A History of Aboriginal Futures

Abstract

This article addresses the paradox of the persistence, growth, and increasing circulation of work in indigenous media and acrylic painting in Aboriginal Australia, despite the alarming political turn against gains made by indigenous Australians over the last decade, not only by right-wing politicians but intellectuals as well. Indigenous people in settler nation-states have faced a range of dilemmas in imagining their futures. In Australia, debates about the significance of an indigenous presence and history continue to rage. This article reviews the range of policies extended toward Australia’s Aboriginal people (ranging from pastoral care in the face of expected dying out to assimilation to self-determination and beyond), the cultural and political projects through which Aboriginal urban activists and remote communities have attempted to construct their futures, and a consideration of the media through which these futures are imagined.