk aims to tease out these questions and begin to identify what we do know about these issues, and importantly, what information we don’t yet have but which is vital to understand in order to strengthen resilience for these remote communities.
October 22
Complexity in Aboriginal political culture and implications for government policy
—Sarah Maddison (Senior Associate Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales)
Abstract: Since the 1970s the federal political response to conditions in many Aboriginal communities has escalated from one of concern to today’s rhetoric of ‘national emergency.’ In the intervening decades, policy had been repeatedly reoriented, from self-determination to mainstreaming, and from reconciliation to intervention. The result has been successive and unambiguous policy failures. This paper outlines ten areas of complexity in Aboriginal political culture that should have complicated the mainstream political response, and argues that the history of policy failure in Indigenous affairs is the direct result of successive governments’ failure to come to terms with these complexities
October 29
Invisible to the state: Kinship and the Yolngu moral order
—Frances Morphy (Fellow, CAEPR)
Abstract: In the Yolngu-matha languages of north-east Arnhem land, the character trait rendered in English as 'self-centered' or 'selfish' is translated by gurrutu-miriw, literally 'kin-lacking' - acting as if one had no kin. Kin-based obligations structure the Yolngu moral order: everyone is classified as kin, and how one ought to behave to others is framed in terms of one's kin relationship to them. The complex system of rights and obligations entailed in this kin-based universe transcends the boundaries of the nuclear family - indeed elsewhere I have argued that the nuclear family, which is vested with such moral force in the Anglo-Celtic culture of the Australian mainstream, is not a 'natural' category in Yolngu society. Yet the state, through mechanisms such as the census, insists on representing Indigenous social formations through the lens of mainstream categories. Does this matter? I will argue that it does, because, having rendered Indigenous socio-moral systems invisible through a process of mistranslation, the state then proceeds, in policy directed towards Indigenous people, to act as if these systems do not exist. I will illustrate this from the latest government thinking on 'increasing Indigenous economic opportunity', outlined in a recent discussion paper produced by the Australian Government.
November 5
On Noel Pearson
—Katarina Ferro (Doctoral Scholar, CAEPR)
Abstract: TBA
November 12
On Forestry
—Sue Feary (New South Wales Department of Environment and Climate Change)
Abstract: TBA
Series 1: March - June 2008
The program for this seminar series is also available as a PDF document.
Seminar Topics—Series 1, 2008
March 05
Census or sample? Assessing the utility of Indigenous population change data, 2001 to 2006
—John Taylor (Senior Fellow, CAEPR) and Nicholas Biddle (Research Fellow, CAEPR)
Abstract: Population counts represent the key output from each national census as they establish the base from which population estimates are subsequently derived and the levels at which population characteristics are established. Such information is vital in assessing change over time in social indicators and plays a key role in the assessment of policy impacts. A notable feature of successive Indigenous census counts has been their volatility and unpredictability with numbers invariably greater each time than change due to natural increase alone would suggest. Indigenous population change recorded over the most recent inter-censal period (2001-2006) provides no exception.
While the picture at the national level has been well researched, it is at the local level where programs are delivered and the need for accurate data is greatest. However, there has been little attempt to assess the robustness of population change data at this level. This presentation examines the spatial pattern of change in census counts and assesses these against a range of likely predictors. We find that for some areas the Census provides reasonable estimates, whereas for others the Census is more akin to a sample survey with implications for analysis, interpretation and policy utility.
March 12
A half hearted defence of the CDEP scheme
—Boyd Hunter (Fellow, CAEPR)
Abstract: The CDEP scheme was developed as a response to the perceived social threat of sit-down money to Indigenous communities in the 1970s. Ironically, the scheme is now being criticised as being one of the main factors driving the social effects of prolonged welfare dependence. This paper updates the Office of Evaluation and Audit 1997 Report that evaluates the scheme. While this paper shows that the CDEP scheme has a significant effect of reducing social pathologies, vis-à-vis unemployment, the positive effect of the scheme is substantially less than the protective effect of having mainstream (non-CDEP) scheme employment. Consequently, it is the lack of mainstream employment options, rather than the presence of the CDEP scheme that drives the social pathologies identified in recent public debate. Notwithstanding the evident community development associated with the CDEP scheme, it cannot be the whole answer for disadvantaged Indigenous communities, which also need a mixture of economic development, infrastructure spending and bottom-up policy initiatives.
Please note: This seminar is available in both Streaming Audio and MP3 formats.
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Regional change in the Indigenous population: Early results from the 2006 Census
—Nicholas Biddle (Research Fellow, CAEPR), John Taylor (Senior Fellow, CAEPR), Mandy Yap (Research Officer, CAEPR)
Abstract: The new Federal Government has identified as one of its priorities a 'closing of the gaps' in social and economic outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians with specific reference made to health/life expectancy, education participation and attainment, housing and employment. Previous CAEPR research has shown that the structural circumstances facing Indigenous populations are increasingly diverse and locationally dispersed and that this leads to variable constraints and opportunities for social and economic participation. In light of the renewed emphasis on targets in Indigenous public policy there is a need to update this spatial analysis and explore the extent to which prospects for the achievement of parity continue to be influenced by location.
As part of a new research project at CAEPR sponsored by the Ministerial Council on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs (MCATSIA) and aimed at maximising the use of recently-available 2006 Census data, this paper presents the preliminary findings of a regional analysis of recent change in Indigenous population and social indicators between 2001 and 2006. In doing so, three interrelated questions are addressed. First, how does the scale and nature of gaps in key social indicators vary spatially? Second, how do trends in these vary in an absolute and relative sense? Finally, given the methodological issues involved, how meaningful are measures of relative outcomes at a regional or national level and is it possible to accurately assess changes through time in these outcomes?
Good governance and indigenous peoples: What's western law got to say about it?
—Laura Beacroft (ANU Law School and Office of the Registrar of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporations)
Abstract: Laura Beacroft held an independent statutory position with the Australian government for the last
5 years, regulating many key Indigenous corporations, including those connected to native title
and also most of those in remote Australia. She shepherded in comprehensive and modern
legislation for this sector (Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006, which received
tripartite support from Parliament and is being progressively implemented around Australia. She is a lawyer, and has spent many years working in the courts, and on 'big picture'
solutions to key systemic issues in the justice system. She is a co-author of Indigenous Legal
Issues, a widely used textbook, and is currently at the Law College ANU writing her contribution
to the next edition of this book.
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Potemkin in Cape York: The Politics of Misrepresentation in Aurukun's Welfare Reform Trials
—Philip Martin (Doctoral Scholar, School of Philosophy, Anthropology & Social Inquiry, University of Melbourne)
Abstract: The community engagement strategy for the Cape York Welfare Reform trials was designed to represent communities and individuals under consultation strictly in terms of seven pre-determined 'community dysfunctions' only. They were: the abuse and neglect of children; alcohol abuse; drug abuse; petrol sniffing; problem gambling; poor school attendance; and dysfunctional housing tenancy arrangements. However, much of the research conducted on the ground in Aurukun suggests community members do not define themselves or their immediate families in terms of 'social-norms deficit'. Where individuals have identified community problems, they are often not the same ones suggested by Cape York Institute (CYI). Despite this, the instrumental goals and design of the Welfare Reform community engagement strategy meant that if someone in Aurukun said they were worried about violence between clans—which they often did—their comments would be rendered in CYI's evaluation as further evidence of 'Alcohol Abuse' or 'Child Neglect'. In this way the seven core community dysfunctions were continually re-discovered—thereby substantiating the need for the Families Responsibilities Commissions.
By focusing primarily on community dysfunctions and individuals' deficits identified independently from community members, and imposing welfare and behavioral obligations which tie Aboriginal people to services they already know to be oftentimes inadequate and inappropriate, Pearson's Family Responsibilities Commissions (FRCs) threaten to add yet another complicating factor to the bizarre daily spectacle of law and order in communities. Under the CYI model, various state and non-state actors will be tasked not with assessing the dynamic service needs of the individuals they are sent, but with administering ongoing punitive social intervention. This means that over the course of an FRC intervention, the quality and relevance of the support and intervention services are less important than the regularity of individuals' attendance at their appointments. The complexity of the individual's addiction, dysfunction or problem will be concealed by the straight-forwardness of the 'service-solution'. It thus seems probable that by forcing community members to perform a pantomime of reform to an audience of historically ineffectual community service providers, FRCs will further diminish individuals' abilities to self-determine positive outcomes for themselves and their families while at the same time rendering them in ways which justify the FRCs (in the first place).
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April 09
Buying the hotel: Social value or social liability for Indigenous groups?
Some preliminary thoughts
—Maggie Brady (Fellow, CAEPR)
Abstract: At the core of alcohol control policies in Australia—and indeed in any country with a system of licensing—lies a key conflict. This is the conflict between the interest of the state in reducing alcohol-related problems on the one hand, and its interest in enjoying the economic benefits produced by the alcohol beverage industry on the other. When an Indigenous corporation buys into premises licensed to sell alcohol, it is faced with a similar conflict and a moral hazard: good sales may mean more alcohol-related harms for which others largely bear the cost. This paper presents some preliminary thoughts on a new project examining the challenges for Indigenous enterprises that profit from the sale of alcohol.
Please note: This seminar is available in both Streaming Audio and MP3 formats.
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April 16
Indigenous affairs in the Northern Territory since June 2007: A participatory development perspective
—Olga Havnen (Indigenous Strategy Development, Australian Red Cross)
Abstract: Olga Havnen has held senior positions with both the government and non-government sectors, including the Northern Territory Department of the Chief Minister, the Central and Northern Land Councils, and as Indigenous program manager with The Fred Hollows Foundation. Olga has recently taken up a newly-created position with Australian Red Cross as Head of Indigenous Strategy Development.
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Voting with their feet: Population study in the Ngaanyatjarra region
—Inge Kral (Post-Doctoral Fellow, CAEPR), David Brooks and Robin Smythe (Ngaanyatjarra Council)
Abstract: Analysts of Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) census data have commonly observed that the census enumeration in remote Indigenous regions of Australia underestimates the actual number of Indigenous people. Such underestimations of remote population groups have dire consequences not only for appropriate service delivery in such extreme regions, but also contribute to a misguided public perception that the population in remote Indigenous regions is declining. Clearly a better approach to undertaking census counts is needed in remote Australia. In this seminar David Brooks and Inge Kral will discuss a case study population survey in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands region of Western Australia undertaken in response to concerns that the official ABS 2006 census count in the area was lower than expected. Brooks and Kral will outline the anthropological methodology used to survey the population and ultimately attain a more accurate count. Factors accounting for Ngaanyatjarra spatial location including mobility and connectedness to country will also be analysed and discussed. The seminar will be introduced by Robin Smythe, Chairman of the Ngaanyatjarra Council and Visiting Indigenous Fellow at CAEPR.
April 30
Caring for Country: An overview of Aboriginal land management in the Top End of the Northern Territory
—Sean Kerins (Research Fellow, CAEPR)
Abstract: Aboriginal People in the tropical savannah of the Northern Territory (NT) own 170,000 sq km of land including 85% of the coastline. Land and sea country have great cultural, economic and social significance to Aboriginal people, underpinning their culture and society. Aboriginal landowners continue to be reliant on the natural environment for both spiritual and physical well-being. Creation ancestors form part of a living landscape and practices such as hunting, foraging, burning, caring for sacred sites and ceremony have an important place in contemporary Aboriginal life. These practices ensure the maintenance of spiritual, cultural and economic connections to land and sea.
From a scientific perspective these lands are some of the most biologically diverse and intact in the Northern Territory (and Australia). They support important biological values including nationally and internationally significant wetlands, migratory seabird and shorebird habitats and marine turtle nesting sites, rare and threatened species and endemic species. Many of these values are either very poorly represented or not represented at all in the Northern Territory's park system. Of the 23 bioregions represented in the Northern Territory, about one third occur predominantly on Aboriginal land.
Owning and managing lands of such significance brings with it many diverse challenges. In the mid 1990s, to better meet these challenges, Aboriginal traditional landowners in the tropical savannah of the NT began to formalise their land and sea management activities through the establishment of the Caring for Country programme or what are commonly referred to as ranger groups.
To date the Caring for Country programme has grown to include over 36 groups with up to 400 Aboriginal people employed in land and sea management. This seminar provides an overview of the Caring for Country Programme and examines how and why it works, as well as, what some of the challenges are that the programme faces.
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Living through a National Emergency: A view of the Intervention from Ground Zero
—
Bill Fogarty (Doctoral Scholar, CAEPR) and Marisa Fogarty (Doctoral Scholar, School for Social and Policy Research, Charles Darwin University)
Abstract: This seminar will provide a perspective on the Intervention from one of the largest Indigenous townships in the NT through the eyes of two doctoral research scholars who were researching in the community as the Intervention broke. The paper analyses the initial reactions of both the people of the region and their local organisations, as well as detailing their interactions with the Northern Territory Emergency Response Taskforce and other government agencies during the first month of the Intervention. In so doing, we posit the local experience of the Intervention as a transformative and traumatic moment in the township’s relationship with state and explore a deeper question around the nature of the intervention and its bearing upon the concept of state and local engagement in the post-Intervention period.
Please note: This seminar is available in both Streaming Audio and MP3 formats.
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A comparative analysis of the influence of think tanks on indigenous policy in Australia and the USA
—Nicole Watson (Research Fellow, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, UTS)
Abstract: One of the defining characteristics of Indigenous policy during the
Howard era was the emerging influence of conservative think tanks, and
in particular, the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) and the
Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership (CYIPL). While this
development mirrors other policy settings, there are some unique
features of the ideologies espoused by CIS and CYIPL. Both appear to
have a religious quest to transform Indigenous societies. I use the term 'religious' because so much of what they advocate rests on faith as opposed to evidence, both use apocalyptic language to describe
Indigenous communities and promise salvation for those who embrace
their faith. It is within this quest that the beliefs that shaped Native
American law and policy in the nineteenth century find resonance
and in particular, the maxim that individual property rights are
critical for the salvation of Indigenous people. Reforms to encourage
the growth of individual property rights did not occur in isolation, but
were implemented contemporaneously with measures to transform the social
fabric.
May 21
Challenges for sustainable governance in the development and
implementation of comprehensive mining agreements
—David Martin (Visiting Fellow, CAEPR)
Abstract: Agreement making, especially through Indigenous Land Use Agreements, is
an increasingly important aspect of native title practice. Major mining
agreements in particular are typically highly complex legally-driven
documents which focus on meeting or reconciling the various parties'
perceived aspirations and interests within a risk management framework.
However, comparatively little attention is given to agreements'
necessarily intercultural character, and their roles in social and
cultural as well as economic transformation. This seminar will focus on
three key arenas which, it is argued, are crucial in both the design and
implementation of sustainable agreements. Firstly, it argues that
inadequate attention is paid to the governance of agreements as systems.
Secondly, it outlines key implications of agreements being
'intercultural' institutions. Lastly, it proposes that the objective
reality of ongoing Aboriginal socio-cultural transformation must be
factored into both the design and implementation phases of agreements.
Please note: This seminar is available in both Streaming Audio and MP3 formats.
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The newspaper article referred to by David in this seminar is 'Argyle closing the Aboriginal gap' by Ruth Williams, The Age, 17 May 2008.
May 28
The politics of 'the gap' in Australia and New Zealand
—Tim Rowse, Research School of Social Sciences, ANU.
Abstract: This paper is part of a longer project about the history of
Indigenous population statistics in Australia, Canada and New
Zealand. In the contemporary use of official statistics by Indigenous
and non-Indigenous policy intellectuals, a particular understanding
of social justice has emerged. Public discussion highlights the
population binary 'Indigenous/non-Indigenous' and finds unjust the
'gap' between Indigenous and non-Indigenous values of certain
socio-economic variables. I will answer two questions:
(1) How did we
get the binary that we now use? I will identify moments in the recent
past in which there has been debate about where the boundary
(defining the Indigenous/non-Indigenous binary) should be placed.
(2)
What is the relationship between evoking the 'Indigenous people' (a
politico-juridical entity) and quantifying the 'Indigenous
population' (a socio-demographic entity)? Indigenous advocacy in
Australia and New Zealand does both, but there is a tension between
these two ideas. I will argue that our research and advocacy should
draw on the data about 'Indigenous population' to give more
consideration of the differences among the 'Indigenous people', in
order to develop a more complex theory of social justice.
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Literacy and remote Indigenous youth: Why social practice matters
—Jerry Schwab (Fellow, CAEPR) and Inge Kral (Post-Doctoral Fellow, CAEPR)
Abstract: Writing about literacy in the remote Aboriginal context rarely considers anthropological aspects such as whether literacy has been incorporated into social practice, and how we understand change, transmission and transformation in the evolving social practices and cultural conceptions of reading and writing across the generations in the remote world. In this seminar Jerry Schwab and Inge Kral suggest that, in addition to schooling, everyday social practice is critical to literacy acquisition, maintenance and development in remote contexts. Attention will be drawn to the social generational differences and changing modes of literacy from mission era alphabetic literacy practices to the digital literacy practices of youth today. The seminar will focus on the important role that youth-oriented organisations and programs have to play in supporting access to literacy resources and stimulating learning that is attractive to youth in remote contexts where school attendance and retention rates are poor.
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'Development' in Indigenous Australia: international meanings and local approaches
—Janet Hunt (Fellow, CAEPR)
Abstract: There is growing recognition that a 'development' approach to Indigenous communities could be useful, in contrast to (or to complement) a service delivery approach to Indigenous Affairs. But what does a development approach mean? There are many different ideas about what 'development' is and how it is achieved, and hence many different approaches to 'development'. This seminar will canvass some approaches to 'development' common in the international arena and critically explore how they are being articulated in Indigenous Australia, explicitly or implicitly.
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Indigenous Art - Securing the Future: The Senate inquiry into Australia's Indigenous visual arts and craft sector one year on.
—Cate Slocum (Doctoral Scholar, CAEPR)
Abstract: The recent passing away of a significant number of senior Aboriginal artists has raised concern about the future of Aboriginal art. This, together with reports of a market flooded with second-rate work and a lingering anxiety that the popularity of Aboriginal art may have run its course animates my research on the inter-generational shift in the production and market for Aboriginal art.
This seminar discusses the recent Senate inquiry into the Indigenous visual arts and craft sector and examines what progress, if any, has been made since the Senate released its report in June 2007. Providing the most recent overview of the sector, the recommendations of the Senate's report Indigenous Art - Securing the Future will be compared with those of previous reports in an attempt to determine the effectiveness of such inquiries on government policy and initiatives.
June 25
Reviewing the Northern Territory intervention one year on: Conceptual and methodological considerations and some observations
—Jon Altman (Director, CAEPR)
Abstract: The NTER intervention is to be reviewed one year on, as promised by the ALP in the lead up to the election. According to the original terms of the emergency intervention, the one year anniversary also marks the end of the proposed 'stabilisation' phase (although all intervention measures have not yet reached all prescribed communities) and the point of transition to the 'normalisation' phase.
This seminar explores the terms of reference for the independent review of the NTER and some of the challenges that it might face in conducting an evidence-based and constructive inquiry on this highly politicised issue in a review-cluttered environment. Some perspectives are provided on the possible approaches that might be taken to rigorously assess the efficacy of the intervention and to provide diverse community voices some central focus in the review process.
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