AustLit

'The majority of the articles in this issue of the journal are given over to the exploration of the politics, ethics and usefulness of anthropology to Indigenous affairs policy. As the authors of these articles make obvious, these topics cannot be divorced from larger questions about the location of intellectual activity in state systems and formations of capital. Additionally, the authors clearly regard it as appropriate that anthropological endeavours that are policy oriented should also be subject to probing analysis. In this the authors reflect one of the distinctive tensions of contemporary intellectual practice: that the production of knowledge, ideally a process abstracted from lived reality, is itself enmeshed in the messy contours of power, ideology and politics. On this challenging and important terrain, the authors reveal a range of possibilities and uncertainties for anthropology and public policy. Kingsley Palmer's introduction to these articles— authored by himself, Jon Altman, Julie Finlayson and Geoff Gray—explains their genesis and raises a number of critical questions that resonate throughout them all.'  (Editorial introduction)