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Aboriginal Sovereignty single work   prose  
Issue Details: First known date: 2000... 2000 Aboriginal Sovereignty
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Notes

  • Artist, writer and activist Kevin Gilbert gave this speech at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra, on 27 March 1992, to mark a day of protest and mourning for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the referendum of 1967.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture Sylvia Kleinert (editor), Margo Neale (editor), Robyne Bancroft (editor), Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 2000 Z937515 2000 reference prose criticism biography (taught in 3 units)

    A comprehensive, generously illustrated reference work on a multitude of aspects of Aboriginal history, culture and art. Although the emphasis is on visual art and artists, the many survey entries on indigenous languages, traditions, writing and performance provide a much wider context.

    The Companion is divided into two separate yet interconnected parts. Part One consist of essays by indigenous and non-indigenous scholars and experts, interspersed with textual and visual examples. Broadly chronological in structure, it contains the following sections: 'Foundations of Being' (subdivided into 'Religion', 'Ritual and Sacred Sites', 'Kinship and Gender'); 'Colonial and Post-colonial Scenes' (art and culture in different regions of Australia); 'Renegotiating Tradition' ('Urban Aboriginal Art', 'Film and Communications', 'Literature', 'Music', 'Performance', 'Fibre-work and Textiles', 'Cultural Meeting Places', buildings and architecture) ; 'The Public Face of Aboriginality' ('Aboriginalities', 'Reception and Recognition of Aboriginal Art', 'Cross-Cultural Exchange', 'The Way Ahead'). An index to Part One provides easy access to topics.

    Part Two is organised as a reference section and consists of alphabetical entries on artists, organisations, key issues and ideas.

    Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 2000
    pg. 98-99

Works about this Work

Sovereignty, Mabo, and Indigenous Fiction Geoff Rodoreda , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 31 no. 2 2017; (p. 344-360)

'Native title was increasingly being seen as a regime of limited property rights that could be curbed by governments at a whim. [...]while many Aboriginal people have certainly benefited from native title determinations 3 since the Native Title Act was passed in 1993, Mabo-based native title offers no recompense to the majority of Aboriginal people living in Australia today, because most of them have been dispossessed of their traditional lands, or their native title rights have been extinguished by land grants to settlers. For Watson, the gains of native title have been "meagre at best, illusory at worst" (284). [...]as the Mabo decision and the native title claims process have proved increasingly disappointing for more Aboriginal people in their aspirations for justice and land rights, attention has returned to sovereignty, something that was expressly denied them in Mabo. The recognition of native title rights in the Mabo decision of 1992, while "truly a catalytic political event" (Russell 279), also provided no advances on the question of sovereignty. [...]all three of these state initiatives from the early 1990s functioned, in effect, to displace calls for a treaty and indigenous sovereignty for a number of years. Wright's narrator explains that "Aboriginal Law handed down through the ages since time began" provides the foundational basis for living on the land (2). [...]the machinations and the history of the "white" nation-state are subordinated to Aboriginal Law early in this novel, and the carriers of Aboriginal Law are established as sovereigns of this place.'  (Publication abstract)

Sovereignty, Mabo, and Indigenous Fiction Geoff Rodoreda , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 31 no. 2 2017; (p. 344-360)

'Native title was increasingly being seen as a regime of limited property rights that could be curbed by governments at a whim. [...]while many Aboriginal people have certainly benefited from native title determinations 3 since the Native Title Act was passed in 1993, Mabo-based native title offers no recompense to the majority of Aboriginal people living in Australia today, because most of them have been dispossessed of their traditional lands, or their native title rights have been extinguished by land grants to settlers. For Watson, the gains of native title have been "meagre at best, illusory at worst" (284). [...]as the Mabo decision and the native title claims process have proved increasingly disappointing for more Aboriginal people in their aspirations for justice and land rights, attention has returned to sovereignty, something that was expressly denied them in Mabo. The recognition of native title rights in the Mabo decision of 1992, while "truly a catalytic political event" (Russell 279), also provided no advances on the question of sovereignty. [...]all three of these state initiatives from the early 1990s functioned, in effect, to displace calls for a treaty and indigenous sovereignty for a number of years. Wright's narrator explains that "Aboriginal Law handed down through the ages since time began" provides the foundational basis for living on the land (2). [...]the machinations and the history of the "white" nation-state are subordinated to Aboriginal Law early in this novel, and the carriers of Aboriginal Law are established as sovereigns of this place.'  (Publication abstract)

Last amended 21 Jul 2009 10:24:50
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