Two visions of Indigenous economic development and cultural survival: The ‘real economy’ and the ‘hybrid economy’

Abstract

Noel Pearson and Jon Altman are two of the central intellectual figures in the contemporary debate on how to address the poverty and disadvantage of Indigenous Australians living in remote regions. This article compares their visions for Indigenous economic development. Pearson advocates greater integration of Indigenous people into what he calls the ‘real economy’, but Altman has produced an alternative approach to Indigenous development – the ‘hybrid economy’ approach – which he suggests is more in keeping with the aspirations of many Aboriginal people to maintain a degree of autonomy from non-Indigenous Australians and to continue living close to ancestral lands. This article argues that both men should be understood as advocates for Indigenous self-determination, but different ways of conceptualising Indigenous autonomy and cultural survival has led them to contrasting policy positions.

在如何解决边远地区澳大利亚原住民的贫困及弱势问题的当代辩论中，诺埃尔·皮尔森和章·沃特曼是两位核心思想者。本文比较了这两个人对于原住民经济发展的愿景。皮尔森主张原住民更多地融入他所谓的实际经济，而沃特曼的思路却不一样，他是一种杂糅思路，认为应该依从许多原住民的愿望，在一定程度上独立于澳大利亚非原住民，继续生活在祖先的土地上。本文认为，两人都是原住民自觉的提倡者，只是他们思考原住民的自治及文化生存的思路有所不同，从而导致了矛盾的政策立场。

Keywords:

• indigenous Australians
• indigenous development
• hybrid economy
• real economy
• self-determination

Acknowledgements

For helpful feedback on earlier versions of this article, the author would like to thank Will Sanders, as well as audiences at the CAEPR seminar of 2 October 2013, Australian National University, Canberra, the International Political Science Association Conference on Indigenous Identity Politics, Macquarie University, Sydney, 11–14 July 2013, and the Australian Social Policy Conference, UNSW, Sydney, 16–18 September 2013.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this research was provided by the Australian Research Council and the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations [LP100200203].