Indigeneity and the refusal of whiteness
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4776913 |
|---|---|
| Authors | E Kowal (0000-0003-3866-3224, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia, corresponding author), Yin Paradies (0000-0001-9927-7074, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 101-117 |
| Publication date | 2017-01-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Postcolonial Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1368-8790 • E-ISSN: 1466-1888 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13688790.2017.1334287 |
| OpenAlex | W2743686804 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 14 |
Drawing on international literature examining mismatch between racial appearance and racial identity, this paper analyses the subgroup of Indigenous Australians who have been identified, and self-identify, as ‘light-’, ‘fair-’, ‘pale-’ or ‘white-skinned’. We utilise the term ‘race discordance’ to describe the experience of regularly being attributed an identity that is different from how one personally identifies. In contrast to existing terms such as elective race, ethnic fraud and transracialism, race discordance does not seek to explain or judge the validity of identity claims that do not match perceived appearance. When unnoticed or unchallenged, ‘race discordance’ corresponds to ‘passing’. We propose the term ‘race refusal’ to describe instances when a person rejects the race they are ascribed to. In the case of white-skinned Indigenous Australians who are frequently assumed to identify as white, race refusal entails the refusal of whiteness. When light-skinned Indigenous people refuse whiteness, what are they refusing? In conversation with Audra Simpson’s notion of refusal of state recognition as an assertion of continued Indigenous sovereignty, we find that these particular micro-politics of race refusal demand rather than negate state recognition. We argue that identity refusal by pale-skinned Aboriginal people acts to disrupt histories of assimilation, white sociality and everyday racialisation while simultaneously reinforcing Australian recognition regimes
Aesthetics · Art · Conversation · Ethnic group · Indigenous · Political science · Politics · Sociality · Sociology · Sovereignty · Anthropology · Communication · Critical Race Theory in Education · Gender Studies · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology
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Indigenous students’ identities in Australian higher education
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Refusing epigenetics
Racial microaggressions and interculturality in remote Central Australian Aboriginal healthcare
The Colonial Runaways and Contemporary Student Movement
Beyond the Cut
Imagining ‘Our Ancestors’
Claiming rock art, claiming indigeneity
Resistance/refusal
To be or not to be Indigenous? Understanding the rise of Australia's Indigenous population since 1971
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2019 - 2026 (8) |
| Highly cited | No |