ABSTRACT
This final case study, the only wholeheartedly positive case study in this book, explores the complex history – and present – of Aboriginal people in Australia. The author argues for inclusion of this in a book on international development because adopting the way of work proposed in this book requires us to acknowledge that we all participate in the processes that bring some people closer to the centre of the charmed circle while pushing others further away. This occurs regardless of where we live: inequity, marginalisation and exclusion does not just happen ‘out there’, in countries that have been designated ‘least developed’ or ‘developing’ by the institutions of international development. In Australia, where the author now lives, exclusion, marginalisation and inequity occurs at far higher levels among Indigenous people than among non-indigenous people (regardless of sex). Violence is also prevalent. The Healing Foundation is doing something about it, through an approach that blends real-world use of practical wisdom, institutional humility, an understanding of the community as a collective and compassion for trauma experienced by Aboriginal people.
