Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

This session explores the efflorescence of small remote Aboriginal settlements known as outstations established in twentieth century Australia. From the 1930s, some indigenous communities lived in lightly populated dispersed communities eschewing institutionalized state imposed systems such as missions and reserves, preferring a modus vivendi with state and market forces. The official platform for the promotion of the outstation movement coalesced via Federal government policy change for Self-Determination of Indigenous Peoples. Public perceptions of and support for these sparsely populated and decentralized communities of Aboriginal families has oscillated over time. In the decades following the 1970s, outstation communities spread from the Northern Territory to other Australian states and territories and were perceived in a positive light by government and in the public discourse as examples of indigenous cultural maintenance and key to economic and environmental self-sufficiency. Recently, they have been condemned by governments on the basis of cost to the taxpayer to maintain remote communities and as retreats from modernization, or dysphoric cultural museums. These recent criticisms countervail recent parallel recognition of the value of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). This session asserts, it is outstation communities with their long established affinity and connection to country and land management that are at the vanguard of reinvigorating and renegotiating more effective sustainable land management practices tied to the inter-subjectivity of culture, people, and place. It describes two Antipodean outstation case studies as exemplars in renewing strong ties between humanity and the land, and the reframing of a national conversation about eco-criticism.