The current thesis seeks to examine the history of Aboriginal development policy and its correlation with the trajectory of an indigenous business class in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. In particular, the study focuses on the period beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s when, following the large-scale social and economic upheaval caused by the collapse of the once dominant pastoral industry (previously the economic mainstay and largest employer of the region), the policy popularly known as self-determination - and termed indigenous trusteeship in this thesis) - came into play. The former policy of state trusteeship, in operation since colonial times, was devised in more prosperous times (as a means to, among other thing, facilitate land and labour to pastoral operations) but was unable to cope with the quickly changing economic conditions. In an attempt to resolve the growing economic and economic crisis - including rapidly increasing unemployment, impoverishment and social dislocation - the new policy of indigenous trusteeship transferred the responsibility for the provision of indigenous welfare to a nascent Aboriginal political and commercial leadership. To assist in ameliorating the escalating rates of Aboriginal unemployment and poverty much government subvention, including land, labour and finance, was transferred to Aboriginal control and specifically to those existing (albeit on a small scale) Aboriginal business operations. In doing so, much economic space was opened to Aboriginal commercial operations, which, during the previous policy regime of state trusteeship, had been purposefully stymied. This thesis aims to tackle some of the misconceptions concerning the history of Aboriginal economic development and the course of an indigenous commercial class. As well, there is recognition of the major contribution made by an emerging Aboriginal leadership to the evolving policy of indigenous trusteeship. In short, there is a critical re-evaluation of the origins of, and support for, successful indigenous owned business operations in the Kimberley region of Western Australia / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

xviii, 259 leaves : / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (M.D. 1971) from the Dept. of Child Health, University of Adelaide

The museum and the gallery are two sites in Canada that are instantly imagined as spaces that house the history and culture of the white man. This statement of course is a generalization. However, in my youth, this is how I visualized these particular sites of culture housed here in the west. I know now that there is a rich Indigenous counter-history within the still white spaces of the gallery and museum. My personal interest is with this Aboriginal narrative as it is voiced by artists, writers and curators whose work is tied to the gallery or museum space. This thesis is a reflection on my own praxis as a curator that has since 1997 taken me to both museum and gallery sites. The existence of Indigenous public institutionssuch as an Aboriginal community museum or an Aboriginal contemporary art gallerycreates a red shift within a communitys cultural imaginary. In Canada, many Aboriginal artists, curators, scholars, educators and writers have engaged tirelessly for many decades in decolonizing cultural work that centers Aboriginal voice, history and collective memory. In my curatorial work as co-founder and director of The Red Shift Gallery: an aboriginal contemporary art space in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, I am indebted to, and inspired by, the experience, example, creativity and wisdom of these cultural workers who continue to forge the way: infiltrating, appropriating, and re-making existing institutions and discourses, as well as creating new Aboriginal-centred events, places, and images, they are shifting the boundaries of what is considered to be relevant both in art, in history, and in the present. In this thesis, I will discuss my emerging praxis as a curator. In the Introduction: Nachimowin-My Story, I reflect on my early life in Cumberland House, Saskatchewan and the cultural lessons I have retained from living with my Cree grandparents, Peter and Margaret Buck, and, the colonial lessons I have learnt in the wider community of Cumberland House. I also talk about the founding of the Misti Saghikan Historical Committee in Cumberland House, which is still to this day a fledgling project. In Chapter 1: Methodology in Motion, I examine how my thinking about curatorial work has been influenced by a number of Aboriginal educators and cultural theorists, including Marie Battiste, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Graham Hingangaroa Smith, and the cultural workers who participated in the Making a Noise conference and publication, among others. In Chapter 2: The Red Shift, I talk about co-founding The Red Shift Gallery with Joi Arcand and I discuss selected exhibits that I have curated and programmed as director of this gallery and as an independent curator. In chapter 3: Othered Women, I discuss an exhibition I curatedOthered Women (2008)that examine the discursive and material violence of imperialism and its impacts on the lives of Aboriginal women, past and present. In 2008, I was awarded a Canada Council for the Arts Aboriginal Curatorial Residency at aka gallery, Saskatoon. As part of this residency, I developed a three-gallery exhibition, Othered Women, which foregrounds the agency and voice of six contemporary Aboriginal women artists. In selected works, these artists testify to the role of Aboriginal women in the fur trade and the formation of Canada as a country, and, to the multiple ways in which Aboriginal women have been fixed in mainstream Canadian histories under the sign of the Other. This exhibit reveals how these six artists are appropriating, dismantling and transforming the cultural controls of colonial discourse, and, how they are giving voice to their own situated Indigenous-centred knowledge(s) across a range of visual media, including textiles, photo-based work, and installation.

The museum and the gallery are two sites in Canada that are instantly imagined as spaces that house the history and culture of the white man. This statement of course is a generalization. However, in my youth, this is how I visualized these particular sites of culture housed here in the west. I know now that there is a rich Indigenous counter-history within the still white spaces of the gallery and museum. My personal interest is with this Aboriginal narrative as it is voiced by artists, writers and curators whose work is tied to the gallery or museum space. This thesis is a reflection on my own praxis as a curator that has since 1997 taken me to both museum and gallery sites. The existence of Indigenous public institutionssuch as an Aboriginal community museum or an Aboriginal contemporary art gallerycreates a red shift within a communitys cultural imaginary. In Canada, many Aboriginal artists, curators, scholars, educators and writers have engaged tirelessly for many decades in decolonizing cultural work that centers Aboriginal voice, history and collective memory. In my curatorial work as co-founder and director of The Red Shift Gallery: an aboriginal contemporary art space in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, I am indebted to, and inspired by, the experience, example, creativity and wisdom of these cultural workers who continue to forge the way: infiltrating, appropriating, and re-making existing institutions and discourses, as well as creating new Aboriginal-centred events, places, and images, they are shifting the boundaries of what is considered to be relevant both in art, in history, and in the present. In this thesis, I will discuss my emerging praxis as a curator. In the Introduction: Nachimowin-My Story, I reflect on my early life in Cumberland House, Saskatchewan and the cultural lessons I have retained from living with my Cree grandparents, Peter and Margaret Buck, and, the colonial lessons I have learnt in the wider community of Cumberland House. I also talk about the founding of the Misti Saghikan Historical Committee in Cumberland House, which is still to this day a fledgling project. In Chapter 1: Methodology in Motion, I examine how my thinking about curatorial work has been influenced by a number of Aboriginal educators and cultural theorists, including Marie Battiste, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Graham Hingangaroa Smith, and the cultural workers who participated in the Making a Noise conference and publication, among others. In Chapter 2: The Red Shift, I talk about co-founding The Red Shift Gallery with Joi Arcand and I discuss selected exhibits that I have curated and programmed as director of this gallery and as an independent curator. In chapter 3: Othered Women, I discuss an exhibition I curatedOthered Women (2008)that examine the discursive and material violence of imperialism and its impacts on the lives of Aboriginal women, past and present. In 2008, I was awarded a Canada Council for the Arts Aboriginal Curatorial Residency at aka gallery, Saskatoon. As part of this residency, I developed a three-gallery exhibition, Othered Women, which foregrounds the agency and voice of six contemporary Aboriginal women artists. In selected works, these artists testify to the role of Aboriginal women in the fur trade and the formation of Canada as a country, and, to the multiple ways in which Aboriginal women have been fixed in mainstream Canadian histories under the sign of the Other. This exhibit reveals how these six artists are appropriating, dismantling and transforming the cultural controls of colonial discourse, and, how they are giving voice to their own situated Indigenous-centred knowledge(s) across a range of visual media, including textiles, photo-based work, and installation.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Queensland, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.

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Thesis (M. Sc. of Social Ecology (Hons.))--University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, 1997. / Includes 12 photographic samples in pocket.