Histories of the colonisation of Australia have recognised distinct periods or eras in the colonial relationship: ‘protection’ and ‘assimilation’. It is widely understood that, in 1973, the Whitlam Government initiated a new policy era: ‘self-determination’. Yet, the defining features of this era, as well as how, why and when it ended, are far from clear. In this collection we ask: how shall we write the history of self-determination? How should we bring together, in the one narrative, innovations in public policy and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander initiatives? How (dis)continuous has ‘self-determination’ been with ‘assimilation’ or with what came after? Among the contributions to this book there are different views about whether Australia is still practising ‘self-determination’ and even whether it ever did or could. This book covers domains of government policy and Indigenous agency including local government, education, land rights, the outstation movement, international law, foreign policy, capital programs, health, public administration, mission policies and the policing of identity. Each of the contributors is a specialist in his/her topic. Few of the contributors would call themselves ‘historians’, but each has met the challenge to consider Australia’s recent past as an era animated by ideas and practices of Indigenous self-determination.

This volume represents the proceedings of a conference celebrating the International Year for the World's Indigenous Peoples, held in Townsville, Queensland, in 1993.

If governments of Australia agreed to share power with Aboriginal people, what would the result be? And if Australia was to have a settlement or a treaty with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, what would a treaty deal with and how would a treaty affect the general public? Is there anything beyond a treaty?Treaty and Statehood: Aboriginal Self-determination, by Aboriginal author Michael Mansell, answers these questions and more. Mansell examines the New Zealand model of designated Māori seats and applies the idea to comprise 12 Indigenous Senators in Australia. He argues designated seats and a treaty are constitutionally permissible, and details the possible content for a treaty. He discusses the meaning of self-determination and its limitations, and also thoroughly reviews Aboriginal sovereignty and its function in a modern Australia.The book critically examines the legality of designated seats, treaty, sharing of power and autonomous communities. The legal examination is broken down into easy-to-understand language. Ultimately, Mansell looks at whether justice can best be served to Aboriginal people through a new State of Australia.This new idea of a seventh State - or First State for the First peoples, as the author prefers - is constitutionally legal. Its practicality is also critically examined, including the rights each Aboriginal community or 'nation' would have under statehood.This is a book that answers our query about what reconciliation ultimately means and how it can be achieved."His strongly expressed opinions are always sincere and soundly argued: they may appear at first provocative or over-idealistic, but just wait; in years to come they are likely to be seen as a prescient articulation of a way forward for securing the dignity of our first Australians." - Geoffrey Robertson QC, from the ForewordIn the media...An Indigenous seventh state: a radical idea from a constitutional conservative, Stan Grant, ABC News, 3 Jun 2017 Read article...New book examines 'justice', Jillian Mundy, The Koori Mail, 25 January 2017 Read article...Aboriginal lawyer and activist Michael Mansell has written a new book, Holly Monery, The Examiner, 28 December 2016 Read article...Mansell draws new boundaries for Aboriginal state, Wendy Caccetta, National Indigenous Times, 21 December 2016 Read article...Treaty's benefits, Opinion Letter by Michael Mansell, The Australian, 19 December 2016 Read letter...Indigenous spending to double, warns Michael Mansell, Stephen Fitzpatrick, The Australian, 16 December 2016 Read article...Michael Mansell on Sky News, The Bolt Report with Andrew Bolt, 15 December 2016 Listen to interview...Australia should create seventh state run by Indigenous people, lawyer Michael Mansell says, Dan Conifer, ABC News, 14 December 2016 Read article...

A comparative approach to the Indigeneity and the experience of colonisation. From Australia to the Solomons, to the USA to Canada, the experience of colonisation in those colonies involved either the introduction of a common law system or an introduced civil law system.

In 2007, 144 UN member states voted to adopt a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US were the only members to vote against it. Each eventually changed its position. This book explains why and examines what the Declaration could mean for sovereignty, citizenship and democracy in liberal societies such as these. It takes Canadian Chief Justice Lamer’s remark that ‘we are all here to stay’ to mean that indigenous peoples are ‘here to stay’ as indigenous. The book examines indigenous and state critiques of the Declaration but argues that, ultimately, it is an instrument of significant transformative potential showing how state sovereignty need not be a power that is exercised over and above indigenous peoples. Nor is it reasonably a power that displaces indigenous nations’ authority over their own affairs. The Declaration shows how and why, and this book argues that in doing so, it supports more inclusive ways of thinking about how citizenship and democracy may work better. The book draws on the Declaration to imagine what non-colonial political relationships could look like in liberal societies.

Machine generated contents note: Introduction: how settlers gained self-government and indigenous people (almost) lost it; Part I.A Four-Cornered Contest: British Government, Settlers, Missionaries and Indigenous Peoples: 1. Colonialism and catastrophe: 1830; 2. 'Another new world inviting our occupation': colonisation and the beginnings of humanitarian intervention, 1831-1837; 3. Settlers oppose indigenous protection: 1837-1842; 4. A colonial conundrum: settler rights versus indigenous rights, 1837-1842; 5. Who will control the land? Colonial and imperial debates 1842-1846; Part II. Towards Self-Government: 6. Who will govern the settlers? Imperial and settler desires, visions, utopias, 1846-1850; 7. 'No place for the sole of their feet': imperial-colonial dialogue on Aboriginal land rights, 1846-1851; 8. Who will govern Aboriginal people? Britain transfers control of Aboriginal policy to the colonies, 1852-1854; 9. The dark side of responsible government? Britain and indigenous people in the self-governing colonies, 1854-1870; Part III. Self-Governing Colonies and Indigenous People, 1856-c.1870: 10. Ghosts of the past, people of the present: Tasmania; 11. 'A refugee in our own land': governing Aboriginal people in Victoria; 12. Aboriginal survival in New South Wales; 13. Their worst fears realised: the disaster of Queensland; 14. A question of honour in the colony that was meant to be different: Aboriginal policy in South Australia; Part IV. Self-Government for Western Australia: 15. 'A little short of slavery': forced Aboriginal labour in Western Australia 1856-1884; 16. 'A slur upon the colony': making Western Australia's unusual constitution, 1885-1890; Conclusion.

Outstations, which dramatically increased in numbers in the 1970s, are small, decentralised and relatively permanent communities of kin established by Aboriginal people on land that has social, cultural or economic significance to them. In 2015 they yet again came under attack, this time as an expensive lifestyle choice that can no longer be supported by state governments. Yet outstations are the original, and most striking, manifestation of remote-area Aboriginal people’s aspirations for self-determination, and of the life projects by which they seek, and have sought, autonomy in deciding the meaning of their life independently of projects promoted by the state and market. They are not simply projects of isolation from outside influences, as they have sometimes been characterised, but attempts by people to take control of the course of their lives. In the sometimes acrimonious debates about outstations, the lived experiences, motivations and histories of existing communities are missing. For this reason, we invited a number of anthropological witnesses to the early period in which outstations gained a purchase in remote Australia to provide accounts of what these communities were like, and what their residents’ aspirations and experiences were. Our hope is that these closer-to-the-ground accounts provide insight into, and understanding of, what Indigenous aspirations were in the establishment and organisation of these communities. This volume will be a great addition not only to the origins and history of outstations, but in light of the closing of over 100 Aboriginal communities in Western Australia, it should be a required bedtime reading for all politicians across Australia. The contributors do not simply concentrate on the so-called outstations movement of the 1970s, but rather help the reader understand why in the 1930s, ‘40, ‘50s, and ‘60s, Aboriginal people moved away from cattle stations, missions and settlements to reconstruct their moral compass in settings which made more contemporaneous sense, not only to them but often to the whites who were there as well. —Professor Francoise Dussart, University of Connecticut.