ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book explains about the Australian reconciliation which was born out of a political desire to deflect the growing campaign for a treaty in the 1980s. Indeed, far from providing the basis for nation to nation treaty negotiations with indigenous peoples on equal terms, Prime Minister Paul Keating and the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation (CAR) positively promoted an overt nation building agenda which aimed to cosmetically legitimise the settler nation, by the inclusion of previously excluded Aboriginal people, while at the same time indigenising settler culture and effectively restricting indigenous aspirations to participation 'within' the political and cultural confines of the nation state. Sociological analysis of 'rights' highlights the role of power relations in the social process of their construction and consequently people should not assume that the eventual rights conferred is of benefit to the rights holders.
