Mark McMillan (Wiradjuri)
Legal practitioner, Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory

Are We Home Yet? Citizenship within Australian Indigenous Communities.

Mark’s paper will be on the construction of Indigenous identity in the Australian context. He explores how the present and historic construction of Indigenous identity (by non-Indigenous people and subsequently co-opted by Indigenous communities) has disempowered Indigenous nations in Australia from actively pursuing Indigenous citizenship for their people. He will illustrate how the process of inclusion of Indigenous Australians into the broader citizenship of the Australian society has resulted in a lack of understanding about cultural citizenship. The paper will highlight some of the complexities of trying to find a “one size fits all” approach to Indigenous identity and how these complexities have become a burden for communities struggling to understand the issues and find mechanisms for survival in a political environment that is antagonistic to Indigenous rights.

Current research area: Indigenous Identity , Indigenous Governance

Mark McMillan is a Wiradjuri man from Trangie in central NSW. He received his undergraduate law degree from the ANU and has studied First Nations legal issues at the University of British Columbia. He has been admitted as a Legal Practitioner of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory.

Mark has worked with ATSIC in a variety of areas including the Legal Services Division as a law clerk. Other areas of ATSIC in which Mark has worked includes the Regional Support Section, where he developed and implemented a procedures manual for the Regional Services Unit staff, as well as with the Broome Regional Office where he provided legal, policy and administrative support to the regional council. In 2001 Mark successfully completed the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre Certificate Course.

Since joining Jumbunna in 2002 Mark has worked on a number of research projects including as an editor for Balayi Culture, Law and Colonialism and the Journal of Indigenous Policy. During 2002 he conducted research for Ngyia, in association with Assoc. Prof. Chris Cuneen, for the preparation of a discussion paper on the proposed development of an Aboriginal Justice Plan in New South Wales. During 2003 he worked with Prof. Larissa Behrendt to prepare advice for the newly elected ATSIC Board of Commissioners on their roles and responsibilities under the ATSIC Act, and assisted with providing the ATSIC CEO with advice and technical support for their submission to the ATSIC Review. Mark has recently completed a Masters of Law and Policy degree at the University of Arizona and is due to undertake his SJD at the University of Arizona. 

His thesis will look at how the Hight Court of Australia and Government agencies define "Aboriginality" in Australia. He will view the construct of Aboriginality through case studies of applications for Native Title.

In 2005 and 2006, Mark worked with another Aboriginal barrister, Norman Laing, in making nearly 9000 land claims for Aboriginal people in New South Wales under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (NSW).