Not that the specificity of the Indigenous experience in each state is lost in the telling. Self-consciously avoiding over-generalisation, the author focuses empirically upon emblematic local examples of indigenous activism. In Australia, this includes the Yolngu in relation to the Gove land rights case; in Canada, the Dene in relation to the protection of the Mackenzie Valley in the Northwest Territories; and in New Zealand, the Whanganui in relation to the sacred river that bears that name. Each example (and others) is used to support the main argument, which is that, by contrast to comparable peoples who have overcome colonialism by obtaining statehood – as in Africa – Indigenous peoples are changing the Commonwealth settler-states from within. That, argues Johnson, deserves our attention.

As discussed in the brilliant introductory chapter that is worth the full price of the book, these Indigenous peoples have often succeeded in modern claims-making, despite the disruptive and sometimes genocidal impact of colonialism. The analysis teaches us important lessons of twentieth-century settler-state history: assimilationist policies potentially lead to the elimination of Indigenous peoples; welfarist policies lead all too often to their stigmatised dependency; social justice policies don’t fully comprehend Indigenous self-determination; and recognition policies, on their own, lead to little at all. Enter the present. The increasingly persuasive claim of Indigenous peoples, which is developed in detail in the book’s six substantive chapters, is that they should be treated as ‘coeval’ partners in a new social contract, one reflected in constitutions, in treaties, and in governmental administration in the states concerned.

These substantive chapters are fascinating case studies of Indigenous activism. Each tells a story of how law, in one form or another, was used to seek native title in, or protection of, Indigenous homelands, particularly when threatened by large-scale mining and other activities of modernity. The authorial voice is one of a sympathetically engaged, but not ideologically dogmatic, analytic-al historian. She is interested in real people. Hosts of Indigenous and non- Indigenous characters worthy of our attention populate the studies: venerable elders, idealistic advocates, compassionate judges and others. Out of obvious if understated respect for their profound historical agency, Johnson makes them a feature of the narrative. The leitmotif of each study, which is cleverly reflected in the implied syllogism in the title of the book, is that Indigenous historical dispossession and contemporary survival are connected by land. As gently spoken/sung in the lilting Whanganui poem from the book, the people, the land (and waters) and the flow of history represent a compound spiritual force: ‘The river flows / from the mountains to the sea / I am the river / the river is me.’

If timing is everything and luck a fortune, the author and Oxford University Press have both in the Australian context. Publication of the author’s arguments is especially timely here because of the constitutional recognition debate. Luckily for them, this debate has entered a new and welcome stage – intensive internal Indigenous consultation. Recently, it seemed that the debate was faltering. An historically unusual response has been adopted by national political consensus: rather than put upon, Indigenous peoples have been given time for consideration. Despite the delay, history may see this positively as a marker of respect and reconciliation.

Therefore, I suggest, we should pay attention to the general discussion in the book of, first, the perceptible yearning in settler-state societies (like ours) for an enhanced sense of identity and meaning and, secondly, the national anxiety engendered in those states by entrenched Indigenous disadvantage and social and political exclusion. As the author argues, the formation of such states has been comparatively recent and is therefore historically thin. Recognising and incorporating ancient Indigenous histories in the national story can play an important role in building a sense of identity that is more historically leavened. This enlivens the possibility of a new social contract (and social contact), in which state redemption, which only Indigenous peoples as the victims of colonisation can give, is traded for recognition of Indigenous peoplehood and self-determination, which only states can give through constitutional change, treaties, and other changes to the internal political order. This argument historically transcends but defin-itely encompasses the debate in Australia about constitutional recognition. It is for that reason that participants in and followers of this debate, among others, should welcome this book.