Fourth World Theory in the Australian Context of Two Worlds

The Fourth World is a group or ‘World’ that is Indigenous. It is also a World that is cultural, political and economically categorised. It sits under the weight of colonising ideologies, records, systems, institutions, organisations, social structures, and infrastructure, in other words, the governance and institutional tool of a nation-state. Over twenty years after the abolition of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), dispossession and degeneration of Indigenous rights demonstrate there is clearly ‘two Worlds’ in Australia: an Indigenous world (the Fourth World) and the world of the nation-state (a World put in place by the colonising processes of the British Empire). Fourth World theory defines a space and place for Indigenous people and, their nations, who are entwined within the institutional infrastructure and systems of a colonising empire or nation. I apply the frequently used concepts of nationhood and sovereignty, and the lesser used concept of peoplehood, to align these in the Australian context to Fourth World theory. I then use the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) (United Nations, 2007) and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and Australia’s Obligations under the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Marks et al., 2000), an ATSIC submission to the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC), to provide a framework for making a distinction between two Worlds born from the aftermath and legacy of an invading empire.