Colonial Mechanisms for Repudiating Indigenous Sovereignties in Australia: A Foucauldian-Genealogical Exploration of Australia Day

Abstract

A Foucauldian genealogical approach was used to explore the historical context surrounding Australia Day social tensions. Historic Indigenous-settler relations appear central to Australia Day events. Australia Day social contestation suggests unsettlement surrounding the ways in which Australian nationhood is predicated on colonial-settler privilege and exploitation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sovereignties. While modalities of colonial-settler power are identified, so too are Indigenous forms of resistance that serve to disrupt settler privileges. The findings indicate that settler determination of Australia Day acts to preserve settler sovereignty within the national mythscape as a mechanism in the colonial project and repudiation of Indigenous sovereignties in Australia. However, Indigenous forms of resistance challenge settler constructions of the Australian mythscape and nationhood.

Keywords

• australia day
• australian history
• colonisation
• indigenous resistance
• indigenous-settler relations
• indigenous sovereignty
• social contestation