INDG2004 Reconciliation and Indigenous Knowledges

This topic introduces students to the close study of Reconciliation both in Australia and Internationally. The topic proposes that any process of reconciliation should be underpinned by an understanding of the history of imperialism, colonisation and more recently globalisation. This topic is designed to allow students to read, view and experience a range of texts which deal with encounters between and within Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian communities. This subject offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of representation of Australian Indigenous Knowledges and cultural practices using an 'education for reconciliation' approach. It analyses contested definitions of culture and paradigms of cultural value, meaning and priority. It will introduce students to theories of representation and to their application to Indigenous materials that deal with, knowledges, social and cultural practices in: literature, drama, film, music, autobiography, visual art, artifacts and material culture, song, dance, storytelling, oral history, local law, ceremony, sport etc.

This topic recognises that reconciliation is a contested and problematised concept. It will consider how reconciliation can be a site or space for healing/ transformation within communities and within national and international contexts. It will employ cross-cultural and inter-textual approaches to subject matter. It will examine issues of power, control, change, transformation, resistance, ignorance, visibility, self-realisation, protocol, ownership of knowledge and the way that such matters have been both appropriated, applied and reclaimed in and through arts and other so-called high, popular or traditional cultural practices in Australia since invasion/ settlement.

This topic aims to provide opportunities for students to:

• Engage with and interrogate critical debates raised by reconciliation
• Develop appropriate teaching/learning strategies to engage with reconciliation through education
• Listen to and develop understanding of Indigenous voices in multiple contexts
• Examine questions of control over and access to Indigenous knowledges in a variety of forms
• Analyse the politics of representation and appropriation and ethical responsibility
• Study the reclamation of Indigenous knowledges in contemporary contexts

1. Demonstrate skills to identify and critically analyse social issues from a range of perspectives
2. Demonstrate skills in critiquing a variety of mediated texts
3. Demonstrate enhanced skills in creatively utilising a variety of media
4. Demonstrate an ability to read and interpret a range of texts in relation to historical and contemporary encounters between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people
5. Examine the working construct of 'race' in contemporary societies
6. Demonstrate an ability to understand and engage within cross-cultural contexts
7. Demonstrate further skills in the development of inter-disciplinary research methodologies
8. Identify, organise and generate an independent research project
9. Demonstrate skills in working collaboratively on a group oral presentation
10. Demonstrate enhanced skills in essay writing, including developing an academic argument and using appropriate referencing methods