Introduction

Abstract

This book is an attempt to contextualise the debates about Australian identities in relationship to Indigenous sovereignty. It argues that the Australian context remains colonial rather than being post-colonial. The way forward is not to construct a ‘better Australian identity’, but rather to participate in the hard treaty work—where there is still no treaty—to respectfully engage with Indigenous sovereignty. This chapter describes the approach to the book. This chapter describes how this book locates itself within critical race and whiteness studies from the UK, Canada, USA, New Zealand, and Australia. It seeks to deconstruct the racialisation of white Australian identities and cultural relations and draws upon the traditions of Western Sociology, Cultural Studies, and the emerging field of Critical Indigenous Studies to do so. This chapter also explains that the book is in response to public discourse that Australia has moved or needs to move beyond its colonial past. The original intent of this book was to ask ‘What would it take to move beyond a white Australia?’ The authors aimed to investigate whether white Australian values are ‘a thing of the past’, or if whiteness remains the hegemonic identity. After reviewing the literature, however, it seems as though this question also seeks to move beyond whiteness or beyond race.