ABSTRACT
Place remains the site and the stake of conflict between Indigenous peoples in settler colonist societies. Numbering Indigenous people amongst 'nomads' functions to dismiss indigenous claims regarding continuing possession of land and justifies white occupation: indeed, the 'doctrine' of terra nullius rested on the fallacy that Indigenous people were nomads without a settled legal order. This chapter advances a defence of Indigenous place and reinstates the materiality of place as a significant location for identity, social meaning and political struggle for the 'Other' of settler colonialism. Zygmunt Bauman's thinking in relation to the liquidity of modern societies has provided a focal point of reference for contemporary cultural criminology focused on social exclusion and inclusion and the fate of the 'flawed consumer'. The chapter attempts to reinstate the uniqueness and radical alterity of Indigenous worldviews and their embeddedness in place, countering the trend towards viewing all contemporary life as disembedded and liquid.
