Indigenous Policy (2012- ) by Julie Lahn
International Indigenous Policy Journal, 2018
Australia's civil service has had some success in attracting substantial numbers of Indigenous em... more Australia's civil service has had some success in attracting substantial numbers of Indigenous employees. But significant numbers also regularly exit the bureaucracy. Retaining Indigenous employees is recognised as an ongoing difficulty for government. This research with former and current Indigenous civil servants outlines factors they identify as contributing to decisions to leave the bureaucracy. A key finding involves their general sense of being underutilised and undervalued – that forms of experience and understanding as Indigenous people go largely unrecognised within government, which in turn constrains their potential to meaningfully contribute to improving government relations with Indigenous Australians or to enhancing the effectiveness of the bureaucracy more broadly. Work as an Indigenous civil servant emerges as a space of contestation with the possibilities and limits of statecraft.
This submission concerns a specific request from the committee to respond to matters raised at th... more This submission concerns a specific request from the committee to respond to matters raised at the Alice Springs session of the inquiry on the 28th of August 2017 concerning 'skills and capabilities and organisational arrangements needed in central government'.
In essence, I wish to suggest in this submission that:
Highly relevant skills and capabilities currently exist in the APS among its Indigenous employees that could be far better utilised than is presently the case. In this regard, I make three substantive suggestions:
1. Improve engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander public servants
2. Seek to maintain linkages with those ATSI employees 'orbiting' between government and the Indigenous sector and benefit from the expertise this offers
3. Improve the flow of information to regional staff and utilise their insights and skills
This paper considers emerging ideas of a new Aboriginal 'middle class' in Australia. Engaging rec... more This paper considers emerging ideas of a new Aboriginal 'middle class' in Australia. Engaging recent anthropological debates about 'middle classness' (Heiman et.al. 2012) and Aboriginal discussions of the term 'middle class', the paper reflects on diverging expressions of middle classness as a mode of self-description and/or ascription, and its implications within narratives of Aboriginal culture and identity. Attention to these debates and discussions is relevant to understanding experiences of social mobility and alternate futures as envisioned by Aboriginal people, encouraging a more complete picture of contemporary Indigenous life-worlds in Australia.
This paper considers the growth of Aboriginal professionals. While the predominant focus in Austr... more This paper considers the growth of Aboriginal professionals. While the predominant focus in Australian scholarship remains contexts of Aboriginal disadvantage, there is a steadily increasing number of Indigenous professionals in Australia among whom many reside in urban locales. The paper suggests that research involving Aboriginal professionals is needed to contribute to understanding occupational aspirations and social mobility as envisaged among Aboriginal people, in addition to providing to a more complete picture of Aboriginal engagements with work. The paper also provides some initial reflection on recent public discussions among Indigenous people of notions of an emerging Aboriginal ‘middle class’. The variety of perspectives in relation to this idea and their implications within narratives of Aboriginal identity highlight the importance of research that seeks to theorise the place of culture in individual and intergenerational social mobility.
This paper is a formal response to the Australian government's Review of Indigenous Jobs and Trai... more This paper is a formal response to the Australian government's Review of Indigenous Jobs and Training, 'The Forrest Review', 2014.
In April 2011, the Australian Government announced a Review into Higher Education Access and Outc... more In April 2011, the Australian Government announced a Review into Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People. In order to assist the Review, the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research was commissioned by Department of Employment, Education and Workplace Relations to examine the role of higher education in the growth of Indigenous employment in professional occupations, to assess the associated costs and benefits to the Australian economy and society, and to explore likely barriers to growing the number of Indigenous professionals. This paper examines aspects of higher education access and outcomes for Indigenous people, structured in two main parts. First, a statistical overview of recent Indigenous employment growth by occupational category, and it compares this with non-Indigenous occupational change. It also explores the role that post-school qualifications have played in this process. Second, analysis of select economic and social returns to higher education and employment along with the effects of being a professional (or manager) both to individuals and the Australian economy and society. By way of conclusion we reflect on some of the barriers to further expansion of the professional occupational base.
In this article I present the key findings from a project entitled, 'The Social Context of Indige... more In this article I present the key findings from a project entitled, 'The Social Context of Indigenous Poverty'. The research involved a series of interviews with Aboriginal people in urban SE Australia on issues of poverty, social capital and social exclusion. In the paper I draw together Aboriginal perspectives on the meaning of poverty to reflect on the relevance of social capital concepts for understanding Aboriginal economic disadvantage and hence, the merits of policy framed in these terms..
Torres Strait Islander Culture & Society 2003- by Julie Lahn
The fire that engulfed Sydney’s Garden Palace building in 1882 also destroyed much of the ethnolo... more The fire that engulfed Sydney’s Garden Palace building in 1882 also destroyed much of the ethnological collection of the Australian Museum. Among the objects presumed lost were items from the Lewis Collection, obtained in the Torres Strait in 1836. This collection constituted the museum’s entire holdings from the region at that time and the earliest collection of Torres Strait objects held by any institution. This paper aims to bring renewed focus to the Lewis Collection by drawing attention to several largely forgotten items that had been transferred to Denmark prior to the fire, most notably a large turtle-shell mask currently on display at Copenhagen’s Nationalmuseet. Expanding on a cryptic observation by Donald Fraser (1978), the argument is presented here that the mask is a surviving object from the Lewis Collection that originated from Aureed Island in central Torres Strait. It is a significant example of a material tradition unique to the region and is imbued with considerable ethnographic and historical importance.
The Social Effects of Native Title: Recognition, …
This paper focuses on the residents of Warraber and Poruma Islands in central Torres Strait and c... more This paper focuses on the residents of Warraber and Poruma Islands in central Torres Strait and compares their experiences pursuing two successful land claims, initially under the Torres Strait Island Land Act (TSILA) and then through the Native Title Act (NTA). Difficulties that emerged in shifting from a TSILA-based approach to the demands of NTA involved issues of local ancestry, details of land ownership and the nature of male knowledge. The outcome in terms of local representation highlights both the constraints of native title and the extent to which it is must be seen fundamentally as an intercultural product, emerging from the interaction of multiple points of reference and modes of understanding which are not equally influential or weighted in terms of ultimate outcomes. The paper illustrates Islanders’ ability to deal creatively with state-sanctioned regimes of value in pursuing their aim to gain recognition of substantial and enduring relations to their islands while maintaining a commitment to the core terms of local relatedness.
Oceania, Jan 1, 2006
This paper argues that women’s everyday practice of sharing fish at Warraber Island (Torres Strai... more This paper argues that women’s everyday practice of sharing fish at Warraber Island (Torres Strait) can be understood as a form of moral transaction. Gift-fish are shown to be ‘socially entangled’, a fundamental mode of expressing kin relatedness as well as providing an indication of the current state of such relations. Fish distribution is portrayed locally as both an instance of generosity and of obligation, demonstrating a person’s desire to engage in socially valued behaviour or correct their past failings. Importantly, I suggest that fish-giving (and receiving) has a distinctly generational character, carrying different emphases across one’s life-span. The paper reflects on the tensions involved in strategic efforts by women to reconcile their limited capacity to meet expectations from a wide range of kin and neighbours, while affirming idealised visions of communally shared moral values.
Woven Histories Dancing Lives
This article reflects on Christian identification on Warraber Island and its relation to local na... more This article reflects on Christian identification on Warraber Island and its relation to local narratives of morality and temporality. The focus of discussion concerns the practice of 'island dance' (ailan dans) performances. Authors have tended to stress island dance as a unifying practice - both a source of community and island affiliation and as expressing a wider regional Torres Strait Islander identity. However, strongly divergent views concerning the meaning of 'island dance' occur at Warraber, with local debates positioning the practice in different frameworks of Christian interpretation. Shifting moral articulations of 'light' and 'dark' are linked to conceptions of island dance as being more or less remote from the temporal moment of Christianity's arrival - the 'Coming of the Light'. Such differences potentially create distinct collectivities on Warraber with different understandings of the past and future. I focus on how two Warraberan Christian communities, Assemblies of God (AOG) and Anglican, are contesting these terms of rupture and ambiguity.
Oceania, 2006
This paper argues that women's everyday practice of sharing fish at Warraber Island (Tor... more This paper argues that women's everyday practice of sharing fish at Warraber Island (Torres Strait) can be understood as a form of moral transaction. Gift-fish are shown to be 'socially entangled', a fundamental mode of expressing kin relatedness as well as providing an ...
This thesis explores dynamics of sociality and local identity on Warraber Island in the Torres St... more This thesis explores dynamics of sociality and local identity on Warraber Island in the Torres Strait. I argue that Warraber residents' representation of themselves as a distinctive collectivity needs to be understood in terms of indigenous conceptions of relatedness and difference and with reference to local moral terms of communal life, in particular a valorised striving towards the idealised vision of moral relations known as gud pasin. This value is informed by a dense network of cognatic connections existing among Warraber residents – encapsulated in the local discourse of “ol wan pamle” (all one family), in addition to shared identification as a Christian community.
Warraberans envision the past through ideas of temporal rupture, indexed to the arrival of Christianity in the region and linked to the positive transformation of Warraber life. This forms a reference point in local thinking about ancestors (Chapter 2). Warraberans depict their ancestors as both 'natives' and 'foreigners' linked respectively to the pre-Christian period and the marine industries of the post-missionised colonial era. These temporal associations, and their implicit moral inscriptions, generate poignant areas of ambiguity concerning personal ancestry, and also prominent pre-Christian sites and dance performances thought to be associated with head-taking and sorcery (Chapter 3). The image of the sorcerer is itself contentious, appearing partly as a moral Other, and partly as a source of local power.
Such dynamics of difference appear as integral to contemporary social life on Warraber. Differing Christian affiliations, ancestral emphasis and perspectives on the past certainly contain potential for contestation. Productive activities are markedly gendered and family networks involve strong personalised loyalties that compete with broader social obligations. However, the value of gud pasin is shown as ultimately valorising inclusiveness, generosity and a concern with community harmony. Moreover residence on Warraber Island emerges as an important context for common experiences that help distinguish the population as a distinctive, emplaced community within the diversity of Torres Strait populations.
Intense attachments to Warraber Island are communicated in local notions of 'belonging' to place (Chapter 6). This is characterised by knowledge and familiarity and also by birth and residence (Chapter 4). In this context, the marine realm continues to be a central component within Warraber collective identification and notions of local distinctiveness (Chapter 5). Warraberans represent themselves both in historical and contemporary terms as incomparable marine workers, hunters and fishers. Transactions in marine products, whether related to generating income or for consumption, continue to be a focus of Warraber life and are inextricably woven into the practice of familial relations, whereby marine resources are transformed by human activity into a ‘currency’ of relatedness shaped by moral understandings that inflect the landscape as much as the conduct of sociality.
Repatriation of Indigenous material (1996, 2014) by Julie Lahn
This monograph constructs a 'social history' of the Kow Swamp remains which is centred on the ide... more This monograph constructs a 'social history' of the Kow Swamp remains which is centred on the idea that 'things', like people, can and do have social lives. The 'social history' is followed from the 'discovery' of the remains by Alan Thorne in 1967, up until their repatriation to the Echuca Aboriginal community in 1991. This 'social history' is connected to Weiner's notion of the importance of 'inalienable possessions' to structures of power, which is linked to the production of archaeological knowledge about (pre)history. I engage a methodological fetish to provide a revealing and reflexive insight into the entanglement of archaeology, physical anthropology and cultural 'things'.
TEMPUS-ST LUCIA QUEENSLAND-, Jan 1, 1996
Kow Swamp is the name given to the largest Late Pleistocene cemetery thus far found in Australia.... more Kow Swamp is the name given to the largest Late Pleistocene cemetery thus far found in Australia. Site excavations led
by Alan Thorne in the late 1960s and early 1970s revealed skeletal material belonging to more than 40 individuals with
ages ranging from infant to adult. All but one were male. The morphological character of the material presented an
important challenge to existing evolutionary theories of human settlement in Australia. Amid controversy, in 1991, the
collection was repatriated to Aboriginal people and subsequently reinterred, heralding a significant shift in the ethics of conducting archaeological research to include a greater involvement with Indigenous Australians.
Lahn, J (2014) “Kow Swamp”. In, C Smith (ed), Encyclopaedia of Global Archaeology. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
Customary Marine Tenure (1998) by Julie Lahn
spc.int
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP)
stretches along the Queensland coast of Australia. It... more The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP)
stretches along the Queensland coast of Australia. It
has often been showcased both locally and internationally
as the worldÕs most successfully managed
marine park. However, in its management of this
park, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
(GBRMPA) has come under scrutiny by researchers
and indigenous people alike. This paper presents
an update on issues concerning indigenous rights,
management strategies and GBRMPA.
Nature, Jan 1, 1974
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP)
stretches along the Queensland coast of Australia. It... more The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP)
stretches along the Queensland coast of Australia. It
has often been showcased both locally and internationally
as the worldÕs most successfully managed
marine park. However, in its management of this
park, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
(GBRMPA) has come under scrutiny by researchers
and indigenous people alike. This paper presents
an update on issues concerning indigenous rights,
management strategies and GBRMPA.
Gambling research (2003-2006) by Julie Lahn
International journal of offender therapy and …, Jan 1, 2005
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Indigenous Policy (2012- ) by Julie Lahn
In essence, I wish to suggest in this submission that:
Highly relevant skills and capabilities currently exist in the APS among its Indigenous employees that could be far better utilised than is presently the case. In this regard, I make three substantive suggestions:
1. Improve engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander public servants
2. Seek to maintain linkages with those ATSI employees 'orbiting' between government and the Indigenous sector and benefit from the expertise this offers
3. Improve the flow of information to regional staff and utilise their insights and skills
Torres Strait Islander Culture & Society 2003- by Julie Lahn
Warraberans envision the past through ideas of temporal rupture, indexed to the arrival of Christianity in the region and linked to the positive transformation of Warraber life. This forms a reference point in local thinking about ancestors (Chapter 2). Warraberans depict their ancestors as both 'natives' and 'foreigners' linked respectively to the pre-Christian period and the marine industries of the post-missionised colonial era. These temporal associations, and their implicit moral inscriptions, generate poignant areas of ambiguity concerning personal ancestry, and also prominent pre-Christian sites and dance performances thought to be associated with head-taking and sorcery (Chapter 3). The image of the sorcerer is itself contentious, appearing partly as a moral Other, and partly as a source of local power.
Such dynamics of difference appear as integral to contemporary social life on Warraber. Differing Christian affiliations, ancestral emphasis and perspectives on the past certainly contain potential for contestation. Productive activities are markedly gendered and family networks involve strong personalised loyalties that compete with broader social obligations. However, the value of gud pasin is shown as ultimately valorising inclusiveness, generosity and a concern with community harmony. Moreover residence on Warraber Island emerges as an important context for common experiences that help distinguish the population as a distinctive, emplaced community within the diversity of Torres Strait populations.
Intense attachments to Warraber Island are communicated in local notions of 'belonging' to place (Chapter 6). This is characterised by knowledge and familiarity and also by birth and residence (Chapter 4). In this context, the marine realm continues to be a central component within Warraber collective identification and notions of local distinctiveness (Chapter 5). Warraberans represent themselves both in historical and contemporary terms as incomparable marine workers, hunters and fishers. Transactions in marine products, whether related to generating income or for consumption, continue to be a focus of Warraber life and are inextricably woven into the practice of familial relations, whereby marine resources are transformed by human activity into a ‘currency’ of relatedness shaped by moral understandings that inflect the landscape as much as the conduct of sociality.
Repatriation of Indigenous material (1996, 2014) by Julie Lahn
by Alan Thorne in the late 1960s and early 1970s revealed skeletal material belonging to more than 40 individuals with
ages ranging from infant to adult. All but one were male. The morphological character of the material presented an
important challenge to existing evolutionary theories of human settlement in Australia. Amid controversy, in 1991, the
collection was repatriated to Aboriginal people and subsequently reinterred, heralding a significant shift in the ethics of conducting archaeological research to include a greater involvement with Indigenous Australians.
Lahn, J (2014) “Kow Swamp”. In, C Smith (ed), Encyclopaedia of Global Archaeology. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
Customary Marine Tenure (1998) by Julie Lahn
stretches along the Queensland coast of Australia. It
has often been showcased both locally and internationally
as the worldÕs most successfully managed
marine park. However, in its management of this
park, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
(GBRMPA) has come under scrutiny by researchers
and indigenous people alike. This paper presents
an update on issues concerning indigenous rights,
management strategies and GBRMPA.
stretches along the Queensland coast of Australia. It
has often been showcased both locally and internationally
as the worldÕs most successfully managed
marine park. However, in its management of this
park, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
(GBRMPA) has come under scrutiny by researchers
and indigenous people alike. This paper presents
an update on issues concerning indigenous rights,
management strategies and GBRMPA.
Gambling research (2003-2006) by Julie Lahn
In essence, I wish to suggest in this submission that:
Highly relevant skills and capabilities currently exist in the APS among its Indigenous employees that could be far better utilised than is presently the case. In this regard, I make three substantive suggestions:
1. Improve engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander public servants
2. Seek to maintain linkages with those ATSI employees 'orbiting' between government and the Indigenous sector and benefit from the expertise this offers
3. Improve the flow of information to regional staff and utilise their insights and skills
Warraberans envision the past through ideas of temporal rupture, indexed to the arrival of Christianity in the region and linked to the positive transformation of Warraber life. This forms a reference point in local thinking about ancestors (Chapter 2). Warraberans depict their ancestors as both 'natives' and 'foreigners' linked respectively to the pre-Christian period and the marine industries of the post-missionised colonial era. These temporal associations, and their implicit moral inscriptions, generate poignant areas of ambiguity concerning personal ancestry, and also prominent pre-Christian sites and dance performances thought to be associated with head-taking and sorcery (Chapter 3). The image of the sorcerer is itself contentious, appearing partly as a moral Other, and partly as a source of local power.
Such dynamics of difference appear as integral to contemporary social life on Warraber. Differing Christian affiliations, ancestral emphasis and perspectives on the past certainly contain potential for contestation. Productive activities are markedly gendered and family networks involve strong personalised loyalties that compete with broader social obligations. However, the value of gud pasin is shown as ultimately valorising inclusiveness, generosity and a concern with community harmony. Moreover residence on Warraber Island emerges as an important context for common experiences that help distinguish the population as a distinctive, emplaced community within the diversity of Torres Strait populations.
Intense attachments to Warraber Island are communicated in local notions of 'belonging' to place (Chapter 6). This is characterised by knowledge and familiarity and also by birth and residence (Chapter 4). In this context, the marine realm continues to be a central component within Warraber collective identification and notions of local distinctiveness (Chapter 5). Warraberans represent themselves both in historical and contemporary terms as incomparable marine workers, hunters and fishers. Transactions in marine products, whether related to generating income or for consumption, continue to be a focus of Warraber life and are inextricably woven into the practice of familial relations, whereby marine resources are transformed by human activity into a ‘currency’ of relatedness shaped by moral understandings that inflect the landscape as much as the conduct of sociality.
by Alan Thorne in the late 1960s and early 1970s revealed skeletal material belonging to more than 40 individuals with
ages ranging from infant to adult. All but one were male. The morphological character of the material presented an
important challenge to existing evolutionary theories of human settlement in Australia. Amid controversy, in 1991, the
collection was repatriated to Aboriginal people and subsequently reinterred, heralding a significant shift in the ethics of conducting archaeological research to include a greater involvement with Indigenous Australians.
Lahn, J (2014) “Kow Swamp”. In, C Smith (ed), Encyclopaedia of Global Archaeology. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
stretches along the Queensland coast of Australia. It
has often been showcased both locally and internationally
as the worldÕs most successfully managed
marine park. However, in its management of this
park, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
(GBRMPA) has come under scrutiny by researchers
and indigenous people alike. This paper presents
an update on issues concerning indigenous rights,
management strategies and GBRMPA.
stretches along the Queensland coast of Australia. It
has often been showcased both locally and internationally
as the worldÕs most successfully managed
marine park. However, in its management of this
park, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
(GBRMPA) has come under scrutiny by researchers
and indigenous people alike. This paper presents
an update on issues concerning indigenous rights,
management strategies and GBRMPA.