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Paper short abstract:

In post-colonial Australia, the state government of Queensland continues to wield power over the construction of historical narratives and Indigenous identities. This paper explores the discursive power of histories in the construction of Queensland Aboriginal identities.

Paper long abstract:

During early settlement and up until the mid-1980s, Queensland Aboriginal groups found themselves under the 'Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 (QLD)'. This Act gave colonial authorities enormous powers over the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Queensland. As a result, huge quantities of documents were produced, including records of births, deaths, marriages, removals, work places, crimes, family connections, 'tribal' affiliations and stolen wages. While Aboriginal people are known to have a practice of detailed and far-reaching oral histories that include complex genealogical information and stories from the period of 'first contact' and earlier, many in Queensland have been separated from knowledgable Elders and currently find themselves in search of ways to fill the gaps in their social memory. As a result, they are now seeking out more information from this repository of restricted records. Through the Community and Personal Histories team of the state government, Aboriginal people may request access from government historians to all the information pertaining to their ancestors. These documents often expose narratives about the past that contradict histories shared among family members and cause problems for the construction of family identities. While ostensibly an attempt to return indigenous cultural property to its rightful owners, in reality this process allows the state to continue to construct and define what it is to be Aboriginal. This paper explores the role of state histories in the definition of indigeneity.