Kincentric Economies: A Review of Post-Growth Pathways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Decolonisation

Abstract

In Australia, capitalism and colonialism are inextricably linked — working to justify and reinforce each other through their ever-increasing imposition on resources and attempted erasure of diverse value systems and peoples. In light of this, anti-capitalist movements like post-growth are increasingly aligning with anticolonial movements across the world. However, such synergies are yet to be substantively analysed in the Australian context — a nation reliant on extractivism, geographically vulnerable to environmental crises, and without a treaty with its Indigenous peoples. In the interest of forming broad coalitions to support the widespread transformations necessary for social justice and ecological sustainability, it thus becomes salient to question the convergences and divergences of post-growth and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander decolonisation ideals, as well as how policies can support decolonial, post-growth economies in this context. To address these questions, this research utilised a qualitative systematic review of real-world, post-growth-based initiatives from across the world. These initiatives were then thematically analysed in relation to decolonisation principles from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scholarship. In the review, eight overlapping themes between post-growth and decolonisation were made visible: restructuring, resistance, recognition, recentring, redress, relationality, responsibility, and revitalisation. By identifying points of alignment and conflict within these domains, this research offers practical insights to guide more socio-ecologically ambitious policies in the Australian settler-colonial context. In particular, an analysis of how more decolonial and Indigenist themes are made subsidiary or sidelined in post-growth literature guides the conceptual proposal for ‘kincentric economies’. That is, the restoration of economies that prioritise the holistic wellbeing of and reciprocity between Country and kin over neoclassical pursuits of growth, and work to undo the systemic subjugation of Indigenous peoples, ontologies, and epistemologies. Through this, imaginations of a sustainable, just society can be unchained from the grips of both capitalism and colonialism. Show more