ABSTRACT
The emergence of political organisations such as the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council introduced a radical new dimension to relations between Aborigines and the state. Tor the first time in history’, the state was ‘faced with counter definitions of aboriginal ethnicity from themselves’. The growing significance of an Aboriginal voice in the political arena, which is being expressed through non-governmental political organisations, has been matched by a corresponding recognition of Aboriginal representation in the government’s policy-making organisations. Resistance to acceptance of Aboriginal identity subsumed within a national sovereignty provides a unique challenge to contemporary Australian polity. The cultural pluralist programme attempts to resolve the anomaly the original inhabitants pose for the modern state, but without acknowledging their sovereign status. The referendum promoted the incorporation of Aborigines into Anglo-Australian society. The view enshrined in the ‘white Australia’ policy, which sought to preserve the homogeneity of Anglo-Australian culture, sanctioned an expanded assimilation programme for Aborigines.
