EDB007 - Cultural Studies: Indigenous Studies
Unit Co-ordinator: School of Cultural and Language Studies in Education
Numerous government reports and recent discussions about reconciliation have called for an increased commitment to Indigenous education in Australia. Teachers are increasingly being asked to improve their skill, knowledge and understanding to teach Indigenous students, and to teach curricula which incorporates Indigenous viewpoints on social, cultural and historical matters. You will begin with an analysis of your own cultural place in the Australian context, and will afterwards move towards an understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives on history and contemporary issues, and an understanding of why Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander students have been so disadvantaged by the Australian education system. It is intended that the conceptual, ethical and critical frameworks developed in this unit will carry over into the learning you do throughout your program of study.
HHB210 Indigenous Australia: Country, Kin & Culture
Unit Co-ordinator: Victor Hart
This unit combines approaches from cross-cultural, political studies, and socio-cultural history as it relates to the interface of human services established by/for Indigenous people in the greater Brisbane area as well in other localities. It will provide a rich resource of information and ideas through which students can acquire an introductory knowledge of Australian Aboriginal welfare history, institutions and traditions.
HHB123 - Indigenous Australian Culture Studies
Unit Co-ordinator: Jacqui Katona
This unit will serve as an introductory unit and concentrates principally on giving students an understanding of Indigenous cultures within Australia through contextualising these cultures within the framework of Australian pioneering history and contemporary identity. This history and identity has emerged on the basis of legal and philosophical beliefs in terra nullius. While this doctrine was legally overthrown by the High Court in 1992, the power that resides in institutions established on this basis remains unchanged. This myth of terra nullius is a legal and social phenomenon that must be given consideration in any study of Indigenous cultures in this country.
HHB255 - Indigenous Politics & Political Culture
Unit Co-ordinator: Victor Hart & Jacqui Katona
This unit takes an innovative approach by examining Indigenous political culture and history through the development of Indigenous leadership since invasion, specifically focusing on the events leading from the 1960s to the present. Examination will focus on the experiences, and creative activities of well-known Indigenous people during this time. Students will be actively involved in debates on issues such as history, government incarceration policies, land rights and native title and other relevant issues as they arise spontaneously throughout the course or as designed.
CLB402 - Issues in Indigenous Education
Unit Co-ordinator: Karen Martin
Increasing recognition has been given in recent years to the role of education in overcoming the economic and social disadvantages experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and in helping to maintain Indigenous cultures. Education is also central in providing all Australians with an understanding and respect for Australia's Indigenous cultures, particularly in relation to the processes outlined by the Council for Aboriginal Reconcilation.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people generally seek education that is more responsive to the diversity of their circumstances and needs, and which recognises the cultural background of students. Education provided according to those criteria, it is argued, is likely to lead to higher levels of participation and success. Many seek 'two-ways' education in order to maintain or restore their cultural identity and acquire useful skills for their participation in Australian social and economic life.
This unit is designed to provide education professionals with a deeper understanding of the complex issues involved in Indigenous education, and to provide them with the knowledge and skills to develop appropriate programs and strategies in consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
HHB276 - Indigenous Knowledge: Research Ethics & Protocols
Unit Co-ordinator: Jean Phillips
Indigenous Australian peoples have distinctive cultures and histories, informed by unique knowledge transferred and mediated within and between communities prior to, and since, European colonisation. Indigenous knowledge, whilst the objective of numerous research quests since colonisation, has rarely informed the conceptualisation and methodology of research, as ‘research’ is yet another tool of the academy dominated by non-Indigenous paradigms. A ‘terra nullius’ assumption, that Indigenous knowledge has nothing to offer research approaches, still dominants the Australian academic landscape. This unit attempts to illuminate how existing western paradigms, through ‘legitimate’ research power and control mechanisms, serve to position Indigenous knowledge as the ‘objective’ of research, thus marginalising Indigenous people from the creation of ‘new’ Indigenous knowledge. Dominant research paradigms must be subverted so that Indigenous worldviews and methodologies instead become central in all research endeavours. A primary tool for subverting dominant research paradigms is the observation of Indigenous research ethics.