Unsettling the settler state : creativity and resistance in indigenous settler-state governance / editors Sarah Maddison, Morgan Brigg ; foreword Stephen Cornell.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 212-226) and index.

Unsettling Governance: From Bark Petition to YouTube / Morgan Brigg and Sarah Maddison Part 1: Framing Contemporary Governance -- Beyond Captives and Captors: Settler-Indigenous Governance for the 21st Century / Morgan Brigg and Lyndon Murphy -- Reclaiming History for Indigenous Governance: Tasmanian Stories / Patsy Cameron and Linn Miller -- Indigenous People in the Media: Telling it like it is and How it could be / Kirstie Parker -- Part 2: Aboriginal Law and Contemporary Political Practice -- The Way of the Warlawarlara: Kapululangu{u2019}s Two-Way Governance / Zohl dé Ishtar and the Women Elders of Kapululangu Aboriginal Women's Law and Cultural Centre -- Alcohol Restrictions in the Fitzroy Valley: Trauma and Resilience / June Oscar and Howard Pedersen -- Ngarrindjeri Futures: Negotiation, Governance and Environmental Management / Steve Hemming, Daryle Rigney, and Shaun Berg -- Part 3: Regional Governance and Collaboration -- Murdi Paaki: Challenge, Continuity and Change / Sam Jeffries, Sarah Maddison and George Menham -- Indigenous Governance Structures in the Southwest of Western Australia / Manuhuia Barcham -- The Redfern Aboriginal Housing Company Planning Process: Resilience, Resistance and Innovation / Angela Pitts with Mick Mundine -- Part 4: Future Governing -- The National Congress of Australia{u2019}s First Peoples: Changing the Relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and the State? / Tom Calma and Darren Dick -- An Australian Dialogue: Decolonising the Country / Patrick Dodson and Darryl Cronin -- Epilogue: Can the Settler State Settle with Whom it Colonises? Reasons for Hope and Priorities for Action / Lester-Irabinna Rigney

Debates in contemporary Indigenous affairs rarely question the settler-state framework and its accompanying institutions and processes. This silence persists despite Indigenous efforts to engage the settler-colonial order through repeated calls for treaties, for constitutional change, for self-determination and for better representation on the national political stage. These Indigenous efforts to enter into dialogue with mainstream Australia have thus far received little or no reciprocal movement from the settler state and its associated institutions. To advance Indigenous affairs governance and develop a dialogue for improved Settler-Indigenous relations in the 21st century requires unsettling the silences around the settler-state and its institutions and processes. Instead, we need dialogue and exchange between Indigenous and Settler orders. Only by embracing the challenges of governance in an open an unapologetic way will we be able to address the anxieties associated with Indigenous governance and contribute to healing the persistent sore of the wider Indigenous-Settler relations that continue to trouble the Australian community. To address these challenges, Unsettling the Setter State documents and analyses contemporary Indigenous efforts to engage with the settler state and its institutions. Chapters by Indigenous authors and settler interpreters and counterparts highlight Aboriginal creativity, vibrancy, and resistance while providing a crucial resource and pathways for rethinking governance and decolonising Australia in the 21st century.