The politics of differentiation

n our first visit to Red Point State High School, one of the schools included in our research, we parked near a grassy verge upon which stood two flagpoles. On one an Australian flag blew gently in a tropical breeze. The other was bare. At the time we were not aware of the controversial significance of these two poles. Two years later when we had completed our research, three flagpoles stood in this same location. In many ways the story of the flagpoles represents a number of the concerns we raise throughout the book in relation to the politics of differentiation, inclusion and social justice. We learnt on this first visit that the Indigenous liaison worker at the school had been lobbying for three flagpoles because of the need to recognise both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples at the school. Each of these Australian Indigenous groups is represented by a different flag. Her argument was that the school was always going to fly the Australian flag, and that it could not, without being exclusionary, fly just one Indigenous flag on the remaining pole. She argued that both flags should be flown.