Coercive Reconciliation: Stabilise, Normalise, Exit Aboriginal Australia

by Jon Altman (Editor)

Genres: Indigenous

Paperback

Published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Belinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm re-reading this for uni but put it up here as it is a good book for people interested in the NT Intervention. It was written just after the Intervention and contains chapters by different Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal scholars about Intervention issues - such as how people retain cultural identities when aspects of these identities come up against notions of human rights. Easy as to read - takes a couple of hours - and the authors are pretty up front about their views.

[Mandy Partridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writers, academics, Indigenous activists and cartoonists come together to record the shame of John Howard's "Intervention" in the Northern Territory.
The Editor, and Authors from around Australia examine this disastrous and racist government program, which completely lacked local or Indigenous input or direction. Armed forces turned up at communities where most of the population live in long grass, to supposedly combat child abuse. The utter waste of appropriate resources, and the Beat-up of a story (of child abuse), which was blindly followed by inappropriate government resources like the military, it was a GMFU.
Sending engineers and builders to make housing and schools for these people would have been a better use of public money.
And researchers have found that the Indigenous communities had no greater risk of child abuse than any Australian city, only a greater risk of alcohol abuse and addiction. This could have been better served by counsellors and community enrichment programs.
Instead, Howard sent in the army to break down the doors of homeless people living out in the open, with no schools or school bus.
Shame on the LNP, please don't vote for these racists.

[Gretchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Biting and gritty essays on Indigenous policy making in Australia.

[Ainslee]

For anyone who gives a damn about Indigenous welfare, this is a must read.