Indigenous Nation Building in Australia

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.Larissa Behrendt is the Professor of Law and Director of Research at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia.Damien Bell is Chief Executive Officer of Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation (GMTOAC), Australia.Stephen Cornell is Professor of sociology, faculty chair of the Native Nations Institute at the University of Arizona, USA.Steve Hemming is a member of the Indigenous Nations and Collaborative Futures research hub at the University of Technology, Australia.Miriam Jorgensen is a Research Director at the University of Arizona Native Nations Institute, USA and Research Director of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.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.

This work presents an applied analysis of Indigenous nationhood, and cauterizes anthropological approaches to Indigenous self-determination in the process. These authors know exactly what is at stake for Indigenous Nations, and they share research that is strengths-based in the truest sense of the word; deeply sensitive to complexity and lived experience and wholly committed to Indigenous authority. Focused, practical and inherently decolonial, this work clarifies and extends conceptual models built from real-world practices of strengthening Indigenous nationhood.This book is also a powerful and generous gift of knowledge from the Gunditjmara People and the Ngarrindjeri Nation. By sharing their stories of resistance and rebuilding—challenges faced, and victories won—these Indigenous nations show what can be achieved for Country and culture, and the next generation who will carry responsibility for both.

• 1. Resistance, Resilience and Resurgence 2. The Gunditjmara People 3. The Ngarrindjeri Nation 4. Gunditjmara and Ngarrindjeri Strategies for Nation Building 5. Facing the Realities of Indigenous Nation Building 6. (Re)Building Indigenous Governments 7. The Path Ahead: Changing the Conversation