Belonging Together

Book excerpt: "Belonging Together describes current Indigenous affairs policy in Australia, concentrating on the period since the end of ATSIC in 2004. It provides a unique overview of the trajectory of current policy, with Sullivan advancing a new consolidated approach to Indigenous policy which moves beyond the debate over self-determination and assimilation. Instead, he suggests that the interests of Indigenous peoples, settlers and immigrants are fundamentally shared, and proposes adaptation on both sides, but particularly for the descendants of settlers and immigrants, to allow them to embrace the framing of their identity by Indigenous presence. Sullivan is also critical of the remote control of Indigenous lives from metropolitan centres, with long lines of bureaucratic oversight that are inherently maladaptive and inefficient, and he proposes regional measures for policy implementation and accountability. Belonging Together's empirical studies of current policy implementation advance the body of knowledge in the underdeveloped field of the anthropology of policy and public administration."--AIATSIS website.