Dreaming the circle: indigeneity and the longing for belonging in White Australia Jane MulcockIn settler-descendant societies indigenous identity becomes a powerful and a fraught symbol of belonging to place.Multiple voices negotiate its meaning, make claims and counter-claims, extend invitations and deny access.One Australian says 'we are all indigenous to somewhere.My ancestors were Scottish'.He says 'here, in the bush, where I was born, where I grew up, I can feel the spirits watching me'. 1 Another says 'I am seventh generation Australian.I am indigenous.I am proud'. 2 In court, in a native title dispute, a White forester says 'My family has lived here for generations … I have the right to camp, hunt and fish … My father taught me how'. 3 Many voices challenge these statements of non-Aboriginal belonging, call them colonial, call out against the crime of appropriating identity.And then an Aboriginal custodian negotiating for land in another native title claim says to the Australian court: 'We have a gift we have been trying to give you … We want to fill up your emptiness with meaning so that you can love us and our country.We want to teach all Australians about their belonging in this country … before it's too late'. 4 The circle spins and spins, its constant grinding friction sets deep emotions aflame.
Loading…
Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 38 citations exist upstream.
Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.
Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.