Indigenous Mobilities: Across the Antipodes and Beyond

Abstract

Fittingly published on the eve of Tuia 250, Indigenous Mobilities urges us to think harder and with much more depth about the precise nature of colonial contact with Indigenous peoples and settlement on Indigenous land in the antipodes. Given our geographic proximity, the 200 or so year history of Māori in Australia and our entwined if equally divergent political history, it is surprising that scholarship taking in both the Australian and New Zealand contexts does not appear more frequently. Indeed, it is notable how often Aboriginal Australia is not brought into conversation with New Zealand Māori histories, experiences and aspirations. A welcome addition to scholarship which actively seeks Indigenous–Indigenous connection and recognition of our shared region, Indigenous Mobilities asks what happens when we read Māori and Aboriginal mobility alongside each other. The picture that emerges is a richly hued canvas of lives fully lived and places fully inhabited against a backdrop of colonial oppression.