Turning the lens : Indigenous perspectives on race-relations and on building White capacity for constructive relations in Australia

This research investigates how White capacity for constructive race relations is perceived from an Indigenous standpoint. It explores the potential for the capacity in the White Australian population for constructive race relations to be developed as a critical but largely overlooked dimension of strategies for rectifying Indigenous disadvantage/White advantage. The thesis argues that the contribution of White capacity building to such strategies has been obscured by the colonised nature of public and policy discourses, which are commonly framed by a discourse of Indigenous deficit. It utilises a radical application of Sen‚ÄövÑv¥s capability approach to development, together with critical race and decolonising ideas, to explore questions about White capacity. Such questions are commonly overlooked by racist and colonised assumptions about what constitutes an advanced society. The research relies on and centres Indigenous knowledges and experiences as a source of expertise. These too are commonly overlooked by the same colonised assumptions, which ascribe Indigenous knowledge low value and high subjectivity. The investigation focuses on White capacity for constructive race-relations. This is because of the established links between race-relations and Indigenous wellbeing and socio-economic outcomes. In their focus on ‚ÄövÑv=social problems‚ÄövÑv¥ the social sciences have traditionally focused on the experiences and choices of the socially disadvantaged. There is limited literature on how the choices and behaviours of privileged groups reproduce both the disadvantage of others and their own advantage. Recent theoretical advances in Whiteness studies have challenged this perspective by showing how dominant racial groups are implicated in the maintenance of the racial status quo. This approach gives particular weight to the subaltern voice and its insights into White behaviour, yet there has been little in-depth investigation of how Indigenous people view White Australian people and culture and their impact on Black/White race-relations. In the thesis, I undertake thematic analysis of secondary data from 180 in-depth interviews with 44 Indigenous people in Darwin in the Northern Territory on the subject of White Australian people and culture and the race relationship. I adopt a social constructivist epistemological position and apply a critical race and decolonising lens to the data. I use a radical extension of Amartya Sen‚ÄövÑv¥s capability approach to structure the analysis. The research finds that the Indigenous respondents perceive many White Australians lack the capability to engage fairly with Indigenous people. They believe many White Australians see Indigenous people unfairly, treat them unfairly and that most White Australians fail to take their fair share of the responsibility for improving race relations. I develop the concept of deep recognition to argue passive goodwill is insufficient to improve race relations and that profound change is necessary within White Australia‚ÄövÑv¥s institutions and culture. The findings reveal how ignorance about Indigenous people, together with cultural values of individualism, have significant, deleterious impacts on the capability of White people to engage fairly with Indigenous populations. I conclude that ameliorating the ubiquity of these features of White culture warrant consideration in strategies to reduce Indigenous disadvantage. These findings therefore subvert assumptions about whose ignorance and incapacity must be dealt with in order to progress national goals of justice and equality for Indigenous people. Critical race theory, recognition theory and Sen‚ÄövÑv¥s capability approach all contribute to the understandings advanced in this study. In turn, this study contributes in small ways to each of these theories. It reduces the pessimism of critical race theory by strengthening and developing spaces for human goodness and positive developments. It develops recognition theory as a pathway to decolonisation and, by applying Sen‚ÄövÑv¥s capability approach to a dominant and privileged race group, it extends the possibilities for this evaluative model as a decolonising device.