‘The Treaty’s Going to Give the Recognition that this Wasn’t Right' – Optimism and Pessimism in Non-Indigenous Attitudes to Treaties in Australia

Abstract

Like other settler-colonial societies, Australia over the last half-century or so has been the site for a lengthy and involved discussion about the need for Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to reconstitute the relationship between them, recognising past injustices and forestalling future conflict. Unlike those other countries, however, Australia and its states lack a history of treaties and treaty law to ground that discussion. While the idea of treaty has been highly politicised over time, what such negotiations and agreements might mean in practice—what eventual treaties might do (in terms of recognition and reparation)—remains vague. This lack of certainty enables latent non-Indigeno..