Book Description

In the realm of the social our incommensurable differences define us, yet more often we find they divide us. Speaking–Writing With: Aboriginal and Settler Interrelations argues that power relations of suppression rely on particular ways of marking difference. Its discussion circulates in and through “indigenous” and “settler” interrelations, yet the focus is on relations and relationships – on the formation of subjectivities and ongoing construction of identities. In the context of Australia’s socio-political history, the text theorises ways of speaking “with” (instead of “for”) others by exploring the relationship between poststructural/deconstruction theories and indigenous relational ontologies. Such modes of thinking, outside the binarised thinking of the west, deeply resonate in their shared capacity for change, innovation, creativity and engagement with atavism–futurity. While Fiona McAllan’s PhD published articles have achieved recognition in trans-disciplinary fields, a cohesive development of her socio-cultural theory has been made accessible to academic audiences by incorporating those articles into this academic text. Written in the combined modes of a western theory/praxis fusion and an indigenous methodology, and utilising diverse theories including indigenous epistemologies and decolonising methodologies, deconstruction, feminist psychoanalytic theory, eco-phenomenology, postcolonialism, critical whiteness, etc., the text poses the research question: “is it possible to engage an in-relation ethos and inter-entity consciousness that will allow for the transformation from global relations of suppression and subordination to those of reciprocity, mutual respect and engagement, thus providing a model for a transformative and reciprocal sociality?” Speaking–Writing With is therefore a book that acknowledges how unconscious forces influence our everyday thoughts and actions (and their correlative material consequences) and thus engages pressing geo-political issues at a time when indigenous ontologies/understandings are becoming increasingly crucial to addressing the mounting problems of the west. It sits in the genre of critical cultural theory, yet will be equally relevant to other disciplines such as Indigenous Studies, Critical Whiteness/racial theories, cultural sociology, and philosophy.