This vital and timely book is the first sustained investigation of the creative strategies employed by two Australian Indigenous nations in re-asserting their sovereign capacities for self-determination. Continuing the remarkable history of Indigenous peoples resisting settler-colonialism, these nations echo the resurgence of collective cultural identity and political capacity evident across Australia.
Describing and comparing the governance innovations developed by Elders and leaders of the Gunditjmara People and the Ngarrindjeri Nation reveals the distinctive contributions made by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations to a worldwide movement of Indigenous nation rebuilding. Facing the realities of structuring and rebuilding Indigenous nationhood, the political techniques set out in
Indigenous Nation-Building in Australia range from transforming localised instances of injustice to developing communities and protecting ancestral Country. By sharing these Australian Indigenous leaders' insights, this book provides practical, sophisticated and tested methods to further Indigenous self-government across the globe.
Bell, Damein: -
Damein Bell is a Gundtijmara man and Chief Executive Officer of Gunditj Mirring
Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation (GMTOAC), Australia. Under instruction from the community, he implements the Corporation's strategic plan, and advocates for
Gunditjmara in native title and cultural heritage.
Cornell, Stephen: -
Stephen Cornell is Professor of sociology, faculty chair of the Native Nations Institute
at the University of Arizona, USA. A political and cultural sociologist, Cornell and
economist Joseph P. Kalt founded the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic
Development. In 2000-2001, Cornell led the development of the Native Nations
Institute at Arizona, an outgrowth of the Harvard Project. Cornell has written widely
on Indigenous affairs, economic development, collective identity, and ethnic and
race relations.
Hemming, Steve: -
Steve Hemming is a member of the Indigenous Nations and Collaborative Futures
research hub at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. His work with Indigenous
communities began in the early 1980s as a museum curator and, over the last few
decades, his community engagement and research has focussed on Indigenous
nation building, environmental management, cultural heritage management, and
Indigenous environmental studies.
Jorgensen, Miriam: -
Miriam Jorgensen is a Research Director of the University of Arizona Native Nations
Institute, USA, and Research Director of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic
Development. Her work in Indigenous governance and economic development-in
the United States, Canada, and Australia-has addressed issues as wide-ranging as
child welfare policy, policing and justice systems, natural-resource management,
cultural stewardship, land ownership, tribal enterprises, housing, financial education,
and philanthropy.
Rigney, Daryle: -
Daryle Rigney is director of the Indigenous Nations and Collaborative Futures research hub at Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous
Education and Research, University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Daryle is one of
Australia's foremost Indigenous nation building scholars and practitioners. He has been a critical strategist for the Ngarrindjeri Nation in asserting its sovereignty and exercising its inherent rights to self-determination and was and is pivotal to the formation of Ngarrindjeri decision-makings institutions and mechanisms.
Smith, Linda Tuhiwai: - Linda Tuhiwai is Vice-Chancellor with responsibilities for Maori development at the University of Waikato, as well as Dean of the University's School of Maori and Pacific Development. Her other books include the co-edited collections Decolonizing Research: Indigenous Storywork as Methodology (Zed 2019) and Indigenous and Decolonizing Studies in Education (2018).
Vivian, Alison: - Alison Vivian is a lawyer and Senior Researcher in Indigenous Nations and Collaborative Futures at Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Alison's primary research focus relates to Indigenous nation-building and governance as an exercise of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.
