Wednesday Feb 22, 12:00pm, Many Nations Longhouse

Burke Hendrix (professor in Political Science):

Indigenous Rights, Overlapping Demoi and Institutional Coherence: The Australian Aboriginal Experience

Abstract: Most work in political science on the rights of indigenous communities presumes that these groups each represent a single small demos (or people), which has become encompassed by a larger surrounding nation.  In North America, the rights of First Nations in the United States and Canada presume this situation, for example.  However, the boundaries of indigenous communities are not always so clear-cut. In Australia, for example, Aboriginal communities are often socially complex, with individuals seeing themselves as connected to one population for purposes of land rights, another for kinship relations, a third for language group, and so on. These multiple patterns of connection can each be seen as representing multiple democratic demoi, which overlap one another in complex ways.  The Australian state has tried to develop political structures that take into account this complexity.  It has generally been quite ineffective in doing so, however.  In this talk, I will consider the institutional structures currently in existence in Australia, evaluate their potential for institutional coherence and effectiveness, and suggest potential avenues for revision.