Ingrid Slotte

Social Anthropology
Ph.D

About

I am a social anthropologist educated in Australia. I completed my Bachelor of Arts with Honours at the University of Adelaide 1990 and then moved on to Canberra where I received my Ph.D in 1998 with the thesis “We are family, we are one: An Aboriginal Christian Movement in Arnhem Land”. The research project was financed by Australian National University and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

I have been employed part-time in a research position at the School of Global Studies, The University of Gothenburg during 2010 and 2011 and will continue during autumn 2012. The project is titled Indigenous People and Poverty: The Challenge of Cultural Difference and is financed by SIDA (Swedish International Development Agency).

Area of interest

Social anthropology, Australia, Aborigines, Yolngu, Arnhem Land, poverty, development, self-determination. Previous research focused on a Christian movement among the Yolngu in Arnhem Land (fieldwork 1990-1992), policy development in relation to the indigenous population in Arnhem Land, Yolngu memories of Methodist missionaries and life on nearby mission stations from the 1920s to the 1970s. Since 2010 I have carried out research on an Intervention in northern Australia (Northern Territory Emergency Response) and Yolngu people’s response and resistance to this Intervention.

Current research

Indigenous People and Poverty: The challenge of Cultural Difference, financed by SIDA (Swedish International Development Agency). In 2007 the Australian government began a program of Intervention among the Aboriginal people of northern Australia. Initially the Intervention was a response to reports of sexual abuse of indigenous children, but soon the program changed its focus to address the gap in income, health, lifespan and education between the indigenous population and the rest of the Australian population. The Intervention has been marked by neoliberal policy reform and has involved a significant departure from the previous policy of self-determination in relation to the Aboriginal population. The project focus is on the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land. How do they perceive the Intervention? What are the results of the Intervention? Does the current lack of self-determination for the indigenous population mean that Australia is in breach of international conventions such as The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples?