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Rethinking ‘the Human’ in Memory of Fay Gale (AO)
Author(s) -
ANDERSON KAY
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
geographical research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.695
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1745-5871
pISSN - 1745-5863
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-5871.2011.00716.x
Subject(s) - indigenous , honour , premise , globe , sociology , relevance (law) , history , environmental ethics , anthropology , social science , geography , epistemology , political science , law , archaeology , philosophy , psychology , ecology , neuroscience , biology
In 1972, the late Fay Gale (AO) published a characteristically self‐styled book titled Urban Aborigines . It launched a richly diverse career that delivered an exceptional legacy to the academic discipline of geography, aboriginal justice, university administration, and women's professional advancement. This article, based on a 2010 lecture in her honour, takes up Fay's intellectual contribution to one of these fields. It pursues her critical interest in the clash of indigenous/settler cultures in Australia through a novel account of the notorious head‐measuring practices of 19th century racial craniometry. Probing the Western premise that ‘mind’ is the assured marker of human distinction from nature, the article explores a question of fundamental contemporary relevance for Australian audiences and others across the globe: are there fresh prospects for reconciling settler and indigenous, as well as ‘green’ and ‘growth’, values if the conceit of this distinction can be overcome? This question is provoked from a peculiarly southern perspective in the spirit of the insistently geographic project that was Urban Aborigines .