Nakata, Sana, and Bray, Daniel (2023) Political Representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Youth in Australia. In: Sandin, Bengt, Joseffson, Jonathan, Hanson, Karl, and Balagopalan, Sarada, (eds.) The Politics of Children's Rights and Representation. Studies in Childhood and Youth . Springer, Cham, Switzerland, pp. 301-323.

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Abstract

Political representations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and youth reflect the deep ambivalences Australian society continues to hold toward First Nations people. This chapter explores these ambivalences by considering two key representative fields concerning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in recent years, which serve to illustrate our thesis that children play a constitutive role as temporary outsiders who present both risk and renewal to the demos. The first focuses on the Northern Territory Don Dale Youth Detention Centre that became the site of political controversy in 2016 for its mistreatment of youth detainees. The second explores a 2020 campaign by the conservative Liberal National Party in a recent Queensland state election to implement a youth curfew in the cities of Townsville and Cairns, that have a high number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residents. As evidenced by these debates about youth crime and incarceration, we argue that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are often represented as a source of risk which lies in tension with and forecloses the transformative potential of representing Indigenous children as sources of renewal. These cases reveal the representative terrain in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people must resist and speak back to a white national imaginary that works to limit the possible futures that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples imagine for themselves.

Item ID:	78734
Item Type:	Book Chapter (Research - B1)
Copyright Information:	This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Funders:	Australian Research Council (ARC)
Projects and Grants:	ARC IN160100039
Date Deposited:	24 May 2023 22:33
FoR Codes:	44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4408 Political science > 440811 Political theory and political philosophy @ 50% 45 INDIGENOUS STUDIES > 4505 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, society and community > 450518 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the law @ 50%
SEO Codes:	23 LAW, POLITICS AND COMMUNITY SERVICES > 2302 Government and politics > 230201 Civics and citizenship @ 50% 23 LAW, POLITICS AND COMMUNITY SERVICES > 2304 Justice and the law > 230403 Criminal justice @ 50%
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