This paper examines the perceptions of police who work in Queensland’s discrete Indigenous communities. Given the strong relationship between policing practices and the environments in which police work, we examine how ‘place’ and ‘space’ – particularly the environmental context of Queensland’s discrete Indigenous communities – can inform policing. Interviews with fifteen police officers who work in Indigenous communities across Queensland found that police felt like strangers in Indigenous communities; they were acutely aware of their status as a (predominantly) white minority in a (predominantly) non-white space, which had implications for their policing practices. This also contributed to their perceptions of discrete Indigenous communities as strange lands – spaces in which their own (settler) social norms did not necessarily apply, and within which the work of policing had to be adjusted and reshaped. Overall, police found it difficult to reconcile their experiences of policing in discrete Indigenous communities with their experiences of policing elsewhere in Australia. In many ways, they were not trained nor prepared for policing in these distinct contexts.

中文翻译：

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陌生土地上的陌生人：警方对澳大利亚昆士兰州离散土著社区工作的看法

本文考察了在昆士兰离散土著社区工作的警察的看法。鉴于警务实践与警察工作环境之间的密切关系，我们研究了“地点”和“空间”——尤其是昆士兰离散土著社区的环境背景——如何为警务提供信息。对在昆士兰州原住民社区工作的 15 名警察的采访发现，警察在原住民社区感觉像是陌生人；他们敏锐地意识到自己在（主要）非白人空间中作为（主要）白人少数群体的地位，这对他们的警务实践产生了影响。这也导致他们将离散的土著社区视为陌生的土地——他们自己的（定居者）社会规范不一定适用的空间，并且必须在其中调整和重塑警务工作。总体而言，警方发现很难将他们在离散土著社区的警务经历与他们在澳大利亚其他地方的警务经历相协调。在许多方面，他们没有受过训练，也没有准备好在这些不同的背景下进行警务工作。