Barriers to Truth and Justice in Settler-Colonial Australia - Why Won't Settlers Listen?

This collection brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars and experts from Australia and beyond to examine the persistent settler-colonial patterns of denial, ignorance and antipathy that continue to constrain the possibilities of truth and justice in settler-colonial societies. Written from diverse cultural and disciplinary perspectives, the chapters identify and analyse the social, cultural and political barriers to listening, hearing, and responding on the part of settlers, and the settler state/s. Prompted by the unsuccessful 2023 referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament and the constitutional recognition of the First Peoples of Australia as the First Peoples of Australia, the volume reorients the discussion. Rather than returning to questions of how truth-telling might be improved or made more persuasive, it shifts the focus towards the continuing refusal of settlers (and the settler state/s) to adequately and ethically engage with the truths that have already been told. The chapters investigate patterns of denial, deflection, and structural resistance, exposing their contradictions and points of vulnerability with the express aim of contributing to their undoing. While a number of contributions paint a sobering picture of the enduring impediments to meaningful change, others—particularly those from First Nations authors—highlight the continuing, generative, healing work of truth-telling and/as activism already underway. These contributions foreground the transformative potential of Indigenous-led truth-telling practices, not only as responses to settler inaction, but as active forces for reimagining and reshaping settler–Indigenous relations.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1. Strategic deafness: A comparative approach to truth-telling and listening.- Chapter 2. Lessons to be learnt from truth commissions overseas.- Chapter 3. ‘The politics of racism, falsehoods, and fearmongering: The Voice referendum & the QLD 2024 state elections.- Chapter 4. ‘“I didn’t learn that in school”: Intergenerational educational experience in settler colonial Australia.- Chapter 5. Family histories as both paths and barriers to truth-hearing and truth-telling.- Chapter 6. Fear and loathing in settler Australia. Chapter 7. Backlash: Dark Emu, settler nationalism and Indigenous sovereignty.- Chapter 8. Silence archives: Yamaji history, art and resistance.- Chapter 9. What goes around: The removal of the William Crowther monument as a case study in challenging barriers to truth-telling.- Chapter 10.- Moving beyond truth-telling to truth-listening and truth-enacting.- Chapter 11. Overcoming inaction and other barriers through truth-telling: Victoria’s Yoorrook Justice Commission.- Chapter 12. Of lands, peoples and cultures: First Nations constitutional counter-monarchism in a changing Australia.

Über den Autor / die Autorin

Dr Dan Tout is a lecturer in history and sociology at Federation University and an Arena Publications Editor. In 2023, he was an inaugural Visiting Fellow with the Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne, where he currently convenes the nationhood stream of the Centre’s Research Strategy. His research focuses on settler colonialism and nationalism in Australia and their impacts on and implications for First Nations peoples. Dan has published widely in a range of highly ranked publications, including Aboriginal History, Australian Historical Studies, Australian Journal of Politics & History, Journal of Australian Studies, Settler Colonial Studies and Thesis Eleven.
Professor Emma-Jaye Gavin, PhD is a Garrwa Aboriginal woman and a Professorial Research Fellow, focusing on Truth-telling, Global Indigenous Politics, and International Relations, with the National Centre for Reconciliation, Truth, and Justice. Professor Gavin holds a Bachelor of Arts, a Masters of Political Science and International Relations, and a Doctorate (PhD) in Indigenous Politics. Her research areas are: Truth-telling, Political Science, International Relations, History, Education, Class Studies, and Indigenous Relations. Professor Gavin is also the Oceania Co-Lead of the Alliance of Working Class Academics, Worldwide (AWCA).
Dr Julia Hurst is an Indigenous historian, gaining her PhD from ANU in 2019. She also holds a Masters of Urban Planning, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne. Julia’s work is informed by her family’s matriarchal (Dharug/Dharawal/Stolen Generations) stories of separation and continuing to reconnect with story, history, family and Country while exploring the ‘many histories’ of story, place, and the ‘in-between’. Julia is currently Lecturer in Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander History at the University of Melbourne, and was until recently Deputy Director of the Australian Centre. She regularly records oral histories with Peter Read for the National Library of Australia and her work has appeared in diverse publications, including for example: Politico, Overland literary journal, the ABC docu-series Makers of Modern Australia, and various academic publications.

Zusammenfassung

This collection brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars and experts from Australia and beyond to examine the persistent settler-colonial patterns of denial, ignorance and antipathy that continue to constrain the possibilities of truth and justice in settler-colonial societies. Written from diverse cultural and disciplinary perspectives, the chapters identify and analyse the social, cultural and political barriers to listening, hearing, and responding on the part of settlers, and the settler state/s. Prompted by the unsuccessful 2023 referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament and the constitutional recognition of the First Peoples of Australia as the First Peoples of Australia, the volume reorients the discussion. Rather than returning to questions of how truth-telling might be improved or made more persuasive, it shifts the focus towards the continuing refusal of settlers (and the settler state/s) to adequately and ethically engage with the truths that have already been told. The chapters investigate patterns of denial, deflection, and structural resistance, exposing their contradictions and points of vulnerability with the express aim of contributing to their undoing. While a number of contributions paint a sobering picture of the enduring impediments to meaningful change, others—particularly those from First Nations authors—highlight the continuing, generative, healing work of truth-telling and/as activism already underway. These contributions foreground the transformative potential of Indigenous-led truth-telling practices, not only as responses to settler inaction, but as active forces for reimagining and reshaping settler–Indigenous relations.

Produktdetails

• Mitarbeit: Emma-Jaye Gavin (Herausgeber), Julia Hurst (Herausgeber), Dan Tout (Herausgeber)
• Verlag: Springer International Publishing
• Sprache: Englisch
• Produktform: Fester Einband
• Erscheint: 15.02.2026
• EAN: 9783032130785
• ISBN: 978-3-032-13078-5
• Illustration: Approx. 180 p.
• Serie: Indigenous-Settler Relations in Australia and the World
• Themen: Sozialwissenschaften, Recht,Wirtschaft > Soziologie > Sonstiges; Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte, Kulturwissenschaften, Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie, Ethnographie, Soziale und ethische Themen, Social History, Australia, reconciliation, auseinandersetzen, Social Justice, Sociocultural Anthropology, Race and Ethnicity Studies, Australasian Culture, truth-telling, Settler colonialism, Truth and justice, Settler–Indigenous relations