Everyday multiculturalism: Catching the bus in Darwin, Australia
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Version 1 2014-12-11, 11:53Version 1 2014-12-11, 11:53
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-03, 13:35 authored by M LoboFollowing acts of violence in major cities, the future of multiculturalism as a philosophy and a state-sponsored policy to promote peace and interdependence in white majority societies seem uncertain. Ethnographic research that explores the lived experience of multiculturalism in shared public spaces, however, offers the possibility to explore emotional stress as well as possibilities for change in culturally diverse cities. Within this literature, however, there is little grounded research that explores Indigenous-ethnic minority relationships. This paper foregrounds and describes a seemingly mundane event such as catching a bus that entangles my body with an Aboriginal woman and a migrant woman from Fiji in Darwin, Australia. The paper demonstrates how injury, anger, shame and discomfort unfolds when bodies of colour are sites of stress. I explore the emergence of this bodily stress that has outcomes for the capacity of racially differentiated bodies of colour to respond ethically in encounters with strangers. I argue that thick descriptions of events, conceptualisations of agency as distributed and broader understandings of the social have the potential to contribute to anti-racist agendas in Euro-colonial societies with separate Indigenous and multicultural policy frameworks in ways that do not require bodies to 'accumulate' or 'inhabit' whiteness. © 2014 © 2014 Taylor & Francis.
History
Journal
Social and Cultural GeographyVolume
15Pagination
714-729Location
Melbourne, AustraliaPublisher DOI
ISSN
1464-9365eISSN
1470-1197Indigenous content
This research output may contain the names and images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now deceased. We apologise for any distress that may occur.Language
engPublication classification
C Journal article, C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2014, RoutledgeIssue
7Publisher
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