School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses

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    Waiting to be heard: a discussion of feminism, criminology and Aboriginal women offenders
    Hunt, Emma ( 1998)
    This thesis evaluates studies which have been carried out with women offenders, and in particular it focuses on the apparent silence in these studies of Aboriginal women offenders about their treatment by the criminal justice system. Aboriginal women are in a significantly disadvantaged position in society compared with non-indigenous women including, in particular, the level of incarceration. However, there has been no direct interviewing with Aboriginal women about their experiences of prosecution and sentencing practice in Australia. It has therefore been very difficult to determine the effect of race on the arrest and sentencing of Aboriginal women. I begin by considering a specific case example. In 1988, an Aboriginal woman, Robyn Kina, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of her de-facto husband after a four hour trial in which she was discouraged from giving evidence in her defence. Kina's silence led to a great miscarriage of justice. I argue that Aboriginal women offenders like Kina should be allowed to voice their experiences to assist police and judges in understanding their disadvantage in the criminal justice system. Feminist criminology has been concerned with advancing the research about women and crime, however it has only recently considered many issues concerning black women and crime. I argue that this is possibly because of the emphasis given by the predominantly white women's movement to advancing women's position as a whole, rather than taking account of issues effecting black women. I point out that theorising about gender and race has methodological implications for a white woman researcher who seeks to understand the matrix of oppression which black women experience. Having explored the theoretical debates about race, gender and crime, I turn to empirical studies. Given the paucity of research into Aboriginal women and crime, I examine overseas research. This research is inconsistent about the unequal treatment of black and white offenders. What we do know is that women of colour will have a very different experience of the criminal justice system than white women. They may also have different experiences from each other. This thesis concludes by suggesting that the lack of theoretical and empirical work in Australia results in the continuation of gender and race typifications being imposed on Aboriginal women by the criminal justice system. In trying to speak for all women, feminist criminology is in danger of silencing Aboriginal women unless it seeks out their views and enables them to speak.
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    Intellectual and cultural property rights for indigenous Australians
    Smallacombe, Sonia ( 1998)
    The issue of intellectual and cultural property rights for Indigenous Australians was raised in 1974 when the late Wandjuk Marika, walked into a shop in Cairns and found his own sacred design on a tea towel that had been manufactured in Holland. He said “I was shocked when I walked into that shop, and when I saw it I was shocked and break my heart”. To add to his anger and humiliation, Mr Marika was charged $10 for the tea towel. He believed he should have been charged $2 for the cloth as the design belonged to him. He expressed outrage that those people who had stolen and copied his designs would consider his work to be purely pleasure paintings rather than the expressions of power and knowledge of important cultural symbols. Mr Marika’s devastation was apparent when he stated “[a]fter I found my own designs on the tea towels I was shocked and I loose [sic] my power to paint, lose my power for a number of years. Mr Marika passed away in 1987 and sadly the issues he raised are yet to be resolved. Mr Marika’s desire to obtain legal protection of the art and culture of Aboriginal people lives on in the minds of many Australians including a number of Indigenous scholars and academics, like myself. The issues that Mr Marika raised back in 1974 are the basis of my thesis on intellectual and cultural property rights for Indigenous peoples. It is the struggle for control of the identity and culture of Indigenous Australians; their continual marginalisation within the colonial nation-state; and the role that colonial institutions play in maintaining and reinforcing the dominant ideology which provides the foundation for this thesis.
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    Stolen generations: the forcible removal of aboriginal children from their families: identity and belonging
    Lim, Cynthia Beng Lam ( 2000)
    Stolen Generations: 'Identity and Belonging' explores the ways in which members of the Stolen Generations have sought to make sense of, and establish their sense of belonging and negotiate their Indigenous identities. In order to appreciate the uniqueness of the Stolen Generation experience and the challenges faced by individuals in forging their places of belonging, understanding the climate and context in which members of the Stolen Generations lived in is vital. Members of the Stolen Generations were confronted with and have had to come to terms with the paradoxes of history. Members of the Stolen Generations were taken away by, and raised in the very cultures and systems that damaged their societies of origin, and which continued to stigmatise Aboriginality as inferior. Within this context of analysis, the research gives attention to the various ways in which Aboriginal individuals in non-Aboriginal care came to their earliest sense of their Aboriginality. This exploration acts as a commentary of the construction of Aboriginality within the wider non-Aboriginal context - the stereotypes, the racism and the ignorance that informed those opinions. The ensuing search for a fuller understanding of what Aboriginality means to those members of the Stolen Generations is a highly complex and challenging one. For those trying to re-establish their ties with their birth families and communities, the years of physical and cultural isolation make it difficult for individuals to unproblematically find their place/s within the Indigenous families and to negotiate their Indigenous identities. Added to this, the experience of finding places of belonging and acceptance are inevitably shaped and determined by the attitudes and responses of the Koori community towards members of the Stolen Generations. The phrase "bringing them home", which in many ways has become synonymous with the issue of the Stolen Generations, carries with it the assumption that those who were 'lost' simply make their way back home, back to a recognizable and pre-existing community that is ready to welcome these individuals with open arms. The present research draws attention to the fact for most, there is no simple and straightforward route 'home'. This research explores the complexity of this journey - giving careful attention to the ways in which this rupture from cultural heritage and family base poses challenges for those trying to find that 'home' or 'belonging place' and intricacies involved in the negotiation of those Indigenous identities.