Australian Indigenous Studies: A Question of Discipline

Abstract

This paper is an early discussion of the ways we are approaching Indigenous Studies in Australian Universities. The focus is on how disciplinary and scholarly issues within Indigenous Studies can be interrogated and yet retain the necessary cohesion and solidarity so important to the Indigenous struggle. The paper contrasts Indigenous Studies pursued by Indigenous scholars to other disciplinary perspectives in the academy. Categories such as the Indigenous community and Indigenous knowledge are problematised, not to dissolve them, but to explore productive avenues. I identify one of the problems that Indigenous studies faces as resisting the tendency to perpetuate an enclave within the academy whose purpose is to reflect back an impoverished and codified representation of Indigenous culture to the communities that are its source. On the other hand, there is danger also in the necessary engagement with other disciplines on their own terms. My suggestion is that we see ourselves mapping our understanding of our particular Indigenous experiences upon a terrain intersected by the pathways, both of other Indigenous experiences, and of the non‐Indigenous academic disciplines. My intention is to stimulate some thought among Indigenous academics and scholars about the future possibilities of Australian Indigenous Studies as a field of endeavour.

Unknown and Unknowing Possibilities

“…One of the historical and contemporarily contested characteristics of Indigenous Australian Studies is the construction of disciplinary knowledge about rather than with and by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. While Indigenous Australian Studies is clearly the "study of and about Indigenous people" (Nakata, 2006, p. 267), questions have long been and continue to be asked about the inadequacies of Western paradigms and non-Indigenous people in the portrayal of Indigenous realities and Indigenous ways of knowing (e.g., Bell, 1994;Cowlishaw, 1993;Langton, 1993;Mackinlay, 2003;Moreton-Robinson, 2000, 2004bNakata, 2006); the role and reinstatement of Indigenous and peoples in the production, legitimation, reproduction and dissemination of Indigenous Australian Studies (e.g., Nakata, 2007a;Yunkaporta & McGinty, 2009); and, how Indigenous Australian Studies is taught, who should teach it and for what purpose (Craven, 2012;Chalmers, 2005;Ma Rhea & Russell, 2012). Similar questions are asked about who and what kind of student should be allowed and is allowed to study Indigenous Australian Studies.…”

“…Similar questions are asked about who and what kind of student should be allowed and is allowed to study Indigenous Australian Studies. Central to these debates is the interrogation of the disciplinary power and control colonialism still holds in Indigenous Australian Studies in terms of how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are understood and represented (e.g., Nakata, 2006) vis-à-vis the invisibility of Whiteness and white race power and privilege as mechanisms to sustain such authority (e.g., MoretonRobinson, 2006). These are the features of Indigenous Australian Studies that are perhaps most readily associated with processes of decolonization.…”

Designing an Australian Indigenous Studies curriculum for the twenty-first century: Nakata's ‘cultural interface’, standpoints and working beyond binaries

“…Nakata: an overview For more than a decade, Nakata has led the academic discussion on Indigenous Studies in Australia (see Nakata, 2002Nakata, , 2004Nakata, , 2006Nakata, , 2007aNakata, , 2007bNakata, Nakata, Keech, & Bolt, 2012). For some time, he has called for a robust conversation on how we define Indigenous Studies in the twenty-first century.…”

Exploring New Conceptualisations of Old Problems: Researching and Reorienting Teaching in Indigenous Studies to Transform Student Learning

“…Not surprisingly, one of the strongest themes in the Indigenous Studies literature is the idea of Indigenous Knowledges, perspectives or worldviews (Nakata, 2006;Thaman, 2003;Youngblood Henderson, 2005). A key argument in the literature relates to the contest between Indigenous and Western knowledges.…”