Aboriginal Difference and Australian Citizenship : an Impossible Conciliation?
Aboriginal differences and claims have always represented a disturbing element in the political and cultural space of the Australian Nation. Even after thirty years of self-determination policies, the Aborigines remain on the fringe of the Nation State and civil society. The State expects them to become « responsible » citizens, in the sense conveyed by modern democracies ; it expects them to adopt the forms of sociality, subjectivity and agency sanctioned by the State and neoliberal society. With the example of the Aborigines of the Western Desert, I show how they conceive their responsibilities towards their own social and cosmological order and question the difficulty of aligning these with their responsibilities as Australian citizens.