ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the unsettling aspects of working on a design project with an aboriginal community in remote Western Australia using ethics guidelines from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies (AIATSIS). 1 The chapter focuses on crucial moments in the project where there were tensions between ethics and the design process, and considers how this tension might reflect a broader relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. The chapter does not attempt to find solutions; rather, it identifies some of the unspoken implications of working across cultures. Foucault suggests:
Critique doesn't have to be the premise of a deduction which concludes: this then is what needs to be done. It should be an instrument for those who fight, those who resist or refuse what is. 2
