• 1. The modest mandate of 1967; 2. 'Land ownership for Aborigines presents difficult problems'; 3. Mediating the Yolngu; 4. Voice and feet; 5. North and South; 6. A national Indigenous leadership?; 7. Clans and councils; 8. As nasty a piece of chicanery as I can remember; 9. Effectively Aboriginal; 10. An Indigenous public sphere; 11. From James Cook to Eva Valley; 12. The 1940s in the 1990s.

'Rowse has produced the first comprehensive political history of the federal administration of indigenous affairs in late twentieth-century Australia … for those interested in his innovative approach to governance, Obliged to be Difficult is an essential work.' The Times Literary Supplement

• 1. The modest mandate of 1967; 2. 'Land ownership for Aborigines presents difficult problems'; 3. Mediating the Yolngu; 4. Voice and feet; 5. North and South; 6. A national Indigenous leadership?; 7. Clans and councils; 8. As nasty a piece of chicanery as I can remember; 9. Effectively Aboriginal; 10. An Indigenous public sphere; 11. From James Cook to Eva Valley; 12. The 1940s in the 1990s.

'Rowse has produced the first comprehensive political history of the federal administration of indigenous affairs in late twentieth-century Australia … for those interested in his innovative approach to governance, Obliged to be Difficult is an essential work.' The Times Literary Supplement

• 1. The modest mandate of 1967; 2. 'Land ownership for Aborigines presents difficult problems'; 3. Mediating the Yolngu; 4. Voice and feet; 5. North and South; 6. A national Indigenous leadership?; 7. Clans and councils; 8. As nasty a piece of chicanery as I can remember; 9. Effectively Aboriginal; 10. An Indigenous public sphere; 11. From James Cook to Eva Valley; 12. The 1940s in the 1990s.

'Rowse has produced the first comprehensive political history of the federal administration of indigenous affairs in late twentieth-century Australia … for those interested in his innovative approach to governance, Obliged to be Difficult is an essential work.' The Times Literary Supplement