Thesis (PhD.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2002. / "A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. March 2002; August 2003" Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of North Texas, May, 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1995. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [517]-539).

Aboriginal Law and cultures are based on a belief system centred on the 'country' and the creation of its elements. Traditional law provided a firm basis for survival and for the interconnectedness of people, land and their relationship to each other. The communities lived a largely nomadic lifestyle that moved within defined territories, tied together by kinship (tribe, clan, skin group etc), which prescribed the social roles and appropriate behaviours between indivisuals. Relationships were reinforced by systems of obligation between individuals, particularly with regard to provision of goods necessary for survival. / thesis (MRegionalUrbanPlanning)--University of South Australia, 2003.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis is an inquiry into the possibility of Aboriginal autonomy under the regime of a state policy which commands self determination. Debate about policy has been dominated by Western scientific, political and professional knowledge, which is challenged by indigenous paradigms grounded in the Dreaming. A recognition of the role of paradox leads me to an attempt at reconciliation between the old and the new Australian intellectual traditions. The thesis advances the theory of internal colonialism by identifying self-determination as its current phase. During more than 200 years of colonial history the relationship between Aborigines and the state has been increasingly contradictory. The current policy of self-determination is a political paradox. Aboriginal people must either conform to the policy by disobeying it, or reject the policy in obedience to it. Through the policy of self-determination the state constructs a relationship of dependent autonomy with Aboriginal people. In a two-year (1994-95) action research project Kitya Aboriginal Health Action Group was set up to empower a local community to establish an Aboriginal health service despite opposition from the Government Health Service. In collaboration with local general practitioners and volunteers the action group opened a health centre. After the end of formal field work government funding and support for the health service was granted. The project illustrated the paradox of dependent autonomy. What appeared as successful community development was not development, and what appeared as destructive factionalism was empowering. Strategies for change made use of contradictions and paradoxes within the state. As an innovation in the practice of social change, the thesis begins the construction of a model for indigenous community action for self-determination in health.

Because of the different of historical background, the changes of aboriginal structure of community power are very different between the aborigines and the Hans. It is very difficult to find a pure aboriginal tribe or community, because of the move in of the Hans and the intervention of national administrative system. Let me have some interesting questions: Did the aboriginal structure of community power relate with it¡¦s traditional history or not? Or did it tend toward the same structure of community power by government design? These are the key points that this thesis wants to research. So, I want to make use the convenience of knowing my country to research the changes of aboriginal structure of community power by two different case studies of Pinuymayan-LykaBnug and Rukai-Tarumak. Further, that using the comparative approach to research the reaction of two communities shows the different characteristics of changes. According to my research finding: First, the changes of aboriginal structure of community power were influenced with the extent of tradition. Although the intervention of national administrative system, it still didn¡¦t let the changes to be the same; Second, because of the growth and separation of social organization, the social power was changing from centralization to decentralization. And the source of the power elites was from traditional inheriting to local democratic election; Third, today¡¦s aboriginal communities all live some Hans together, and make much competition and cooperation between aborigines and Hans. The elements of influence are including the proportion of population, the growth and decline of position of politics and economy between aborigines and Hans, and the degree of accepting and blending between aborigines and Hans¡Ketc.

While Taiwanese Aboriginal culture has become essential for Taiwanese to construct a new national identity, this report examines the uses, makings, and transmissions of Taiwanese Aboriginal music in contemporary society, illuminating power dynamics of how Aboriginal music has been presented and perceived among different groups. The shifting Taiwanese identity within the contemporary political context opens up the discourses of indigeneity that have interpreted the Aboriginal culture as a site either for forming the new Taiwanese identity or claiming indigenous rights and subjectivity. Through the analysis of these discourses, I deconstruct how Taiwanese Aboriginal music has been exoticized and folklorized as Other by the Han-centric perspective. Further, by examining Aboriginal song-and-dance at intra-village rituals, at a Pan-Aboriginal festival, and at international cultural performances, I seek to argue that Aborigines are neither simply implementing the “otherness” imposed by the Han majority nor are they completely in conflict with it. By using Homi Bhabha’s concept of the Third space that resists the binary of the dominant ideology and counter-hegemonic discourses of a minority, I particularly consider the Aboriginal vocable singing as a site within which Aborigines strategically adopt different identities depending upon the performative context. Through this theoretical perspective, I argue that the multiplicity of identity and the interconnectedness of Aboriginal musical practices across different groups and regions challenge the rhetoric of multiculturalism and diversity of cultures in the sense of neo-liberal ideology. / text

Thesis (MA (AborStud))--University of South Australia, 1995

Thesis (MEd (Curriculum Leadership))--University of South Australia, 1996

Thesis (MEd) -- University of South Australia, 1993