Instrumentalizations of history and the Single Noongar Claim

International audienceIn 2003, 80 Aboriginal Noongar, represented by the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council (SWALSC), lodged the 'Single Noongar Claim', an application for native title, on behalf of all Noongar people, over the South West of Western Australia, including the Perth metropolitan area. At the request of the State of Western Australia and the Commonwealth, the hearing over the Perth area commenced first in 2005 before Justice Wilcox, who handed down his judgement in 2006. He recognised the existence of a single Noongar community, governed by a normative system of laws and customs at the date of settlement in 1829, and confirmed the continuity of that community and normative system to the present day. He identified eight surviving native title rights that should be recognised, subject to extinguishment. The State and Commonwealth governments appealed this decision. In 2008, the full Federal Court confirmed the existence of a single Noongar society at sovereignty. However, the full Court overturned the positive determination and sent the case back to another court for reconsideration. In consultation with the Noongar, SWALSC decided to pursue the Single Noongar Claim through negotiations with the State government. These negotiations should soon be concluded. The concept of history and its interpretations, rather than culture, tradition or practice, played a central role in the prosecution of the separate proceeding and its subsequent appeal, and is still central to the negotiations with the State government. I illustrate how history as such as has been instrumentalized by the various parties involved in the Single Noongar Claim. The applicants used historical evidence to prove the continuity of the Noongar community, a view adopted by Justice Wilcox. On the contrary, the State and Commonwealth argued that, due to the history of dispossession in the South West, the maintenance of 'traditional' laws and customs to the present day was impossible. The judges of the full Court accepted their claim that continuity had not been proved for each generation and were dissatisfied with Justice Wilcox's consideration of the historical context as an explanation for change. Eventually, to prepare themselves for the negotiations with the State of Western Australia, SWALSC used history again as an empowering tool proving the continuity and strength of the Noongar community

Entre discours traditionnels et discours conformistes : les Noongars de l’Avon Valley (Australie Occidentale) et le Land Acquisition Program d’Indigenous Land Corporation

International audienceLes discours et les définitions établis par la reconnaissance des droits fonciers sont souvent imposés aux autochtones mais certains d’entre eux se réapproprient parfois cette rhétorique à d’autres fins. Dans l’Avon Valley, en Australie Occidentale, trois corporations familiales descendantes des Aborigènes Noongar tentent de développer leurs propriétés respectives situées sur leurs territoires ‘traditionnels’. Une revendication foncière étant quasiment impossible dans cette région agricole, elles ont soumis un plan d’exploitation au Land Acquisition Program de l’Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC), une organisation gouvernementale visant à acquérir des terres pour les Aborigènes ne pouvant prétendre au Native Title. Ces familles déclarent vouloir revitaliser la tradition et la culture aborigènes fragilisées par la colonisation. Il est intéressant de s’interroger sur les formes de cette revitalisation, qui s’avère être une reconstruction, et d’étudier le rejet ou la réappropriation, ainsi que l’internalisation par ces familles de certains termes et notions développés dans le cadre de l’accès au foncier

The Forgotten : tentative de réappropriation aborigène de l'histoire australienne

Accessible en ligne: http://erea.revues.org/2815International audienceThe official Australian national history leaves little room for Aboriginal people. Convicts, settlers, gold-diggers, bushrangers and white soldiers are the protagonists of this national history and the Aborigines' presence is mentioned to emphasize these heroes' patriotism, "mateship", bravery, tenacity and initiative. These omissions, both intentional and unintentional, draw a veil over the disturbing histories that challenge the glorious and federative values around which the Australian nation builds itself. The dispossession, massacre, oppression and exploitation of Aboriginal peoples are thus silenced. Nevertheless, collective forgetting cannot permanently stifle subversive voices. In recent decades, many historians and anthropologists have dedicated their research to such repressed histories, provoking virulent reactions among conservative scholars and politicians opposed to a rewriting of history which questions the Australian national narrative and identity. This re-visitation of history is of vital interest to Aboriginal peoples, among them voices who are endeavouring to reclaim Australian history. I propose to illustrate their efforts through a study of The Forgotten, an Aboriginal short film dedicated to the recognition of the Aboriginal soldiers who fought for Australia, only to be forgotten.L'histoire officielle de la nation australienne se consacre peu aux Aborigènes. Les prisonniers, les colons, les chercheurs d'or, les bushrangers, les soldats blancs sont les protagonistes de cette histoire nationale et la présence des Aborigènes sert souvent de faire valoir au patriotisme, à la camaraderie, la bravoure, la ténacité ou encore l'esprit d'initiative de ces héros. Ces oublis, à la fois volontaires et involontaires, permettent d'occulter les histoires qui dérangent et viennent contredire ces valeurs glorieuses et fédératrices autour desquelles se construit la nation australienne. La dépossession, le massacre, l'oppression et l'exploitation des peuples aborigènes sont ainsi passés sous silence. Néanmoins, l'oubli collectif ne peut constamment résister aux voix subversives qui s'élèvent. Depuis quelques décennies déjà, de nombreux historiens et anthropologues consacrent leurs recherches à ces histoires réprimées suscitant ainsi de virulentes réactions de la part d'intellectuels et politiciens conservateurs opposés à cette réécriture qui remet en question l'histoire et l'identité nationales australiennes. Ce travail d'histoire est avant tout cher aux Aborigènes et certains d'entre eux essayent de se réapproprier l'histoire australienne. Je me propose d'illustrer ces tentatives à travers l'étude de The Forgotten, un documentaire aborigène consacré à la reconnaissance des soldats aborigènes qui se sont battus pour l'Australie mais ont été oubliés

Nodal domains, spectral minimal partitions, and their relation to Aharonov-Bohm operators

This survey is a short version of a chapter written by the first two authors in the book [A. Henrot, editor. Shape optimization and spectral theory. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017] (where more details and references are given) but we have decided here to put more emphasis on the role of the Aharonov-Bohm operators which appear to be a useful tool coming from physics for understanding a problem motivated either by spectral geometry or dynamics of population. Similar questions appear also in Bose-Einstein theory. Finally some open problems which might be of interest are mentioned.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1506.0724

Numerical analysis of nodal sets for eigenvalues of Aharonov-Bohm Hamiltonians on the square and application to minimal partitions

International audienceUsing the double covering approach introduced by B. Helffer, M. and T. Hoffmann-Ostenhof and M. Owen and further developed for questions of isospectrality by the authors in collaboration with T. Hoffmann-Ostenhof, we analyze the variation of the eigenvalues of the one pole Aharonov-Bohm Hamiltonian on the square and the nodal picture of the associated eigenfunctions as a function of the pole. This leads us to discover new candidates for minimal $k$-partitions of the square with a specific topological type. This illustrates also recent results of B. Noris and S. Terracini. This finally supports or disproves conjectures for the minimal $3$ and $5$-partitions on the square

Entretien avec Bernard Béal, Éditions Biotop

Après avoir interrogé en 2002 les libraires sur des préoccupations proches des nôtres, BIBLIOthèque(s) inaugure 2003 avec une nouvelle rubrique consacrée aux éditeurs. Pour ce premier numéro de l’année, nous avons rencontré Bernard Béal, directeur des Éditions Biotop, qui assume trois fonctions : celle de communicant, de fabricant et d’éditeur. Un triptyque original pour des livres à mettre entre toutes les mains : les Mini-Livres mesurent environ 3 cm sur 2 cm, et pèsent 3 grammes. Une démarche éditoriale qui pose de vraies questions sur l’accès à la culture et à la lecture

TC-motifs at the TATA-box expected position in plant genes: a novel class of motifs involved in the transcription regulation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The TATA-box and TATA-variants are regulatory elements involved in the formation of a transcription initiation complex. Both have been conserved throughout evolution in a restricted region close to the Transcription Start Site (TSS). However, less than half of the genes in model organisms studied so far have been found to contain either one of these elements. Indeed different core-promoter elements are involved in the recruitment of the TATA-box-binding protein. Here we assessed the possibility of identifying novel functional motifs in plant genes, sharing the TATA-box topological constraints.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We developed an <it>ab-initio </it>approach considering the preferential location of motifs relative to the TSS. We identified motifs observed at the TATA-box expected location and conserved in both <it>Arabidopsis thaliana </it>and <it>Oryza sativa </it>promoters. We identified TC-elements within non-TA-rich promoters 30 bases upstream of the TSS. As with the TATA-box and TATA-variant sequences, it was possible to construct a unique distance graph with the TC-element sequences. The structural and functional features of TC-element-containing genes were distinct from those of TATA-box- or TATA-variant-containing genes. <it>Arabidopsis thaliana </it>transcriptome analysis revealed that TATA-box-containing genes were generally those showing relatively high levels of expression and that TC-element-containing genes were generally those expressed in specific conditions.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our observations suggest that the TC-elements might constitute a class of novel regulatory elements participating towards the complex modulation of gene expression in plants.</p

Mental flexibility impairment in drivers with early Alzheimer’s disease: A simulator-based study

After memory impairment, one of the most common troubles of early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the impairment of executive functioning. However, it can have major consequences on daily life, notably on the driving activity. The present study focused on one important executive function involved in driving: mental flexibility; and considered how this impairment can affect driving. Ten patients with early AD were matched with 29 healthy older drivers. All participants were given an evaluation of mental flexibility through neuropsychological tests and an experimental test developed on a static driving simulator. The experiment was divided in two conditions; one without mental flexibility and another condition with a mental flexibility demand. AD patients showed impairments in the neuropsychological tests evaluating mental flexibility. These deficits are linked to the deficits they showed in the driving simulator flexibility tests. This study contributes to the understanding of mental flexibility mechanisms and on their role in driving activity. It also confirms that the driving simulator is a suitable tool to explore cognitive disorders and driving ability

Intrumentalizations of history and the Single Noongar claim

In 2003, 80 Aboriginal Noongar, represented by the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council (SWALSC), lodged the ‘Single Noongar Claim’ (WAG 6006 of 2003), an application for native title, on behalf of all Noongar people, over the South West of Western Australia, including the Perth metropolitan area. At the request of the State of Western Australia and the Commonwealth, the hearing over the Perth area commenced first in 2005 before Justice Wilcox, who handed down his judgement in 2006. He ..