Dialogue and Indigenous Policy in Australia Darryl Cronin A thesis in fulfilment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Social Policy Research Centre Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences September 2015 ABSTRACT My thesis examines whether dialogue is useful for negotiating Indigenous rights and solving intercultural conflict over Indigenous claims for recognition within Australia. As a social and political practice, dialogue has been put forward as a method for identifying and solving difficult problems and for promoting processes of understanding and accommodation. Dialogue in a genuine form has never been attempted with Indigenous people in Australia. Australian constitutionalism is unable to resolve Indigenous claims for recognition because there is no practice of dialogue in Indigenous policy. A key barrier in that regard is the underlying colonial assumptions about Indigenous people and their cultures which have accumulated in various ways over the course of history. I examine where these assumptions about Indigenous people originate and demonstrate how they have become barriers to dialogue between Indigenous people and governments. I investigate historical and contemporary episodes where Indigenous people have challenged those assumptions through their claims for recognition. Indigenous people have attempted to engage in dialogue with governments over their claims for recognition but these attempts have largely been rejected on the basis of those assumptions. There is potential for dialogue in Australia however genuine dialogue between Indigenous people and the Australian state is impossible under a colonial relationship. A genuine dialogue must first repudiate colonial and contemporary assumptions and attitudes about Indigenous people. It must also deconstruct the existing colonial relationship between Indigenous people and government. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ORIGINALITY STATEMENT ..................................................................................................... i CULTURAL WARNING ........................................................................................................... i COPYRIGHT STATEMENT...................................................................................................... ii AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT ................................................................................................. ii ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ x ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................. xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 1 The background context ............................................................................................................2 The term and scope of the topic ................................................................................................7 The research proposal ............................................................................................................ 12 Research aims, methodology and structure ........................................................................... 18 CHAPTER 2: DIALOGUE AND INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE.................................................... 32 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 32 What is dialogue?.................................................................................................................... 34 Dialogue distinguished ........................................................................................................ 34 A practical theory of dialogue ............................................................................................. 36 Group dialogue to societal dialogue ................................................................................... 39 Intercultural Dialogue ......................................................................................................... 43 Argument culture and societal dialogue in Australia.............................................................. 45 Wicked problems and wicked relationships ....................................................................... 51 Post-colonial dialogue in Australia .......................................................................................... 55 Dialogue and struggles over recognition ................................................................................ 57 Constitutionalism and recognition ...................................................................................... 59 A dialogue for change ......................................................................................................... 64 Negotiating new relationships ............................................................................................ 68 Dialogue in Australia ............................................................................................................... 70 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 75 CHAPTER 3: THE BASIS OF THE INDIGENOUS AND NON-INDIGENOUS RELATIONSHIP .......... 77 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 77 The beginnings of the relationship ......................................................................................... 78 Cultural blind spots ............................................................................................................. 78 iv Assumptions and conjecture .............................................................................................. 81 The intellectual underpinnings ............................................................................................... 83 Savages and barbarians ...................................................................................................... 84 Civilisation, property rights and sovereignty ...................................................................... 86 Territorial acquisition and Indigenous people ........................................................................ 88 Discovery and occupation of territory ................................................................................ 89 Terra nullius and Australian law ............................................................................................. 93 Terra nullius discourse and the common law ..................................................................... 96 The barbarian theory as Australian law .............................................................................. 98 Still considered barbarians ................................................................................................ 111 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 112 CHAPTER 4: PROTECTION AND MANAGEMENT ................................................................ 115 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 115 Early British policy ................................................................................................................. 115 Protection ............................................................................................................................. 116 Aboriginal protection or destruction ................................................................................ 119 Corranderrk 1863-1948 ........................................................................................................ 122 Kulin nation aspirations .................................................................................................... 123 Paternalistic and authoritarian administration................................................................. 125 New Aboriginal policy ....................................................................................................... 130 The demise of Coranderrk ................................................................................................ 132 Coranderrk: discussion and analysis ..................................................................................... 134 The assumptions ............................................................................................................... 134 Challenging hegemony ...................................................................................................... 135 Relationships of respect .................................................................................................... 136 Level and type of dialogue ................................................................................................ 138 Outcomes of the encounters ............................................................................................ 139 Lessons and trends ............................................................................................................ 140 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................