From Justice To Care: A New Interpretation To Australian Indigenous Sovereignty Issues

Since the seventieth of the twentieth century,indigenous sovereignty has become an issue in the Australian society.The western academics usually see this issue from the area of the ethics of justice.Therefore,their core discussion is whether the indigenous people are justified to pursue their sovereignties.Most scholars regard the pursuit of sovereignty as the indigenous people's rational behavior that obeys the modern political principle: under the nation-state pattern,an independent nation has the right to claim its sovereignty,and each indigenous group in Australia sees itself as an independent nation,so the indigenous people think they are justified to have their sovereignties.Some other scholars think that the indigenous people are minorities in Australian society,whom could have special rights however are disqualified for the pursuit of sovereignty.Some others consider this issue from Rawls' s idea of justice hierarchy,arguing that government's general obligation to all its citizens are prior to its special obligation to special groups.Therefore,the indigenous people's requirements cannot pass the examination of Rawls' s justice theory.However,do Australian indigenous people talk about sovereignty and rights just as what those scholars think? The answer is no.Australian indigenous people understand those terms in totally different ways,even for the seemly most radical groups,such as Yidindji community in Cairns Region,North Queensland,“sovereignty” and “rights” are used as strategies to express a life style distinguished from the living style of capitalism.In modern politics,sovereignty is usually closely related to sovereign state,it means a state has its own territory and manages its own affairs without interferences from other states.But for Australian indigenous people,sovereignty is a strategy used to connect people with each other and with the land.When they ask for their sovereignty,they actually ask for the recognition that they are the first people on this land.For them,only when they are legally recognized and regain all the qualifications,can they formally invite all other groups to live together with them on this land.We can see that a sovereignty concept that usually means separation and opposition is reconstructed as something calling for mutual connection and mutual empowerment: we(Australian indigenous people)-our land-our Ancestral Spirits are already integrated,when you(all other groups)come into this land,and if you want to become a real part here,you have to be invited by us and integrate with us.Obviously,the colonial history of Australian society and the long-term discrimination and exclusion that the indigenous have suffered never give them any chance to sincerely accepted the settler group.Hence Australian society cannot get rid of the settler group's domination over the indigenous,and also various moral troubles related to this domination.In the past fifty or sixty years,the indigenous people have required for sincere communication with the settler group,while the latter habitually reads the former in their own way,the modern understanding of individual,their relationship between each other and with the land.Therefore,as argued before,the indigenous' calling for mutual connection is explained as separation and opposition,their receptive attitude is seen as exclusion and expelling.To get rid of these prejudices,the settler group has to see things different from the perspective of the ethics of justice.They should realize that people are not as independent,rational,self-interested and equal to each other as they have supposed;people are not simply related to each other through principles,laws and norms as they imagined.On the contrary,one is born into a particualr circumstance with particular relationships.Most people have to experience from the vulnerable infant period to teenagers requiring others' help to adults being able to live on their own to old age that is again in need of others' care.People are related to each other,they have the ability to be receptive to this world and others,to listen to,communicate with and respond to others.All of these make great sense to people's daily lives.Humans are not owners of land,other animals and plants,the former is interdependent with the latter.When we have a deeper and true understanding of the above relationships,our ways of living then should be changed.This is exactly what Australian indigenous people pursue for.All the above ideas and expressions of Australian indigenous people are what the ethics of care recommends.For the ethics of care,when people are trapped with problems and disputes,what should be first considered need not to be “what is justice” and “how to achieve justice”,it might be much better to think about how those involved respond to each other.In the context of Australian society,the indigenous people not only respond to their own needs but also care about the settlers' worries.At a time when modern western social,economic,cultural and political norms are in the dominated position,when they are more trouble makers than problem solvers,to hear different voices and see different living practices is of great significance for our imagining a better future.When Australian indigenous step out to show the mainstream their daily practice,what we should do is not to elaborate immediately with our own terms but to understand them within their context and respond them properly.