Indigenous internal self-determination in Australia and Norway

Abstract

This thesis compares the history and politics of the “Indigenous question” in Norway and Australia, using the Norwegian experience as a point of reference for a critical examination of the prevailing discourse and policies in Australia. Although the territory inhabited by the Sami extends into four states – Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia – the Norwegian Sami have been the most active in global campaigns for Indigenous rights, and the Norwegian state has adopted the most developed policies designed to implement such rights. At the same time, the Norwegian Sami – in sharp contrast to the shocking poverty and social disadvantage of Aboriginal Australians – enjoy a relatively high standard of living. The relationship between Indigenous rights and socio-­economic development is at the heart of the thesis. Its distinctive approach is to eschew theoretical and philosophical abstractions and focus on an exploration of the historical and political circumstances that shaped the nature and the range of possible solutions, of the problem: the very different pace and nature of colonisation, in Australia rapid and driven by the rapacious appetite of British capitalism for global expansion which had little use for the Indigenous peoples it encountered and dispossessed, in Norway/Fennoscandia a much more protracted process which allowed for some coexistence and cooperation (and mutual adaptation) between Indigenous and non-­Indigenous societies over several centuries; the strategic importance of the Sami in their geopolitically contested region; the very different (and historically changing) possibilities for economic relations and political alliances between Indigenous and non-­Indigenous interests and movements. As the first ever systematic comparison between the Sami and Aboriginal Australia (which is more commonly compared with the Maori or Native Americans), the choice of a comparative reference point outside the historical context of the British Empire and Anglo­-American political culture is in itself an original contribution. The results of the comparison and the conclusion demonstrate the crucial importance of the role of the state (rather than “market forces” or the judiciary process) in righting historical wrongs, particularly through a systematic policy of regional socio-economic development and the fostering of autonomous Indigenous political representation at both national and regional level.