White Australian identities and Indigenous land rights

• Published in: Social Identities
• Main Author: Koerner, Catherine
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Routledge 2015
• Subjects: 1606 Political Science; 1608 Sociology; 2002 Cultural Studies; Race; Nation; Identity; Indigenous Relations; Colonialism; Australian Identity; First Nations
• Online Access: http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/160106; https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630.2014.1002391

Land has been central to debates about the relationship between Indigenous (First Nations) and non-Indigenous Australian identities since colonial violence founded the nation. How do white Australians understand Indigenous land rights? This paper draws on an empirical ethnographic study with rural people who self-identify as ‘white Australian’ to analyze the key discourses of land, identity and nation and the complexities of how whiteness and race is socially produced and lived in rural Australia. The study found that white Australian discourses of nation and identity limit most of the respondents' ability to construct their identity in relation to Indigenous sovereignty.