2007 Handbooks

In many so called "post-colonial" nation states including the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, the cultural practices of many groups of Indigenous people had been intentionally and unintentionally destroyed through the effects of colonisation.

In the last thirty years or so, however, due to global forces such as the American Civil Rights movement, national forces including the Australian recognition of Indigenous land rights, and local forces such as demands for enjoyable representations of "Indigeneity", some groups which had previously been thought to have no distinctive culture have begun to exhibit some extraordinary displays of cultural blossoming.

This unit explores some specific examples of this phenomenon and considers the necessary political conditions for its emergence and development. We also consider the politico-cultural effects of cultural "renaissance" on the people who practice it and on the nation state which attempts to contain it.