Indifferent Inclusion: Aboriginal People and the Australian Nation by Russell McGregor

Judges' comments

Indifferent Inclusion maps the changing ways in which the Australian Governments defined the concept of assimilation and developed more inclusive policies to incorporate Indigenous people into the Australian community, in the period from Federation to the 1967 referendum and beyond. McGregor’s story places less emphasis on oppression than it does on the agency exercised by Indigenous Australians as they secured inclusion within the nation. Using an impressive array of primary sources, McGregor develops an original and compelling argument. He suggests that inclusion was less a function of a political action than of a social and cultural campaign as Aboriginal Australians challenged the apathy of European Australians and claimed a place within the nation.

This book is filled with sharp insights into particular events and movements, and establishes a rich general context for this complex and important story. This book is critical to an understanding of twentieth century Aboriginal history and to an explanation of changing notions of Australian citizenship.