Planning is becoming one of the key battlegrounds for Indigenous people to negotiate meaningful articulation of their sovereign territorial and political rights, reigniting the essential tension that lies at the heart of Indigenous-settler relations.

But what actually happens in the planning contact zone – when Indigenous demands for recognition of coexisting political authority over territory intersect with environmental and urban land-use planning systems in settler-colonial states?

It is with great pleasure that we invite you to the public launch of Planning for Coexistence? Recognizing Indigenous rights through land-use planning in Canada and Australia the latest book from RMIT’s Centre for Urban Research Professor Libby Porter and University of Manitoba’s Professor Janice Barry.

Planning for Coexistence compares the experiences of four Indigenous communities who are challenging and renegotiating land-use planning in these places, breaking new ground in our understanding of contemporary Indigenous land justice politics.

The book grapples with what it means for planning to engage with Indigenous peoples through a critical examination of planning contact zones in two settler-colonial states: Victoria, Australia and British Columbia, Canada.

By encouraging informed, responsible decision making based on evidence this book is a first of its kind demonstrating how Aboriginal knowledge and cultural ecologies could coexist with planning.

Drinks and refreshments will be provided.

We hope you can join us to celebrate this milestone.

Image by Michael Coghlan via Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0

Where

Storey Hall, RMIT City campus, Building 16, Level 7, 336 – 348 Swanston Street

When

14 October 2016
5:00PM-7:00PM