Histories of Indigenous-settler relations: Reflections on internal colonialism and the hybrid economy

Abstract

To what extent can models of economic bybridity provide a theoretical basis for histories of Indigenous-settler relations that emerged as Indigenous labour came to be incorporated into settler economies, and the transformation of those relationships through time? This paper reflects upon this question by sketching some theoretical links between Jeremy Beckett's application of the theory of internal colonialism and Jon Altman's model of the hybrid economy. As part of a greater legacy, Beckett's analysis of the engagement between Torres Strait Islanders and the pearling industry served as a corrective to the general orthodoxy in which Indigenous Australians were considered to be peripheral to the settler economy. The two approaches are discussed in relation to recent ethnographic and archival research on the history of Indigenous-settler relations in the Eurobodalla region of the New South Wales south coast.