Non-Indigenous Lawyers Writing About Indigenous People: Colonisation in practice

Abstract

This article urges non-Indigenous lawyers to consider their position within a colonial hierarchy before and during any research on or about Indigenous people. It is an article about addressing power and recognising the politics of knowledge construction and the importance of critical self-reflection to that end. Above all it makes the argument that critical self-reflection by non-Indigenous people will do more to address the wrongs of colonisation than talk of "help" aimed at addressing Indigenous "problems" which is often at best patronising and paternalistic.