| Main Title: |
Indifferent inclusion : Aboriginal people and the Australian nation / Russell McGregor. |
|
| Author: |
McGregor, Russell, 1955-
|
| Imprint: |
Canberra : Aboriginal Studies Press, 2011. |
| Collation: |
xxv, 229 p., [12] p. of plates : ill., portraits, facsims, notes, bib., index, pbk ; 23 cm. |
| Summary: |
Prologue: The crimson thread of whiteness -- 1. Preserving the national complexion -- 2. Primitive possibilities -- 3. Aboriginal activists demand acceptance -- 4. Restricted reconstruction -- 5. To live as we do -- 6. Assimilation and integration -- 7. Enriching the nation -- 8. Fellow Australians -- 9. After the referendum.
McGregor offers a holistic interpretation of the complex relationship between Indigenous and settler Australians during the midle four decades of the twentieth century. Combining the perspectives of political, social and cultural history in a coherent narrative, he provides a cogent analysis of how the relationship changed, and the impediments to change. McGregor's focus is on the quest for Aboriginal inclusion in the Australia nation; a task which dominated the Aboriginal agenda at the time. McGregor challenges existing scholarship and assumptions, particularly around assimilation. In doing so he provides an understanding of why assimilation once held the approval of many reformers, including Indigenous activists. He reveals that the inclusion of Aboriginal people in the Australian nation was not a function of political lobbying and parliamentary decision-making. Rather, it depended at least as much on Aboriginal people's public profile, and the way their demonstrated abilities partially wore down the apathy and indifference of settler Australians. |
| Subject: |
First Nations Australians - - Government policy
First Nations Australians - - Contemporary life
First Nations Australians - - Politics and Australian culture
First Nations Australians
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| ISBN: |
9780855757793 (pbk.) |
| Notes: |
Includes bibliographical references (p. 220-222) and index.
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