This book focuses on the colonial practice of rationing goods to Aboriginal people, arguing that much of the colonial experience in Central Australia can be understood by seeing rationing as a fundamental, though flexible, instrument of colonial government. Rationing was the material basis for a variety of colonial ventures: scientific, evangelical, pastoral and the postwar program of "assimilation." Combining history and anthropology in a cultural study of rationing, this book develops a new narrative of the colonization of Central Australia.

Since the 1967 constitutional referendum, Australian governments have moved toward policies of Indigenous self-determination. Obliged to Be Difficult presents the central issue of self-determination as seen by Dr. H. C. Coombs, the most influential policy maker after the referendum: through what political mechanisms will Indigenous Australians find their own voice? This narrative of Coombs' work draws on many unpublished sources and illuminates the interplay of government policy with Indigenous practice. This book is both an account of government policies and a biographical slice of an...