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Discourse Resistance And Negotiation By Indigenous Australians
Author(s) -
Synott John
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
peace and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1468-0130
pISSN - 0149-0508
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0130.00259
Subject(s) - indigenous , sociology , negotiation , resistance (ecology) , perspective (graphical) , colonialism , gender studies , context (archaeology) , variety (cybernetics) , social science , political science , geography , ecology , archaeology , artificial intelligence , computer science , law , biology
In the context of intercultural relations, the boundaries between dominant and subordinated communities are constructed in a variety of ways. Language frames, or discourses, understood from a sociological rather than a linguistic perspective can be considered to constitute one of the main processes for determining the character of intercultural boundaries. Using this theoretical perspective, this article examines a number of discourses that have contributed to the construction of social relations between Australian Aborigines and the dominant nonindigenous cultural groups in Australia. Examples from the colonial period show the way in which indigenous people were oppressed along racial boundaries, even as they resisted, while more recent instances chart the process of indigenous people in renegotiating social relations and in asserting the process of self‐determination and cultural celebration.