Indigenous Australians as 'No Gaps' subjects: education and development in remote Indigenous Australia

Abstract

"In February 2008 the Australian Prime Minister made an apology to the ‘Stolen Generations’ on behalf of the nation. Since then, we have witnessed the rapid implementation of a policy framework focused on ‘Closing the gap’ and an increasingly complex, managerial and technical approach to addressing undeniable Indigenous disadvantage. This approach has been endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG). As policy has become more monolithic and monopolistic, the state has become less sympathetic to the diversity and difference that is a feature of Indigenous societies, especially in remote Australia ... In this chapter we want to problematise the notion that closing the gap in education will improve socioeconomic outcomes. In short, we question whether human capital theory that is so uncritically accepted as an elixir to socioeconomic disadvantage is applicable in all cross- or inter-cultural contexts, or in all territorial spaces ..." - page 109