Maree's Backyard: Intercultural Collaborations for Indigenous Sovereignty in Melbourne

Abstract

In this article, four women engage, talk, and write about Indigenous sovereignty in Australia's southeast-the region of Australia most devastated by colonial incursion and the site of vibrant cultural activism in the present day. We are two non-Indigenous academics (Sabra Thorner and Fran Edmonds) working together with two Indigenous artist-curators (Maree Clarke and Paola Balla) in a process of collaborative, intercultural culture-making. We mobilise two ethnographic examples-Maree Clarke's backyard and the 2016-2017 Sovereignty exhibition at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art-to assert that decolonising is an ongoing process which requires that non-Indigenous peoples acknowledge their own privilege, learn Aboriginal histories, imagine both difference and coexistence; and that the goals of decolonisation are as diverse as the activists calling for it. In both contexts, art/culture-making, alongside storytelling, are crucial forms of Indigenous knowledge production, led by Aboriginal women via their engagements with the artworld(s) in Melbourne and beyond.

Westphalian Vs. Indigenous Sovereignty: Challenging Colonial Territorial Governance

“…As part of colonialisation, settler states such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States displaced Indigenous and imposed their own legal and knowledge systems (Ernst 2018;Thorner et al 2018). These colonial systems have continuously undermined Indigenous 'assertions of sovereignty' (Thorner et al 2018, 269).…”

“…Third, Indigenous sovereignty is not universal or uniform but a deeply contextualised concept. It is 'available for uptake, activation, and resignification according to differing agendas/objectives/goals' (Thorner et al 2018). Some Indigenous scholars and commentators consider coexistence with settlers a key aspect of Indigenous sovereignty (Mitchell 2020;Thorner et al 2018).…”

“…It is 'available for uptake, activation, and resignification according to differing agendas/objectives/goals' (Thorner et al 2018). Some Indigenous scholars and commentators consider coexistence with settlers a key aspect of Indigenous sovereignty (Mitchell 2020;Thorner et al 2018). Others suggest that 'self-determination' is about more than the relationship between Indigenous communities and the settler colonial state and economy, and 'making choices that would maximise autonomy, driven by a shared memory or imagined ideal of the autonomy they enjoyed before colonisation began' (Rademaker and Rowse 2020, 12).…”