Unstable relations: Indigenous people and environmentalism in contemporary Australia

Unstable Relations examines the past and emerging political tensions that mark ‘green-black’ encounters, providing fine-grained ethnographic case studies of the relationship between environmentalism and Indigenous people. The 1970s witnessed the emergence of a global environmental movement in response to rampant resource extraction. This moment gave rise to a celebrated ‘green-black alliance’ between environmentalists and Indigenous groups in Australia. In recent years this relationship has come under increased critical scrutiny in Australia and elsewhere, spurred in part by the global mining boom and continuing concerns about the effects of climate change. As the relationship between environmentalists and Indigenous peoples is subjected to renewed public inquiry, this book undertakes the vital task of submitting Indigenous-environmentalist relations to detailed analysis. This book brings together leading social scientists, writers and activists to subject both conservationists’ assumptions and practices, and the Indigenous-environmentalist relation, to rigorous empirical inquiry. Covering noted controversies and campaigns such as the Wild Rivers Act and Walmadany/James Price Point, and key issues such as mining, native title rights, ‘feral’ species, forestry, national parks and payment for environmental services, the authors explore contemporary entanglements. Unstable Relations explores possibilities for alliances and interrelations while also probing disagreements and dissonances.