Unknown and unknowing possiblities: transformative learning, social justice and decolonising pedagogy in Indigenous Australian Studies

For tertiary educators in Indigenous Australian Studies, decolonising discourse in education has held much promise to make space for the diversity of Indigenous Australian peoples to be included, accessed, understood, discussed, and engaged with in meaningful ways. However, Tuck and Yang provide us with the stark reminder that decolonisation requires the return of Indigenous lands and does not equate to social justice. In this article, we take up Tuck and Yang’s concerns about decolonisation discourse into the terrain of transformative learning and pedagogical practice in Indigenous Australian Studies. We first position ourselves personally, professionally, and politically as non-Indigenous educators in the context of Indigenous Australian Studies in higher education and introduce the transformative learning environment of Political, Embodied, Active, and Reflective Learning (PEARL) in which we are currently involved. We then explore in more detail PEARL’s relationship to critical pedagogy, critical race theory, and decolonisation as praxis in the context of Indigenous Australian Studies. Ultimately, we enter into this discussion in a spirit of “unknowing” to question previously held assumptions about the transformative, socially just, and decolonizing potential of our educational praxis in Indigenous Australian Studies while at the same time exploring the possibilities, as Maxine Greene encourages, of decolonised vistas in this field as yet “unknown.

Transformative learning in first year Indigenous Australian Studies: Posing problems, asking questions and achieving change. A practice report

Indigenous Australian studies necessarily addresses emotionally-difficult topics related to race, history, colonialism and our identities as Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. As educators in this discipline, it is important for us to find teaching and learning approaches which make space for these topics to be accessed, understood, discussed and engaged with in meaningful ways. Problem-Based Learning (PBL), because of its emphasis on dialogic learning, is a pedagogical tool used in many Indigenous Australian studies classrooms in preference to other methods. In this presentation we want to explore the potential of PBL to allow personal and emotional responses to become accessible, dialogic and discursive, so that the resulting new awareness translates into practical action and change. We will focus on a practice-based initiative which involves the implementation of PBL in a first year introductory course at The University of Queensland and provide practical guidance on the incorporation of PBL in curriculum development

At the contact zone and the cultural interface: theorising collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in research and contemporary music practices

Introduction Lexine stood in the front of the lecture room and tapped her laptop to begin her PowerPoint presentation. She turned to face the class and looked out at the sea of thirty faces. She had sung at many performances, but seemed a little nervous in the university setting. ‘I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today. Thank you Katelyn for inviting me to your class’. We smiled at each other. I was very keen for Lexine to attend this class, which was part of a course I was coordinating on Indigenous Australian music at the University of Queensland. Lexine continued, ‘I’ll start off by telling you a little bit about my experiences, if that’s okay. I identify as a Torres Strait Islander1 and I have been involved in collaborative research with non-Indigenous ethnomusicologists since 2001, when I was invited to tell my Indigenous music life story. I answered questions to an interested researcher who was collecting data about Indigenous female performers in the southeast Queensland region. I enjoyed the research process, but have never witnessed the result’. The next slide was a picture of Lexine and me. ‘Ah, my life with Doctor Katelyn Barney’, she said with a giggle, and I wondered what she would say. ‘The next researcher to come my way was Katelyn Barney, who was working on her PhD in 2004. I again had an opportunity to share my story about my identity, performance and my love of music. I found I had a very strong interest in music research and enquired to Katelyn how I might be able to further collaborate with her. It’s been quite a journey

Community gets you through: success factors contributing to the retention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students

This paper explores success factors contributing to the retention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students identified through a National Teaching Fellowship. Interviews with Indigenous HDR graduates are analysed to explore inhibiting and success factors to completing an HDR. While the fellowship focused mostly on building successful pathways from undergraduate study into HDRs, interviewees also discussed success factors for completing an HDR. In order to address Indigenous student retention and success in higher education, finding out what contributes to successful HDR completions for Indigenous students across diverse disciplines is critical