New collaborations in old institutional spaces: setting a new research agenda to transform Indigenous-settler relations

ABSTRACT

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people navigate the social and political order of the Australian settler state in ways that seek to increase their personal freedoms and political autonomy. For some groups this means seeking a firmer place within the social, political and economic life of Australia, and for others it means navigating away, towards a more distant relationship based in the resurgence of Indigenous nationhood. This navigation is composed of multifaceted and multidirectional relations between Indigenous Australians, settler Australians, and the settler state. As a discipline, political science must move beyond the study of settler institutions and begin to engage more comprehensively in research that considers the dynamics and structures of Indigenous-settler relations as a matter of priority.

原住民及托利海峡岛民游弋于澳大利亚定居者国家的社会政治秩序中，希望能提高他们的个人自由和政治自主。对于一些群体，这意味着在澳大利亚的社会、政治以及经济生活中找到一个更稳定的位置。而对于另一些群体来说，这意味着游向他方，前往一种复兴原住民国家的更遥远的关系。这种游弋包含了原住民、定居者以及定居者国家之间多面且多向的关系 。政治学作为一门学科，应当不仅仅研究定居者的体制，而应优先对原住民-定居者关系的动力及结构做更全面的研究。

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous-settler relations
• political science
• Australia
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
• settler colonialism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr Sana Nakata is co-directors of the Indigenous–Settler Relations Collaboration at The University of Melbourne.

Prof Sarah Maddison is co-directors of the Indigenous–Settler Relations Collaboration at The University of Melbourne.

ORCID

Sana Nakata http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6344-0554

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by Australian Research Council.