The Aboriginal
economy has changed fundamentally over the past two decades, mainly due to the significant increase in business activities and the successful efforts of the
emerging indigenous entrepreneurs.
In fact, despite high unemployment, low income, and low educational levels in the Aboriginal society in Australia today, Lawrence T. Udo-Ekpo argues, quite convincingly, that extraordinary efforts are being made by the Aborigines themselves to overcome these problems at the local community level.
The book is based on actual case studies of the Aboriginal
enterprises in Australia; focusing on the challenges facing the
new and emerging entrepreneurs.
The
author does not flinch from the many problems Aboriginal society in Australia faces but does provide a fresh perspective - a new and optimistic view of the Aboriginal economy that Australians are not getting elsewhere.
The myth of welfare dependence has resulted in wide acceptance of the view that all Aboriginal economic activities result from welfare transfers; and so, Aboriginal production of new
wealth is negligible or non-existent. This, according to the author, underestimates and undervalues the significant new wealth from hundreds of new Aboriginal enterprises and joint ventures, from resource and tourism industries to arts and crafts production – a development unimagined in the 1950s and 1960s.
Meanwhile, the emerging trends in Aboriginal economy in Australia are being influenced by the same array of forces
shaping and re-shaping institutional structures and processes at local, national, and global levels.
Thus, the author argues that throughout Aboriginal Australia, there is evidence of increasing demand for a better standard of living, capacity building, and a fair share of Australia's wealth and social capital.
The Aboriginal Economy in Transition: Inspiring Visions of the Futures is a creative and imaginative study of Aboriginal social formation in Australia in the 21st Century. It is a book all those interested in alternative perception of indigenous affairs everywhere should read.
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