Racialised foreign policy and the prospects for Indigenous diplomacy

Abstract

First Nations peoples of Australia have long engaged in international diplomatic efforts as part of their political struggles in pursuit of rights that are now embedded in international law. However, these efforts and the commendable advocacy of Indigenous diplomacy by Mary Graham and Morgan Brigg in their Australian National University lecture also face forces deriving from the racialised foundations of the Australian polity that run though the White Australia Policy and exert a powerful influence in contemporary foreign policy. The resulting tensions are amply on display in Foreign Minister Penny Wong's support of an Indigenous Diplomacy Agenda. One striking example is the gap between the Australian Government's embrace of the AUKUS trilateral security pact and Article 30 of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People that stipulates consultation about military activity on Indigenous land. In the contemporary moment Australian foreign and government policy apparently remains enthralled with ‘forever' Anglo friends on the other side of the world. Significant change is needed if Australia is to advance Indigenous diplomacy; change that will require substantively recognising the rights of First Nations peoples to shed Australia's reputation for white racism and truly become ‘of the Indo–Pacific’.