Peter Sutton: The Politics of Suffering. Chapter 4: Violence Ancient and Modern
Sutton P. The Politics of Suffering. Indigenous Australia and the End of the Liberal Consensus. Melbourne University Press; 2009.
Note there is a second edition of this book. The book is available at the Red Kangaroo Bookshop. Attached is one chapter for those unable to procure the book.
Peter Sutton is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide (School of Earth & Environmental Sciences) and the South Australian Museum. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.
Peter is an anthropologist and linguist who has lived and worked with Aboriginal people in remote areas of Cape York Peninsula and the Northern Territory, but also in urban and rural centres, since 1969. He has assisted with over fifty indigenous land claim cases in many different parts of Australia since 1979, and has worked with the last speakers of a number of endangered languages in Cape York Peninsula.
Peter is an author or editor of thirteen books and has published around 200 academic and other papers, mainly in the fields of Aboriginal languages, land tenure, art, history and indigenous policy. His books include Languages of Cape York (ed. 1976), Art and Land: Aboriginal Sculptures of the Lake Eyre Region (with P Jones 1986), Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia (ed., 1988), Wik-Ngathan Dictionary (1995), Country: Aboriginal Boundaries and Land Ownership in Australia (1995), Native Title in Australia: an Ethnographic Perspective (2003), and The Politics of Suffering: Indigenous Australia and the end of the Liberal Consensus (2009).
In this groundbreaking book, Peter Sutton asks why, after three decades of liberal thinking, has the suffering and grief in so many Aboriginal communities become worse? The picture Sutton presents is tragic. He marshals shocking evidence against the failures of the past and argues provocatively that three decades of liberal consensus on Aboriginal issues has collapsed. Sutton is a leading Australian anthropologist who has lived and worked closely with Aboriginal communities. He combines clear-eyed, original observation with deep emotional engagement. The Politics of Suffering cuts through the cant and offers fresh insight and hope for a new era in Indigenous politics. ‘Incandescent, emotional, tragic and challenging’ – Marcia Langton
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