ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 contends with the other side of reconciliation not discussed in Chapter 5. It does so to demonstrate how the possessive investment in whiteness hinders transformative reconciliation in the city of Newcastle. It reveals how acts of recognition around festivals, place names, and signage do not necessarily entail a re-seeing of First Nations homelands. It illustrates its point via comparing First Nation peoples’ struggle to become visible back in place alongside the struggle for the protection of significant sites and land claims, revealing how cities maintain a possessive investment in whiteness and are overwhelmingly a white space. The aim of the chapter is to reflect on the inherent contradictions of Indigenous recognition in cities. The point is illustrated through reference to the re-development of Newcastle’s previously disused and industrial foreshore, as well as other city contexts such as Montreal, Perth, San Francisco Bay, and Gosford. The central point of analysis in the chapter is how cities continue to disregard, displace, invisibilise, alienate, and estrange Indigenous sovereignty in the contemporary moment.
