- Van Meijl, Toon. 2011. “Community Development as Fantasy?: A case study of contemporary Maori society.” Ethnography & the Production of Anthropological Knowledge: Essays in honour of Nicolas Peterson, pp. 133-146. Canberra, Australia: Australian National University (ANU).
- Abstract：
In 1999, Nicholas Peterson received the Lucy Mair Medal for Applied Anthropology from the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, and in what follows I engage with his longstanding interest in the intersection between legal, political, economic and socio-cultural development issues amongst indigenous communities in Oceania (see also Kubota and Martin, this volume). Since the 1970s, Nic Peterson has been involved in many land claims, and in more recent years has has also written numerous native title reports in support of Aboriginal communities aspiring to obtain land rights to their traditional territories. The research he has conducted for these claims and reports also raises anthropological issues—for example, regarding the socio-cultural organisation of Aboriginal communities, especially the question of whether internal diversity can hamper legal and political success (Peterson 1996).