Overcoming the vast socio-economic disparity between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous Australians is a long-standing social policy objective; one shared by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from around the nation. Goal achievement will require Indigenous individuals and households to be social mobile, a process integrally involved with social capital, existing and requisite. There is almost no research on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social mobility or its attendant social capital connections. This paper, addresses this gap through an exploratory analysis of this interaction across three dimensions: distinctive patterns of Indigenous social capital; the transferability of Indigenous social capital; and the tasks of traversing the social capital divide. The implications drawn for this analysis, while tentative, indicate that for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the intersection of the processes of social mobility and social capital is vexed and contains hazards and costs not fully shared by socially mobile non-Indigenous households. From a social policy perspective more research and a more nuanced understanding of Indigenous social mobility is required.

Prof Maggie Walter is Pro Vice Chancellor Aboriginal Research and Leadership at the University of Tasmania.