Reconnecting: Women and reconciliation in Australia

• Published in: Women's studies international forum 2008-03, Vol.31 (2), p.89-95
• Main Authors: Matthews, Julie, Aberdeen, Lucinda
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aborigines; Activism; Australia; Conflict Resolution; Cultural studies; Females; Native women; Political representation; Reconciliation; Research methodology; Social research; Women's studies
• ISSN: 0277-5395; 1879-243X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2008.03.001

This article highlights the activist and intellectual work of women in relation to reconciliation and emphasises the importance of woman's perspectives in considering its nature and purpose. 1 1 This research was supported under Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects funding scheme Rethinking Reconciliation and Pedagogy in Unsettling Times (project DP0451610). The views expressed herein are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Australian Research Council. The article is the outcome of participation in a women's gathering where interviews were conducted with seven women activists about their work and commitment to reconciliation. Reconciliation in this context was not, as often represented in government policy, a straightforward set of practices, but a way of living which reconnects country, kin, culture, sharing, knowing and learning. If the process of reconciliation is to assist women in their efforts to address the contemporary effects of colonial dispossession, governments, agencies and individuals must take heed of the knowledge and pedagogical work which this article indicates are already at large. We understand that research undertaken with Aboriginal people involving the production of a representational resource, no matter how well intentioned, must grapple with the vexed politics of representation concerning who can speak for whom. By way of partial solution to this problematic, we adopt a methodological approach which is mindful of the colonising practices of research and seeks to be sensitive to the complex and often contradictory ways in which women are positioned and position themselves in representational practices and meaning making.