2024/01/27 by Thalia Anthony, Jessie Hohmann · 1 voice
Engineering · Social Sciences · #Anthropological Studies and Insights #Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights #Mining and Resource Management
paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/09646639241227120
openalex publication_date 2024/01/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
Through the lens of Aileen Moreton-Robinson's ‘white possessive logics’, this article addresses a series of legal cases concerning inhumane Aboriginal housing in the Northern Territory of Australia. It critiques successive government policies in relation to First Nations people since the colonisation of the Northern Territory in the nineteenth century, setting the cases in their historical context of ongoing subordination of First Nations people to the interests of white possession of land and governance. We argue that domestic law pertaining to First Nations housing rights manifests white possessive logics. Such control can only be overcome through affording First Nations communities self-determination over housing in accordance with international law and First Nations claims. Self-determination and sovereignty are antidotes to the colonial histories that underlie inadequate housing for Indigenous peoples not only in Australia but across settler colonies. In developing this argument, we draw on international law and honour the advocacy of Northern Territory Aboriginal communities who have struggled for community-control over housing and homelands over successive generations.