Religious Change and Indigenous Peoples ― The Making of Religious Identities

Exploring religious and spiritual changes which have been taking place among Indigenous populations in Australia and New Zealand, this book focuses on important changes in religious affiliation in census data over the last 15 years. Drawing on both local social and political debates, while contextualising the discussion in wider global debates about changing religious identities, especially the growth of Islam, the authors present a critical analysis of the persistent images and discourses on Aboriginal religions and spirituality. This book takes a comparative approach to other Indigenous and minority groups to explore contemporary changes in religious affiliation which have raised questions about resistance to modernity, challenges to the nation state and/or rejection of Christianity or Islam. Helena Onnudottir, Adam Posssamai and Bryan Turner offer a critical analysis to on-going public, political and sociological debates about religious conversion (especially to Islam) and changing religious affiliations (including an increase in the number of people who claim 'no religion') among Indigenous populations. This book also offers a major contribution to the growing debate about conversion to Islam among Australian Aborigines, Maoris and Pacific peoples.

Adam Possamai is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Western Sydney and the 2010-2014 President for the Sociology of Religion Research Committee from the International Sociological Association. He is also a former President of the Australian Association for the Study of Religions, and a past co-editor of the Australian Religion Studies Review. He is the author several books and papers, and editor of The Handbook of Hyper-Real Religions. Dr Helena Onnudottir is a Social Anthropologist and a lecturer in Sociology in the School of Social Sciences and Psychology, University of Western Sydney. She recently completed a PhD on Australian Aborigines. Professor Bryan Turner is the Director of the Religion and Society Research Centre at the University of Western Sydney and Presidential Professor of Sociology in the Graduate Center at City University New York USA. He has held professorships at Cambridge University and the National University of Singapore. He is the founding editor of the journals Body&Society (with Mike Featherstone), Citizenship Studies and Journal of Classical Sociology (with John O'Neill), and an editorial member of numerous journals including: British Journal of Sociology, Contemporary Islam and the Sociological Review. He edited the New Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Religion, and is the author of many books and papers.