Redefining the ‘Aboriginal Problem’

Abstract

Social liberal logics informed the official Australian policy of ‘selfdetermination’. From the mid-1970s until the mid-1990s, federal governments acted to establish progressive systems of self-management and legislative recognition (Jull 2004; Stokes and Jull 2000; Murphy 2000; Gibson 1999). The centrepiece of this policy regime was the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC). ATSIC operated through an elected regional council structure and was thus positioned as an authentic Indigenous political voice (Murphy 2000). The selfdetermination approach overlapped with and supported a social ‘reconciliation’ agenda, whereby the state aimed to reform mainstream attitudes and address past injustices (Gunstone 2007; Gooder and Jacobs 2002). Within the self-determination/reconciliation framework, Indigenous peoples were positioned as disadvantaged through collective historical exclusion but deserving of full inclusion in the Australian nation-state. It was the responsibility of mainstream governments to enact this inclusion through legislation, social welfare and support for limited forms of autonomy (Gibson 1999).