Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Aboriginal Australians Victoria Social conditions'

Aboriginal people in central and northern Australia for the past 20 years have been moving away from Aboriginal towns and fringe camps to establish outstations, or homelands centres: small, isolated communities of close kin and family living on traditional lands. The outstation movement, as the phenomenon has become known, is an attempt to preserve and revive the cultural practices and institutions which give Aboriginal society a sense of resilience. Outstations promote ~ltural identification, social cohesion and community well-being. They are important means of arresting and reversing the social and community crisis which Aboriginal people in the region have been experiencing for more than 100 years, particularly in the last 40 years. The outstation movement is a vehicle for Aboriginal empowerment. It is a,n attempt to recapture control over life, land and society. It is one of the many spontaneous expressions of Aboriginality in Australia today. Aboriginality is an assertion of Aboriginal identity and worth. v.Vhat is the significance of the outstation movement? Is it a form of political action or separatism? Perhaps it is nothing more than a series of desperate attempts by communities to escape a situation of extreme crisis. Or does it constitute something more coordinated and meaningful? What are the goals of outstation aspirants? Can such goals be achieved? Essentially, the outstation movement is about Aboriginal people striving to take control of their own lives. What is the nature of that empowerment?

The study is concerned with the history of black and white women in Australia during the colonial period. Particular emphasis is on the variety of cross-cultural relationships which developed between women during that time. As a starting point, male frontier violence is discussed and compared with the more moderate approach taken by women faced with threatening situations. Among Europeans, women are revealed as being generally less racist than men. This was a significant factor in their ability to forge bonds with black women and occasionally with black men. The way in which contacts with Aborigines were made is explored and the impact of them on the women concerned is assessed, as far as possible from both points of view. Until now, these experiences have been omitted from colonial history, yet I believe they were an important element in racial relations. It will be seen that some of these associations were warm, friendly and satisfying to both sides, and often included a good deal of mutual assistance. Others involved degrees of exploitation. Both are examined in detail, using a variety of sources which include the works of modern Aboriginal writers. This study presents a new aspect of the female experiences which was neglected until the emergence of the feminist historians in the 1960’s. It properly places women, both black and white, within Australian colonial history.

The hypothesis central to this study is that distinctly Aboriginal patterns of relationship between humans and dogs are still evident in contemporary Aboriginal groups. The relationship's sociological characteristics in traditional and contemporary settings and its implications for canine and human health are also investigated. Field research employing survey, quantitative observation and specimen analysis techniques was conducted in 9 Western Australian Aboriginal groups of various backgrounds and settings. Results were compared to historic-traditional accounts and dog ownership studies in non-Aboriginal groups. Traditionally dogs served Aboriginals most importantly for supernatural protection and to assist the collection of small game by women. In non-isolated groups, traditional utilitarian motives were superseded by the Western concept of dogs as companions. Demographically, the Aboriginal dog populations surveyed were relatively large, and most dogs were classified as medium sized non-descript cross-breds. Dogs were more commonly owned by adult and aged individuals, rather than by family units as is the Western cultural norm. Most dogs remained with their original owner and retained their original name for life. Traditional values of respect towards dogs were compromised to the discriminatory care of higher status animals only, effecting selection pressure against undesirable dogs, particularly females. Similarly, while many aged people were opposed to culling, most respondents regarded community pup production as excessive and accepted culling as necessary. Nevertheless prevention was the preferred option, with strong support for the previously unfamiliar concept of ovariohysterectomy. Pups were raised in some respects like children in the traditional manner, indulgence giving way in adulthood to expectations of self-reliance rather than obedience. Most dogs were in good physical and psychological condition, though more likely to be afflicted by sarcoptic mange than other Australian dogs. Other parasites occurred at or below expected frequencies. Close physical contact with dogs coupled with favourable microclimates allowed ample opportunity for transmission of canine zoonoses, but the actual risk to human health remains poorly documented.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media & Philosophy, Department of Anthropology, 2006.
Bibliography: p. 257-276.
Introduction: coming to Wilcannia -- Wilcannia: plenty of Aborigines, but no culture -- Who you is? -- Cultural values: ambivalences and ambiguities -- Praise, success and opportunity -- "Art an' culture: the two main things, right?" -- Big Murray Butcher: "We still doin' it" -- Granny Moisey's baby: the art of Badger Bates -- Epilogue.
Dominant society discourses and images have long depicted the Aboriginal people of the town of Wilcannia in far Western New South Wales as having no 'culture'. In asking what this means and how this situation might have come about, the thesis seeks to respond through an ethnographic exploration of these discourses and images. The work explores problematic and polemic dominant society assumptions regarding 'culture' and 'Aboriginal culture', their synonyms and their effects. The work offers Aboriginal counter-discourses to the claim of most white locals and dominant culture that the Aboriginal people of Wilcannia have no culture. In so doing the work presents reflexive notions about 'culture' as verbalised and practiced, as well as providing an ethnography of how culture is more tacitly lived. -- Broadly, the thesis looks at what it is to be Aboriginal in Wilcannia from both white and black perspectives. The overarching concern of this thesis is a desire to unpack what it means to be black in Wilcannia. The thesis is primarily about the competing values and points of view within and between cultures, the ways in which Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people tacitly and reflexively express and interpret difference, and the ambivalence and ambiguity that come to bear in these interactions and experiences. This thesis demonstrates how ideas and actions pertaining to 'race' and 'culture' operate in tandem through an exploration of values and practices relating to 'work', 'productivity', 'success', 'opportunity' and the domain of 'art'. These themes are used as vehicles to understanding the 'on the ground' effects and affects of cultural perceptions and difference. They serve also to demonstrate the ambiguity and ambivalence that is experienced as well as being brought to bear upon relationships which implicitly and explicitly are concerned with, and concern themselves with difference.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
xii, 276 p. ill

This thesis investigates the social and racial dynamics of life in the West Kimberley between 1944 and 1969. It identifies three groups defined by their racial characteristics which co-existed on the land: full-descent, mixed-descent and Gudia. It argues that despite many people in these different groups being related to each other, their lives followed different trajectories as a result of government policies and laws which defined people by their degree of Aboriginality. These racial categories were reflected in the social and economic relations of full-descent, mixed descent and Gudia people. Coexistence of these groups is analysed by focusing on one extended mixed-descent 'Nygkina' family. During the 1940s, 50s. and 60s, the children of Fulgentius and Phillipena Fraser left their mission haven and entered the world of employment under Gudia management. In 1944, a young 21 year old Spaniard, Francisco Casanova-Rodriguez, ventured to the Kimberley to work as a station hand. Rodriguez crossed paths with the Frasers in 1946 and he married their eldest daughter, Katie, in December of that year. He was accepted into the mixed-descent family, where kindred relationships deepened by virtue of mutual religious belief systems, amidst a life of discrimination and financial hardships. Rodriguez and Katie were devout Catholics and that became the strength of their relationship. An insight into this family's coexistence with Gudia during the twentieth century is extracted from Rodriguez's diaries, oral histories collected from the Fraser family and associates, and from government archival files. With their mission training the Fraser children became subservient employees to Gudia pastoralists and town business people. Rodriguez taught himself his trade as a builder,-and he, too, worked for pastoralists in an industry that was expected to flourish. But the certainty of a profitable sheep industry never eventuated, and by the early 1970s there were no sheep stations operating in the region. Neither were there many Aboriginal people living and working on the stations. Most had relocated to the towns. Full-descent people lived on reserves, while both mixed-descent and Gudia people lived either in their own homes, or in Housing Commission houses.

As an imagined space of suburban normalcy, Weipa North, far north Queensland, is in a transition of governance, from a Comalco controlled space to a local government entity. 'Normalisation1 of the 'company town' is revealed as a mechanism of regulation, excluding the local Aboriginal community of Napranum which is constructed as Weipa North's 'other'. This thesis focuses on the process of normalising' Weipa North through the experience of young Aboriginal people, and argues that normalisation' of Weipa North will not lead to Aboriginal reconciliation within the Weipa area. Marginalisation of young Aboriginal people's concerns and aspirations surrounding issues of 'normalisation', it is argued, undermines the potential for reconciliation where Comalco assumes connections to country and culture are irrelevant to young Aboriginal people

Over the two centuries since the arrival of European settlers in Australia, the material culture and lifestyle of the indigenous Aboriginal people of Australia has undergone dramatic change. Based on qualitative fieldwork in three remote Aboriginal communities in north-western Australia, this study examines the emergence of unique consumer cultures that appear to differ significantly from mainstream Australia and indeed from other societies. The study finds that the impact of non-indigenous goods and external cultural values upon these communities has been significant. However, although anthropologists feared some fifty years ago that Aboriginal cultural values and traditions had been destroyed, this study concludes that they are still powerful moderating forces in each of the communities studied. The most powerful are non-possessiveness, immediacy in consumption, and a strong sharing ethos. Unlike findings in the so-called Second and Third Worlds, these Fourth World consumer cultures have not developed an unquenchable desire for manufactured consumer goods. Instead, non-traditional consumption practices have been modified by tradition oriented practices. The consumer cultures that have emerged through a synthesis of global and local values and practices have involved Aboriginal adoption, adaption and resistance practices. This process has resulted in both positive and negative impacts on the Aboriginal people of these communities. Ways of dealing with the negative effects have been suggested, while the positive effects have been highlighted as examples of what can possibly be learned from Aboriginal culture. The study also finds differences between the emerging consumer cultures of each community, concluding that this can be attributed to historical and cultural differences. The main conclusion is that the development of a global consumer culture is by no means inevitable.

"December 2006".
Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, Division of Environmental and Life Sciences, Department of Human Geography, 2007.
Bibliography: p. 284-307.
Introduction -- Case-study area profile and methodology -- A walkabout race?: contemporary Aboriginal mobilities in Yamatji country -- State service provision and Aboriginal mobilities -- Security and belonging: re-conceptualising Aboriginal mobilities -- Security and belonging and the mainstream economy -- The ties that bind: negotiating security and belonging through family -- Conclusion.
This dissertation explores contemporary Aboriginal spatial practices in Yamatji country, Western Australia, within the context of rural service provision by the State government. The central themes with which it engages are a) historical and contemporary conceptualisations of Aboriginal spatialities; b) the lived experiences of Aboriginal mobilities in the region; and c) the dialectical, and often contentious, relationship between Aboriginal spatial practices and public health, housing, and education services. Drawing primarily on a range of field interviews, the thesis opens up a discursive space for examining the cultural content and hidden assumptions in constructions of 'appropriate' models of spatial mobility. In taking a policy-oriented focus, it argues that the appropriate provision of basic government services requires a shift away from overly simplistic assumptions and discourses of Aboriginal mobility. Until the often subtle practices of rendering particular Aboriginal mobilities as irrational, deviant, and/or mysterious are challenged and replaced, deep-colonising practices in rural and remote Australia will persist. --The thesis reconceptualises contemporary Aboriginal spatial practices in Yamatji country based upon an examination of dynamics and circumstances that undergird Aboriginal mobilities in the region. With this empirical focus, it argues that Aboriginal spatial practices are fashioned by the processes of procuring, cultivating and contesting a sense of security and belonging. Case study material presented suggests that two primary considerations inform these processes. A post-settlement history of contested alienation from family and country (both sources from which belonging and security were traditionally derived), and a changing engagement with mainstream social and economic institutions, have produced a context in which security and belonging are iteratively derived from a number of sources. Contemporary Aboriginal spatial practices therefore take a complex variety of forms. The thesis concludes that adopting the framework of security and belonging for interpreting contemporary Aboriginal mobilities provides a starting point for engaging more effectively and intentionally with dynamic Aboriginal spatial practices in service delivery policy and practice.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
x, 320 p. ill., maps

Bibliography: leaves 64-66. Argues that the sustainable lifestyle of traditional Aboriginal communities acheived the teleological harmony suggested as a possible conceptual framework for the emerging area of study known as ecological economics.

Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, Division of Environmental and Life Sciences, Department of Human Geography, 2007.
"November 2006".
Bibliography: p. 352-398.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
xvi, 399 p. ill., maps

This thesis is an anthropological study of local understandings of economic development in a small regional town in far North Queensland, Australia. How do preferences regarding lifestyle and social wellbeing impact on those living in the community? The study takes a particular interest in the aspirations, values and choices of the residents and their desires for the future and the future of their town. Throughout this thesis I argue that social wellbeing and lifestyle are important factors in Cardwell residents' choices and feature predominantly in their approaches to economic development. I contextualise this study through a comparative analysis of the effects of economic development on the wellbeing and lifestyle of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in the Cardwell region of north Australia. This comparison arises firstly from an anthropological interest in the circumstances of Australian Aboriginal people as a significant minority in regional towns. Explicit attention is directed toward the Aboriginal people of the Cardwell region as they constitute a socially and culturally distinct sector of the local population. Secondly, my study explores ways in which comparative work of this kind may be instructive on cultural issues relevant to economic development. This is a study of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, who live in similar circumstances, and who, I propose, regard factors other than economic development as important. It is argued that while the Cardwell region does not provide ample nor a variety of economic opportunities, outward migration remains undesirable to many residents.

The thesis is an exploratory analysis and evaluation of criminal justice devolution on the Aboriginal settlement of Palm Island, Queensland. Embracing a community centric approach, the work commences with an analysis of the historical development of the community from its inception to the modern day. Used as a starting point, the thesis then proceeds to explore the two theoretical concepts which underlie the broader devolution movement. The institution and the goal towards its more effective and efficient operation - through the use of more grassroot, contingency-based, organizational structures; the community and the goal towards re-establishing its cohesive, collective nature - through the use and encouragement of more informal processes of human thought, interaction, and social control. The work goes on to demonstrate how this devolution process has been manifested in the Queensland criminal justice context and in direct relation to Palm Island itself This examination includes the police, adjudication/ court, and correction services available within the state. The general conclusion is that while the devolution process has some weaknesses it has improved the overall quality of these services. Yet, while the process has shown some signs of early success, there are notable dangers related to its development, especially those which relate to the greater subversion of the Aboriginal people into the hands of the state. Ultimately it is concluded that the process' future success is dependent on two things. The willingness of the Aboriginal people to actively participate in these mechanisms and the state's capacity to relinquish its institutional power. If these do not coincide, these mechanisms will fail and crime will continue to burden Palm Island and other communities like it.

"August 2006"
Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, Division of Law, 2007.
Bibliography: p. 343-364.
Abstract -- Candidate's certification -- Acknowledgements -- Acronyms -- Chapter one -- Chapter two: Linking public participation to environmental decision making and natural resources management -- Chapter three: The right to public participation -- Chapter four: Implementing the right to public participation in environmental decision making : the participation of indigenous peoples in the conservation and management of protected areas -- Chapter five: The legal and policy regime for the participation of indigenous peoples in the conservation and management of protected areas in Australia -- Chapter six: The legal and policy regime for the participation of indigenous peoples in the conservation and management of protected areas in Uganda -- Chapter seven: Implementing public participation in environmental decision making in Australia and Uganda : a comparative analysis -- Chapter eight: The right to public participation in enviromental decision making and natural resources management : summary and conclusions -- Bibliography.
In recognition of the importance of public participation as a basis for good governance and democracy, Mr Kofi Annan, Secretary General to the United Nations, has noted that: "Good governance demands the consent and participation of the governed and the full participation and lasting involvement of all citizens in the future of their nation. The will of the people must be the basis of governmental authority. That is the foundation of democracy. That is the foundation of good governance Good governance will give every citizen, young or old, man or woman, a real and lasting stake in the future of his or her society". The above quotation encapsulates the essence of what this thesis has set out to do; to examine the concept of public participation and its application in environmental governance within the context of the participation of indigenous peoples in the conservation and management of protected areas in Australia and Uganda. The concept of public participation is of such intrinsic importance that it has emerged as one of the fundamental principles underpinning environmental governance and therefore forms the basis for this study. -- Environmental governance, as a concept that captures the ideal of public participation, is basically about decisions and the manner in which they are made. It is about who has 'a seat at the table' during deliberations and how the interests of affected communities and ecosystems are represented. It is also about how decision makers are held responsible for the integrity of the process and for the results of their decisions. It relates to business people, property owners, farmers and consumers. Environmental governance is also about the management of actions relating to the environment and sustainable development. It includes individual choices and actions like participating in public hearings or joining local watchdog groups or, as consumers, choosing to purchase environmentally friendly products. -- The basic principles behind good governance and good environmental decision making have been accepted for more than a decade. The 178 nations that attended the Rio Summit in 1992 all endorsed these nvironmental governance principles when they signed the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (Rio Declaration) - a charter of 27 principles meant to guide the world community towards sustainable development. The international community re-emphasised the importance of these principles at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. -- The right to public participation in nvironmental decision making and natural resources management is one of the 27 principles endorsed by the nations of the world and is embodied in the provisions of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration.
Environmental decisions occur in many contexts. They range from personal choices like whether to walk or drive to work, how much firewood to burn, or whether to have another child. They encompass the business decisions that communities or corporations make about where to locate their facilities, how much to emphasise eco-friendly product design and how much land to preserve. They include national laws enacted to conserve the environment, to regulate pollution, manage public land or regulate trade. They take into account international commitments made to regulate trade in endangered species or limit acid rain or C02 emissions. -- Environmental decisions also involve a wide range of actors: individuals; local, state and national governments; community and tribal authorities such as indigenous peoples; civic organisations; interested groups; labour unions; national and transactional corporations; scientists; and international bodies such as the United Nations, the European Union, and the World Trade Organisation. -- Each of the actors have different interests, different levels of authority and different information, making their actions complex and frequently putting their decisions at odds with each other and with ecological processes that sustain the natural systems we depend on. -- Accordingly, this thesis aims to examine participation in environmental decision making in a way that demonstrates these complexities and interdependencies. It will explore the theoretical and conceptual basis for public participation and how it is incorporated into international and domestic environmental and natural resources law and policy. -- It will examine public participation in the context of the legal and policy framework for the conservation and management of protected areas and will use case studies involving the participation of indigeneous peoples in Australia and Uganda to provide the basis for a comparative analysis. -- The thesis will also faces on a comparative analysis of the effectiveness and meaningfulness of the process for public participation in environmental decision making in Australia and Uganda. There is extensive literature on the purposes to which participation may be put; the stages in the project cycle at which it should be employed; the level and power with regard to the decision making process which should be afforded to the participants; the methods which may be appropriate under the different circumstances, as well as detailed descriptions of methods; approaches and forms or typologies of public participation; and the benefits and problems of such participation.
However, there is not much significant literature that examines and analyses the meaningfulness and effectiveness of the contextual processes of such participation. This is despite the widespread belief in the importance and value of public participation, particularly by local and indigenous communities, even in the face of disillusionment caused by deceit, manipulation and tokenism. Accordingly, the thesis will use case studies to demonstrate the meaningfulness and effectiveness or otherwise of public participation in environmental decision making in protected area management. -- Increasingly, the terminology of sustainable development is more appropriate to describe contemporary policy objectives in this area, with an emphasis on promoting local livelihood and poverty alleviation within the constraints of ecosystem management. However, the domestic legal frameworks, and institutional development, in Australia and Uganda tend to reflect earlier concepts of environmental and natural resources management (referred to as environmental management in this thesis). There are some significant differences between a North (developed) nation and a South (developing) nation, in terms of the emphasis on economic objectives, political stability, resources and legal and administrative capacity. The thesis intends to explore these differences for the comparative analysis and to draw on them to highlight the complexities and interdependencies of public participation by indigenous peoples in environmental decision making, natural resources and protected area management.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
377 p

Since the early days of the colonization of Australia, governments have established commissions and committes of inquiry to investigate and to provide them with advice about solutions to the Aboriginal 'problem'.' These inquiries, as Woenne notes, have also had an educative aspect, informing the general public of the 'true state of affairs' of the Aboriginal situation, (woenne 1979:324-56) The passing of the 1967 referendum and the establishment of Aboriginals as an issue of public interest has seen an increasing reliance by governments on the advisory and educative functions of such inquiries. Current policies of self-determination and self-management have contributed to this trend as governments have established inquiries to consult with Aborigines and provide them with advice that ostensibly reflects Aboriginal needs and desires. Despite this trend there are few studies of such inquiries. (Woenne 1979 and Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies 1984) This thesis is about one of these inquiries, that of the House of Representatives Standing Committed on Aboriginal Affairs into fringe-dwelling Aboriginal communities.

Our knowledge of Aboriginal demography in Australia at a national level is limited by the lack of conformity of the census counts on the size of the population and the unavailability of vital data. Hence, regional and small area studies were found useful to reveal the recent patterns of Aboriginal demography. This study begins with a review of Aboriginal demography at a national level. The distinct demographic characteristics of the Aboriginal population are pointed out in comparison with the total population of the country. The study then focuses on a regional level, Central Australia, for a closer examination of mortality and fertility levels, patterns, trends and differentials. It confirms that the levels of Aboriginal mortality and fertility in Central Australia are substantially higher than those of the total population of the country and are similar to those found for the Aboriginal population elsewhere; however, it registers, for the first time through a single study on a particular population, the occurrence of a process of steady decline in Aboriginal mortality and establishes that this decline in mortality is largely due to the reduction in deaths from diseases of the circulatory and respiratory systems, which are in the meantime still the leading causes of death of the Aboriginal people. Aboriginal fertility was found to be very high in the early ages of childbearing and the observed decline is mostly due to the reduction of fertility of the older women of 30 and over and younger women of 15-19. A detailed study of the demographic characteristics of the Aboriginal population in Alice Springs revealed that while as a whole the characteristics of Alice Springs Aborigines are similar to those of Aborigines elsewhere, different patterns of socio-economic and historical conditions have led to the emergence of two demographically distinct Aboriginal groups in Alice Springs; those Aborigines who live in the town proper and those who live in the town camps. While the majority of those Aborigines who migrated to the town proper came from other urban centres, most of the town campers are rural-urban migrants mostly from ether Aboriginal settlements and stations in Central Australia.

For 35 years, Aboriginal self-determination policy privileged local autonomy in the autonomy-relatedness dynamic central to Aboriginal sociality. This privileging brought a major change to Aboriginal sociality and collective identity. The self in self-determination policy had a strongly local focus through which it was thought community development would thrive. Key connected factors in the privileging of local autonomy are socio-cultural reification, juridification and entification. The reification is with respect to identity associated with land-based tradition. All three of these factors are contrary to the profound processes of relatedness in the Australian Aboriginal domain. The so-called intervention by the Commonwealth into Northern Territory Aboriginal affairs in 2007 dramatically changed the policy settings in the NT at least. But local autonomy remains privileged over relatedness. As such, this thesis argues, the foundation for an Aboriginal civil society able to negotiate the now very fluid policy environment and make the most of the opportunities presented in community development projects like the thesis case studies in fact remains generally weak. The thesis argues that recognition of relatedness is the basis of civil society in the Aboriginal domain and a key to improvements in Australian Aboriginal communities, without dismissing local autonomy. The common good inherent in community development is limited without this recognition. So is cultural match, said to be important in development project governance in the Indigenous domain. The thesis examines these matters through three case studies, community development projects that use moneys paid to Aboriginal people from the use of Aboriginal land for mining and a national park. An important finding is that autonomy-relatedness balance reflected in the governance arrangements of community development projects is needed for Aboriginal people to properly identify with the projects and thus participate meaningfully in them in order to realise tangible and sustainable community benefits from them. Meanwhile, commercial development like mining continues to favour the certainty afforded in the localising factors of reification, juridification and entification. Aboriginal self-determination has been characterised as a policy of disengagement of wider society from Aboriginal people. Consistent with this, and again contrary to relatedness, an underlying theme in the thesis is that of separation. As well as the disengagement of the policy, this separation includes the separation of some Aboriginal people from other Aboriginal people arising from locally emplaced identity, tradition from modernity and community development from economic development and the market economy. At this level, the thesis points to the importance of an intercultural approach to development entertaining the notion of hybridity including that of the hybrid economy. This is not to deny the benefits of self-determination policy over its policy predecessors, much less to suggest a return to assimilation policy in particular, but to suggest some ways to help resolve the serious problems still facing remote Aboriginal communities as well as to flag the limitations of community development in this context.

"September 2002." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 336-366) Argues that the Australian nation is the primary obstacle to the granting of self-determination to indigenous people because it is imagined and constituted as a monocultural entity, one that resists any divisions within the national space on the basis of culture or 'race'.

"September 2002."
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 336-366)
vii, 366 leaves ; 30 cm.
Argues that the Australian nation is the primary obstacle to the granting of self-determination to indigenous people because it is imagined and constituted as a monocultural entity, one that resists any divisions within the national space on the basis of culture or 'race'.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Politics, 2002

The Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AlAS) was set up to record Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures before they disappeared forever. Proposed by Liberal parliamentarian WC Wentworth in 1959, the Commonwealth Government established it in 1961 and made it permanent through an Act of Parliament in 1964. This history focuses on its first thirty years, ending in 1989, the year the Institute came under a new Act, which introduced changes to its character and governance. In the 1960s, the Institute's focus was on 'traditional' Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and most research took place in remote Australia. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had no input into the Institute's activities other than as 'informants'. By 1989, they were involved in all facets of the Institute's operations including its governance. Informed by the work of Michel Foucault on power/knowledge and truth and on governmentality, and in the context of the broader political and social environment, this thesis will explore the history of AlAS to identify the factors, both internal and external, that led to the changes. It will address the Institute's relationship with the Academy (including the conflict between academic disciplines within AlAS), and the ideological battles for its control between academics; Aboriginal people and the Academy; and Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal scholars and the government. It will seek to explain how a relatively powerless group of Aboriginal people (with the help of their non-Aboriginal supporters) managed, over time and in the face of the power of the Academy, to control the Institute.

Bibliography : leaves 351-380
xxii, 380 [37] leaves : ill., map ; 30 cm.
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of History, 1994?

This work presents an overview of housing at Oak Valley, a remote Aboriginal community in the Maralinga Tjarutja Lands and paints a broad contextual picture of the political processes and resultant housing. It examines specific cultural and environmental issues relevant to the population and remote areas of South Australia, documents the process and structures for the provision of housing and investigates the subsequent housing types
http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=679955
Thesis(M. Env. Stud.)--, 1999

This work presents an overview of housing at Oak Valley, a remote Aboriginal community in the Maralinga Tjarutja Lands and paints a broad contextual picture of the political processes and resultant housing. It examines specific cultural and environmental issues relevant to the population and remote areas of South Australia, documents the process and structures for the provision of housing and investigates the subsequent housing types
Thesis (M. Env. Stud.) -- University of Adelaide, Mawson Graduate Centre for Environmental Studies, 1999

Redfern Kids Connect is a community technology project that has run in inner-city Sydney since 2002. Redfern is known to many as the heart of urban Aboriginal Australia and as a diverse community facing challenges around poverty, crime and race relations. For three years, children (8-12 years old), and volunteers (university students and young professionals) have met each Saturday to play on computers and socialise. The project’s experiences with relationships, technology, and empowerment have been as confusing as they have been exciting. In the spirit of action research, this thesis explores the impacts the project has had. Uniquely embedded in the process of reflection occurring away from its on-the-ground activities, it tells the project’s story through the eyes of its volunteers. The research concludes that the project's main contributions to empowerment have been through building social capital (Cox, Putnam) and improving new forms of literacy (Warschauer). Vital to supporting and extending these outcomes have been taking a social approach to supporting technology use, shaping a safe and open environment (Marvin et. al), supporting critical thinking and expression (Freire) and examining the project 'behind the scenes'. The author takes the dual role of researcher and participant in the research.
Master of Arts (Hons)

This study is a focus on a small minority group within Australian society. This study attempts to explore and expose the inherent injustices experienced by this Aboriginal group since colonization. Its major focus is the loss of their land and their human rights and dignity subsequent to this invasion/ colonization. It also attempts, subsequent to the High Court decision in favour of Aboriginal land ownership, to also theologically support that stance. This study exposes the heretical nature of the traditional theology and religious practices of the dominant white population. It also tries to show the correlation with the experience of the Maori people in New Zealand and how they lost their land to the British Monarch. It then attempts some directives for reconciliation between these peoples and what could be done to restore the damage done since 1788.
Theology
M.Th. (Systematic Theology)