Segregation and protectionism: Institutionalised views of Aboriginal rurality

Jennifer Carter; David Hollinsworth

doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2009.05.008

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Segregation and protectionism: Institutionalised views of Aboriginal rurality

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Segregation and protectionism: Institutionalised views of Aboriginal rurality

Jennifer Carter and David Hollinsworth

Journal of Rural Studies, Vol.25(4), pp.414-424

2009

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2009.05.008

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Abstract

Indigenous

Australia

rural governance

natural resources management

authenticity

dominant representations

place-based approach

Rurality is a complex and contested term, with multiple notions and gazes amid calls for theoretical pluralism. In Australia, the spatial categories of 'remote', 'rural', 'regional' and 'urban' are applied to places that vary in their distance from an economic and political core and have differing population densities. We argue that natural resources institutions in rural Australia demand an 'authentic' performance of Aboriginality that is framed within orthodox and stable constructions of an Indigeneity associated with the remote category. Dominant representations of remote Aboriginal people living on traditional homelands and engaged in 'traditional' environmental protection are assumed to hold for all places and transposed when natural resources institutions satisfy compulsory Indigenous engagement. Such institutional requirements for authenticity exclude alternative and multiple Indigenous voices in natural resources management. Rather, Aboriginal people seek engagement across a portfolio of natural resources activities typically found in rural areas (such as mining, grazing, forestry, water allocation planning, and natural resources service delivery and enterprise development), and not just isolated in natural and cultural heritage conservation. This broad participation would more completely match their expressed aspirations and the multiple lived realities of their fluid and networked rural worlds. Using the rural town of Eidsvold in Australia as a case study, we discuss the findings of participant observation and semi-structured interviews with Indigenous people at regional natural resources management meetings and at 'home' in Eidsvold. Rather than a generic institutional approach, a place-based approach to understanding the complex ruralities of Aboriginal people is needed.

Details

Title: Segregation and protectionism: Institutionalised views of Aboriginal rurality
Authors: Jennifer Carter (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
David Hollinsworth (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Publication details: Journal of Rural Studies, Vol.25(4), pp.414-424
Publisher: Pergamon
DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2009.05.008
ISSN: 0743-0167
Organisation Unit: Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Law and Society; School of Social Sciences - Legacy; Sustainability Research Centre
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99449878402621
Output Type: Journal article

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