Aboriginal Studies
Book Details

Divided Nation?

Indigenous Australians in Australian Political Culture

Tim Rowse and Murray Goot

In May 1967, more than 90 per cent of Australians voted to strike parts of the Constitution that discriminated against Indigenous Australians.

Opinion

“Divided Nation? is an extremely timely contribution to a much needed public discussion about where Australia, internally, ought to be heading in the 21st century. The book also contributes substantially to a thoughtful analysis of the nature of Australian identity.” Ross Fitzgerald, Weekend Australian, 26/05/2007

About this Title

Divided Nation is the first book-length account of Australian public opinion about Aborigines, and the political uses of public opinion research.

Rowse and Goot portray the changes and continuities in Australians' public opinions about indigenous Australians, including their claims for recognition and for social justice.

The book examines four episodes in which the Australian public debated indigenous issues: the 1967 Referendum, the Hawke government's national land rights proposal in 1984-86, the Native Title debate, and the 2000 Reconciliation debate. Each episode was defined, in part, by intensified research on public opinion.

Divided Nation is not only about the attitudes discovered by such research, but also about how public opinion research affects the political process.

Table of Contents

Tables and Figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The 1967 Referendum and the Politics of Inclusion
2. Land Rights, the 'Backlash' and 'Middle Australia'
3. Native Title and Reconciliation
4. Reconciliation and Responsibility
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Murray Goot is Professor of Politics and International Relations at Macquarie University. He specialises in public opinion in Australian politics, especially political parties, voting behaviour and electoral systems, and the mass media.

Tim Rowse is a Senior Research Fellow in History at the Research School of Social Sciences at ANU. He has published widely on twentieth-century Australian history, including government policies towards Aboriginal people, and is the author of, among others, After Mabo.

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978-0-522-85342-1