Protests, Land Rights, and Riots

Barry Morris is the author of Domesticating Resistance, Race Matters and Expert Knowledge. He is a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Newcastle.

“This small compact book was, for me, a most welcome read, especially since there has been something of a downturn in Aboriginal history in the academy more recently… How could such a book be a welcome read? It is a sober and somber read, yes, but one which exposes the lies and mumbo-jumbo of the neoliberal regime and its octopus apparatus, as well as its anxiety and fear, to contextualize and scrutinize its central tenets.” · American Historical Review“Morris deploys the incisive tools of anthropology to deconstruct the way neoliberal policies of the 1980s began to reverse the political gains Australian Aborigines had made in the 1970s…This work is of crucial relevance for thinking beyond the present neoliberal impasse.”  ·  Gillian Cowlishaw, Sydney University“Morris reveals the lie underpinning so much recent cant but more sets the situation of Aborigines in the context of larger global forces. This is a much overdue work that should contribute to new understanding and which breaks out of some of the enduring categories that continue to inhibit critical thought.”  ·  Bruce Kapferer, University of Bergen“Morris is not afraid to study systemic interrelationships; how history brings together structure and events in ways that might be unique but not random.”  ·  Andrew Lattas, University of Bergen

• ForewordAlbert BatesAcknowledgmentsMapIntroductionChapter 1. Crisis of identity: Aboriginal politics, the media and the lawThe Brewarrina riot: a summaryThe media riotThe trial riotRoyal Commission and Indigenising crimeChapter 2. Neoliberalism and Indigenous rights in New South WalesThe new political orderRepealing the Aboriginal Land Rights ActA post-bureaucratic public serviceSelf-sufficiency, not dependencyThe Perkins Report — strategic retreatRemoving land rights from the postcolonial landscapeChapter 3. Firm government: state of siegeLaw and order in New South WalesPunishing crimeLaw and order in north-western New South WalesState of siegeChapter 4. Postcolonial fantasy and anxiety in the North WestThe North West as contested spacePolicing cultural borderlandsPostcolonial subjectsContingent jurisprudenceChapter 5. Police testimony and the Brewarrina riot trialCo-authored with Kerry ZubrinichA prosecution account of the riotWhat is a riot?Power relations in the courtroomChapter 6. Aborigines behaving badly: legal realism and paternalismThe evidentiary effect of videoBodies in pain and paternalismDocile bodies and Aborigines behaving badlyLegal realism and paternalismAbbreviationsNotesBibliographyIndex