Abstract

This paper is based on the 11 th annual Doireann MacDermott public lecture presented at the Universitat de Barcelona in November, 2010. It is a critique of discourses and representations in Australian society, and indeed, embedded in all western societies (and many non-western societies I suspect) which support and reinforce artificial binary oppositions which make up social structures and institutions. Binary oppositions reinforce oppositional power dynamics, making one term positive and the other negative, not recognizing categories in-between. Linguistically, for example, the terms ‘Indigenous’ and ‘non-Indigenous’ articulate a false dichotomy between people who, empirically, are not two discrete groups, but rather, multiple groups within each category which interact within and between groups in complex and fluid engagements.

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