Chapter 7: Automobility in First Nations Sovereignty-Making

In this chapter, we sketch out the role of First Nations night patrols (or community patrols) in sovereignty-making and collective forms of First Nations automobility. We pay particular attention to the role of First Nations women's agency in creating, nurturing and sustaining night patrol work to ensure safety and collective wellbeing. We tease out the links between patrol work and broader expressions of sovereign power embedded in First Nations law and culture in the Northern Territory. We argue that patrols unsettle the ‘colonial matrix of power’ (Mignolo & Walsh, 2018, p. 153) by diverting First Nations peoples from ensnarement in the colonial criminal law system. Otherwise, ensnarement can have, as seen in the police chases in Chapters 5, lethal outcomes. At the same time, patrols are in constant danger of being co-opted to fit the policy agendas of powerful government agencies. This is often because the patrol motor vehicle – so essential to establishing a culturally safe place for First Nations peoples – comes interconnected to the settler state in terms of funding and regulations. Despite attempts at co-option, patrols still offer a vision of a radically different model of community safety practice and vehicle use, based on First Nations laws and cultures.