Sorry mates: Reconciliation and self-determination in Australian aboriginal health

In this article I examine the political relations between Aboriginal communities and government in the development of Australian Aboriginal health policy. How do government policymakers interpret the concept of Aboriginal self-determination? What does reconciliation mean in the context of Aboriginal health? The article is based on 12 months of ethnographic research in southeast Australia with key stakeholders in the Aboriginal community-controlled health sector as well key stakeholdes in regional, state, and national (Commonwealth) government. The research was a response to the call for anthropologists to engage in ethnographic studies of colonial relations.¹ I argue that although Australian health policy today is premised on community-government partnerships, contemporary relationships are still, fundamentally, rooted in and informed by Australia’s colonialist history with all of its attendant institutions, structures, and practices.