Demography at the Edge by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780754679622
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2011-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Problematic History of Indigenous Migration in Australia

Stemming from pre-conceived notions about the relationships of Indigenous spatiality to culture, there is long testimony to the problems which Indigenous migration practices have created for both settlers and for the original inhabitants (Prout 2008a). The denoting of spatial movements in this tone in Australia and elsewhere can be traced to the early days of colonial settlement in remote parts. From the outset in the north and west of Australia movements by Indigenous people were overtly and subversively restricted by settlers who forcedly resettled them into mission run settlements and reserves to nullify connections to traditional lands, around which people were seen to move frequently and without apparent patterning (Gray 2004). Few attempts were made to truly understand the drivers and characteristics of Indigenous migration by those charged with their care and oversight. Largely through ignorance, these practices became symbolic of what was ‘wrong’ with Indigenous people and of the need to ‘rescue’ them from lives devoid of comparative material and spiritual prosperity.

But not all Aboriginal people in remote areas in Australia were coerced into mission-run settlements. As settlers in the Northern Territory subsumed lands for agricultural and livestock production, some employed local Aboriginals. But there too, locals met with settler indignation towards expressions of culture, including when they travelled away. With trips occurring primarily along unmapped tracks and seemingly without notice (Petersen 2004), stereotypes were fed and negative associations between spatiality and culture reinforced. This history of misunderstandings was not unique to Australia, although it was witnessed later in time. Settling societies in remote spaces of what are now developed nations have dealt very uncomfortably with the complexities of Indigenous spatiality and its relationships to identity (Gerrard 2008). The continued existence of Indigenous towns and camps found at the fringes of urban areas in developed countries, and noted as places of transiency, for example, are practical testament to these difficulties (Hovgaard and Kristiansen 2008, Gray 2004, Foster et al. 2005, Karvelas 2009).

Turning to the present day, and leaving aside the relative merits of historical approaches to Indigenous affairs, contemporary policy is a clearly predicated on growing participation in Western forms of education, employment and health (Council of Australian Governments 2008, Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs 2009). In Australia, services are delivered to remote areas according to service demand models which are based on counts of closed populations documented at a particular point in time (usually the current census). But despite years of toil, Indigenous migration practices continue to challenge the foundations of Western understanding about what makes for a ‘good citizen’. At the heart of the issue, practices of changing spatiality are seen to disengage individuals from the very programs and policies aimed at improving their lot (Prout 2008a, 2008b). Migration establishes a disjuncture between expensive location-based models of service delivery (Foster et al. 2005) and the realities of everyday lives which revolve around meeting daily needs (Taylor and Carson 2009a). For governments, migration operates outside of bureaucratic

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