Suchergebnisse

This paper examines truth and reconciliation processes in stable, democratic societies. Its focus is on the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which assumed that historical knowledge can lead directly to new understanding and then to reconciliation, a social change involving improved relations between Aboriginal and other peoples. The paper argues that institutions such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada – here called discursive institutions – require more careful explanations of how discourse might be related to change. Discursive institutions mobilize prior orientations and existing social, cultural and institutional levers for change; they do not create new mechanisms for doing so.

Unfinished Constitutional Business: Rethinking Indigenous
Self-Determination, Barbara A. Hocking, ed., Canberra: Aboriginal
Studies Press, 2005, pp. 293.In the introduction to this collection of papers from a 2001
conference in Brisbane, Australia, the editor asks, "can indigenous
peoples' experiences of colonisation reshape our constitutional
language?" (xv). The contributions to the book reflect the breadth
of indigenous experiences as well as the range of ways that many
nation-states will have to revisit their constitutions in order to satisfy
the goal of decolonization/self-determination. Indeed, the book
requires us to rethink what we consider to be a constitution in
the context of unresolved and highly unsatisfactory indigenous-settler
relations. More than a document or series of political institutions, the
book explores the many ways that colonial societies have been and remain
constituted by non-indigenous assumptions and ideologies and considers
whether and how these impair claims for indigenous self-determination.

"This book investigates whether and how reconciliation in Australia and other settler colonial societies might connect to the attitudes of non-Indigenous people in ways that promote a deeper engagement with Indigenous needs and aspirations. It explores concepts and practices of reconciliation, considering the structural and attitudinal limits to such efforts in settler colonial countries. Bringing together contributions by the world{u2019}s leading experts on settler colonialism and the politics of reconciliation, it complements current research approaches to the problems of responsibility and engagement between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples."--Publisher's website

"This innovative collection examines how Indigenous peoples in various contexts have thought about, and responded to, the pressures of globalization on their cultural, political, and geographical authonomy." "The passage of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007 focused attention on the ways in which Indigenous peoples are adapting to the pressures of globalization and development. This volume extends the discussion by presenting case studies from around the world that explore how Indigenous peoples are engaging with and challenging globalization and Western views of autonomy. Taken together, these insightful studies reveal that concepts such as globalization and autonomy neither encapsulate nor explain Indigenous peoples' experiences."--Jacket