Indigenous self-determination under settler colonial capitalism : Northern Territory cattle communities 1968-96

Using the papers of the Gibb Committee on the future of Aboriginal communities on pastoral properties in the Northern Territory (1970-72), this article contributes both theoretically and empirically to the history of self-determination policy. It reveals non-Aboriginal authorities' thinking at a crucial moment in the history of the governing of remote Aboriginal Australians: the dissolution of the 'pastoral-feudal' order under the impact of 'equal wages' and access to cash social security. The article argues that the state and pastoralists had to consider two modalities of Aboriginal empowerment: as individual citizen-workers whose labour time had now to be valued as a commodity; and as 'communities' aspiring to autonomy from the authority of pastoralists. The article concludes by arguing that the settler colonial state's imperatives are both 'capitalist' and 'custodial'.