M. C. Dillon and N. D. Westbury: Beyond Humbug: Transforming Government Engagement with Indigenous Australia

M. C. Dillon and N. D. Westbury: Beyond Humbug: Transforming Government Engagement with Indigenous Australia Journal Article

GeoJournal

• Author(s): Tedmanson, Deirdre
• Published: 2009
• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Volume: 74
• ISBN: 0343-2521

Link to resource Report broken link

Abstract: According to anthropologist W.E.H. Stanner, an elderly Aboriginal person once summed up non-Indigenous (European) Australians for him, in eight words: “Very clever people, very hard people, plenty humbug” (Stanner 1969, in Dillon and Westbury 2007, p. 207). This anecdote fronts the concluding chapter of Dillon and Westbury’s: ‘Beyond Humbug: Transforming Government Engagement with Indigenous Australians’, self-published through Seaview Press in 2007. It captures the book’s core intention of shifting the focus in Indigenous affairs, away from a politicised ‘blame the victim’ pre-occupation which asks: ‘what’s wrong with Indigenous cultures and communities?’, and onto the public policy context: ‘what constitutes appropriate and effective public policy engagement?’ Between them, Dillon and Westbury have decades of senior public service experience in Indigenous affairs, policy and administration.

• Urls: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10708-008-9241-x