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Rethinking Aboriginal ‘Resistance’: The Community Development Employment (CEPD) Program
Author(s) -
Rowse Tim
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
oceania
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1834-4461
pISSN - 0029-8077
DOI - 10.1002/j.1834-4461.1993.tb02421.x
Subject(s) - resistance (ecology) , government (linguistics) , politics , sociology , welfare , identification (biology) , political science , political economy , law , ecology , philosophy , linguistics , botany , biology
In this paper I wish to contribute to an understanding of ‘Aboriginal resistance’ by a study of the politics of remote Aborigines' ‘employment’. I begin by highlighting some themes in recent discussions of the Community Development Employment Projects ( cdep ) policy, before looking back at some features of the welfare and pastoral economy in the Central Australian hinterland, c. 1950 to c. 1975. My aim is twofold: to show some of the cultural continuities in the relationships between remote Aborigines and government; and to criticise constructively the notion of ‘Aboriginal resistance’, to advocate a structural and processual notion of ‘resistance’ and to move away from one based on the clear identification of actors.