Introduction

Over the past decade, Jürgen Habermas has provoked a conversation about some fundamental questions in public discourse. In the wake of numerous terrorist incidents, he has interrogated the polarisation of worldviews that splits societies into religious and secular camps. Habermas identified the need for a ‘postsecular’ discourse within which religious and secular contributions can learn from each other, and forge the solidarities that are necessary if violence is to be avoided. Although he suggested that fundamentalism in some parts of the world may reflect ‘failures in decolonization’ (Habermas, 2006, p 1), he has confessed in another context that his own proposals may not be readily applicable in settler colonial contexts. He seems to suggest that Indigenous cultures might need to be considered ‘external to egalitarian law’ in Western societies like the US, Canada and Australia (Habermas, 2008, pp 304- 5). This chapter investigates some of the ‘failures in decolonisation’ in Australia, and also considers new opportunities that may be enabled by postsecular discourse. I argue that a political ethic of reconciliation focused on restorative justice can be informed by a variety of religious traditions, and that such a political ethic can address the gaps created by utilitarian policies.

Along with Habermas, we may acknowledge at the outset that there is no easy way to integrate Indigenous cultures within democratic systems of government. The utilitarian norms that embrace the wellbeing of the majority, and which commonly underpin democratic arrangements, are manifestly inadequate when it comes to the protection of minority interests. Similarly, policies designed to address social disadvantage rarely stretch far enough into the past to address the historic injustices committed against Aboriginal peoples in settler colonial contexts. Notions of distributive justice (Fleischacker, 2004) have been largely insensitive to the imposition of settler sovereignty and the extinguishment of customary rights to land and natural resources. We confront an additional layer of policy complexity when the core issues at stake lie precisely at the intersections of Indigenous spirituality and the management of natural resources.

Postsecular repentance?

The postsecular experiment in political philosophy can be interpreted as a self-critical move on the part of liberal theorists who acknowledge that some recent versions of secular politics have had the effect of limiting freedom of religion, with unintended consequences.