Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2005. / Includes bibliography.

"January 2003." Bibliography: 10.1-10.11 leaves. This thesis presents results from the Katherine Region Diabetic Retinopathy Study (1993-1996). These results provide the first detailed information on the basic epidemiology of diabetic retinopathy and impaired vision in an Aboriginal diabetic population.

Bibliography: leaves 266-281. This study of representations of Aboriginality focuses on representations produced by non-Aboriginal people and is concerned with both fictional and non-fictional representations. The focus is on popular texts, categorised according to three representational strategies: primitivisation, problematisation, and spiritualisation of texts, such as the New Age or Christian texts that emphasise the religious or the numimous. The study is concerned with the ways in which these texts use Aboriginality to promote positions, ideas and values that are external or even antithetical to Aboriginal interests.

The extent of Australian Indigenous employment disadvantage has been quantitatively established by researchers since the 1970s. Indigenous Australians have higher unemployment and lower participation rates, they are occupationally concentrated in low skill, low paid jobs, and their income is significantly lower on average than that of other Australians. The explanations given for this disadvantage largely focus on skills deficit and geographical location of Indigenous people. However these explanations do not stand up to scrutiny. Indigenous employment disadvantage remains irrespective of where Indigenous Australians live or how well they are qualified. Alternative explanations are clearly needed. A clue to the direction of research is given by the same researchers who acknowledge the legacy of history in creating the situation of disadvantage faced by Indigenous Australians. However, to date the nature of this legacy has not been explored. It is this history which is the focus of this thesis. The research questions which the thesis addresses are: 1. Are there identifiable 'invariant elements' which underpin the institutional forms which have regulated the treatment of Indigenous Australians within the economy, particularly in relation to employment, from colonisation until recent times? 2. Do these invariant elements help explain the continuing employment disadvantage of Indigenous Australians? To examine the history of the treatment of Indigenous Australians in relation to employment, four concepts were developed from the regulation school of economic theory and the work of Appadurai. These concepts are econoscape, reguloscape, invariant elements and institutional forms. The notion of 'scape' allows for recognition that when Australia was colonised, there already existed a set of economic arrangements and social and legal system. The conflict between the introduced economy and legal and social systems can be conceived as a conflict between two econoscapes and reguloscapes. Analysis of the econoscape and reguloscape from international, national and Indigenous perspectives for the period from colonisation to 1850 has enabled the identification of 'invariant elements' which describe the ways of thinking about Aborigines brought to the Australian colonies and adapted to the realities of the Australian situation. The four invariant elements identified are summarised as belief in 1) Aboriginal inferiority; 2) Aboriginal laziness, incapacity and irresponsibility; 3) the need for white intervention in Aboriginal lives; and 4) disregard for Aboriginal understandings, values and choices. The fourth invariant element is conceptualised as the foundation on which basis the other three developed and were able to be perpetuated. Analysis of the laws pertaining to Aborigines promulgated between 1850 and the 1960s in four jurisdictions shows that the same invariant elements influenced the nature of the institutional forms used to limit the freedom of movement and of employment of Indigenous Australians. Although during the period from the 1850s to the 1960s there was ostensibly a change in policy from one of protection to one of assimilation of Indigenous Australians, in fact little changed in terms of perceptions of Aborigines or in the institutional forms which, by the 1920s in all jurisdictions surveyed, controlled every aspect of their lives. Confirmation of the influence of the invariant elements was sought through closer study of two particular cases from the beginning and end of the above time period. These case studies involved examination of the institutional forms within the context of the econoscape and reguloscape of different times, in the first case in Victoria in the 1860s-1880s, and in the second case in the Northern Territory in the 1960s. The analysis indicates that the invariant elements had a continuing influence on perceptions and treatment of Indigenous Australians at least to the referendum of 1967. This thesis establishes, through rigorous analysis based on a robust theoretical and methodological foundation, that identifiable ways of thinking, or invariant elements, have underpinned continuous Indigenous employment disadvantage and help explain this continuing disadvantage. The common explanations of Indigenous disadvantage are also consistent with these invariant elements. The thesis concludes by recommending further research based on the findings of this thesis be conducted to scrutinise policy and practice over the last three to four decades in relation to Indigenous employment. It also emphasises the importance of redefining the problem and finding solutions, tasks which can only be done effectively by Indigenous Australians.

This thesis argues that native title rights are fundamental to Indigenous citizenship in Australia. It does this by developing a normative conception of citizenship in connection with a model of constitutionalism. Here, citizenship is more than a legal status. It refers to the norms of individual rights coupled with democratic responsibility that are attached to the person in a liberal-democracy. Constitutionalism provides the framework for understanding the manner in which Australian society realizes these norms. This thesis focuses on a society attempting to grapple with issues of postcolonialism. A fundamental question faced in these societies is the legitimacy of group rights based in pre-colonization norms. This thesis argues that these rights can be legitimized when constitutionalism is understood as originating in the deliberations connecting civil society with the state; which deliberations reconcile individual rights with group rights in such a way as to resolve the issue of their competing claims to legitimacy. Civil society is the social space in which politico-legal norms collide with action. The argument constructed here is that native title is built on norms that have the potential (it is a counterfactual argument) to contribute to a postcolonial civil society. This is one in which colonizer and colonized coordinate their action in a mutual search for acceptable solutions to the question 'how do we live together?'. The optimistic analysis is tempered by a consideration of the development of native title law. The jurisprudence of the High Court after the Wik's Case has undermined the potential of native title to play a transformative role. It has undermined Indigenous Australians' place in civil society, and their status as equal individuals and responsible citizens. In seeking to explain this, the thesis turns from jurisprudence to political sociology, and argues that an alternative model of constitutionalism and civil society has supplanted the postcolonial; viz., the neoliberal.

Bibliography: leaves 266-281. / 281 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / This study of representations of Aboriginality focuses on representations produced by non-Aboriginal people and is concerned with both fictional and non-fictional representations. The focus is on popular texts, categorised according to three representational strategies: primitivisation, problematisation, and spiritualisation of texts, such as the New Age or Christian texts that emphasise the religious or the numimous. The study is concerned with the ways in which these texts use Aboriginality to promote positions, ideas and values that are external or even antithetical to Aboriginal interests. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of English, 2001

"January 2003." / Bibliography: 10.1-10.11 leaves. / 1 v. : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / This thesis presents results from the Katherine Region Diabetic Retinopathy Study (1993-1996). These results provide the first detailed information on the basic epidemiology of diabetic retinopathy and impaired vision in an Aboriginal diabetic population. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Public Health, 2003

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Theses (Dept. of Political Science) / Simon Fraser University. Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.

This thesis argues that native title rights are fundamental to Indigenous citizenship in Australia. It does this by developing a normative conception of citizenship in connection with a model of constitutionalism. Here, citizenship is more than a legal status. It refers to the norms of individual rights coupled with democratic responsibility that are attached to the person in a liberal-democracy. Constitutionalism provides the framework for understanding the manner in which Australian society realizes these norms. This thesis focuses on a society attempting to grapple with issues of postcolonialism. A fundamental question faced in these societies is the legitimacy of group rights based in pre-colonization norms. This thesis argues that these rights can be legitimized when constitutionalism is understood as originating in the deliberations connecting civil society with the state; which deliberations reconcile individual rights with group rights in such a way as to resolve the issue of their competing claims to legitimacy. Civil society is the social space in which politico-legal norms collide with action. The argument constructed here is that native title is built on norms that have the potential (it is a counterfactual argument) to contribute to a postcolonial civil society. This is one in which colonizer and colonized coordinate their action in a mutual search for acceptable solutions to the question 'how do we live together?'. The optimistic analysis is tempered by a consideration of the development of native title law. The jurisprudence of the High Court after the Wik's Case has undermined the potential of native title to play a transformative role. It has undermined Indigenous Australians' place in civil society, and their status as equal individuals and responsible citizens. In seeking to explain this, the thesis turns from jurisprudence to political sociology, and argues that an alternative model of constitutionalism and civil society has supplanted the postcolonial; viz., the neoliberal.

No description available.