In recent years, police agencies have adopted Indigenous cultural designs on police vehicles and uniforms. In 2017, the Western Australia Police unveiled police vehicles branded with Indigenous cultural designs as part of an initiative that aimed to strengthen relationships with the Aboriginal community. This article analyzed one of these vehicles using semiotic analysis. Our analysis shows how the vehicle serves as a sign of symbolic violence and how the unification of “police” and “indigeneity” works to create an amalgam of new meaning, which neutralizes historical and contemporary actualities. We discuss how the initiative keeps structural issues intact and question whether it can be read as a self-interest mechanism of dominant culture rather than a genuine desire to help Aboriginal communities.

中文翻译：

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警车与本土文化设计：符号学分析

近年来，警察机构在警车和制服上采用了土著文化设计。2017 年，西澳大利亚州警方推出了带有土著文化设计品牌的警车，作为旨在加强与土著社区关系的举措的一部分。本文使用符号学分析分析了其中一种交通工具。我们的分析显示了车辆如何作为象征性暴力的标志，以及“警察”和“土著”的统一如何创造一种新意义的混合物，从而中和历史和当代现实。我们讨论了该倡议如何保持结构性问题的完整性，并质疑是否可以将其视为主流文化的一种自利机制，而不是帮助土著社区的真正愿望。