Feeling without knowing? Chinese Australian perspectives on Indigenous affairs in Australia

This article appeared in Australian Journal of Political Science. https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2026.2758183

ABSTRACT

This article examines Chinese Australian perspectives on Aboriginal affairs in Australia, a significant yet relatively underexplored area of research. Although Chinese Australians play an increasingly important role in Australia’s social and political life, remarkably little scholarly attention has been paid to how this community understands and engages with Indigenous affairs. The article fills this gap. Drawing on focus groups and in-depth semi-structured interviews, the findings suggest that Chinese Australian perspectives are shaped by a complex mix of broad normative goodwill, perceived preferential treatment, doubts about policy effectiveness, and limited knowledge, exposure, and interaction. These dynamics create a circular pattern in which distance reinforces disengagement and disengagement further limits understanding. By bringing Chinese Australian perspectives into debates on Indigenous affairs, the article moves beyond a simple Indigenous–settler binary and contributes to scholarship on migration, multiculturalism, and the relational dynamics linking Indigenous peoples, settlers, and migrant communities in Australia.

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This work was supported by Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney Research Grant for the project ‘Revisiting Chinese-Australian Perspectives on Indigenous Policies’.