Abstract
In many Indigenous territories, continuing processes of primitive accumulation driven by governments’ claims to resources and territory simultaneously deny Indigenous rights and insist on market forces as the foundation for economic and social futures in Indigenous domains. Drawing on research in North Australia, this paper identifies the erasure of Indigenous governance, the development of wickedly complex administrative systems, continuing structural and procedural racism and state hostility to Indigenous rights as constructing Indigenous vulnerability to poverty, addiction and underdevelopment. Shaping sustainable Indigenous futures in remote areas that are characterised by long-term development failure requires rethinking of remote local and regional economic relationships. Recognising remote regional economies as hybrid economies that rely on environmental, social and cultural wealth is an important first step in reorienting policy settings. It is also crucial that we acknowledge sustainable Indigenous futures cannot arise from policy interventions that rely on creating wealth for state and corporate appropriation and assume enough of this wealth can be redistributed to local Indigenous communities to constitute ‘development’. Politically constructed crisis interventions, such as Australia’s recent actions in remote Northern Territory communities, represent a failure of state relationships rather than an appropriate and sustainable response to the challenge of Indigenous vulnerability. This paper argues that attention to Indigenous rights and development of good relationships and good processes of governance, autonomy and responsibility within communities as well as between them and governments is fundamental to sustainable Indigenous futures. Without this, neither government programs nor large-scale natural resource-based development projects can deliver sustainable futures for remote Indigenous groups.
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Notes
The Australian Federal system involves a single national government, six state governments and two territory governments.
This is a term in common usage in Australian English to refer to the encouragement of development in remote parts of the continent. It was often used to refer to state interventions such as the creation of property rights for settlers (e.g., soldier settler schemes in post-war periods; creation of pastoral leasehold systems with favorable lease terms to encourage pastoral development) and extension of various infrastructure (particular irrigation and water regulation generally) and financial support (state and rural development banking arrangements, subsidies and support schemes for remote and rural land holders)—none of which were intended for nor accessible to Indigenous Australians who already owned and lived in the areas affected.
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Howitt, R. Sustainable indigenous futures in remote Indigenous areas: relationships, processes and failed state approaches. GeoJournal 77, 817–828 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-010-9377-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-010-9377-3