Presented in person and online - details below.

Carceral genocide: Aboriginal life and the settler state in Australia’s Northern Territory 

Indigenous people in northern Australia are among the most incarcerated on the planet. This paper offers the view that hyperpolicing and hyperincarceration are central aspects of the ‘eliminatory logic’ (Wolfe) at the heart of the settler-colonial process and applies Raphael Lemkin’s original definition of ‘genocide’ to a Northern Territory Aboriginal context. In a jurisdiction governed by principles of liberalism, forms of life incommensurate with the goal of capital accumulation are rendered surplus and abandoned to the carceral embrace of the settler state. Such abandonment is saturating in its presence, dominating social life among the individuals, families and societies it targets and perpetuating those forms of social harm it purports to correct. Aboriginal life is thus perennially arrested, people and relations erased, and social space emptied. Carceral regimes are presently intensifying in the NT, entrenching a process which this paper demonstrates is genocidal.

Speaker:

Patrick completed his PhD at the University of Sydney in 2022. His thesis, titled Hyperincarceration and Aboriginal life on the Victoria River, won the AAS 'Best Thesis' prize for the PhD category in 2023. 

Location:  Haydon-Allen building 22, Rm 2177

Zoom: 
https://anu.zoom.us/j/87802807372?pwd=fbu3BD3PcmaIXpt3VU4srkznBENqkG.1
Meeting ID: 878 0280 7372
Password: 277792