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Look Before You Leap: The Epistemic Violence that Sometimes Hides Behind the Word “Inclusion”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Bronwyn Fredericks
Bronwyn Fredericks*
Affiliation:
School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, The Alfred, Victoria, 3004, Australia; Indigenous Studies Research Network, Queensland University of Technology, Queensland, 4059, Australia, The Centre for Clinical Research Excellence (CCRE), Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council (QAIHC), PO Box 3205, South Brisbane, Queensland, 4101, Australia, and The Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO), PO Box 1328, Collingwood, Victoria, 3066, Australia
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Abstract

This paper demonstrates how Indigenous studies is controlled in some Australian universities in ways that continue the marginalisation, denigration and exploitation of Indigenous peoples. Moreover, it shows how the engagement of white notions of “inclusion” can result in the maintenance of racism, systemic marginalisation, white race privilege and radicalised subjectivity. A case study will be utilised which draws from the experience of two Indigenous scholars who were invited to be part of a panel to review one Australian university's plan and courses in Indigenous studies. The case study offers the opportunity to destabilise the relationships between oppression and privilege and the epistemology that maintains them. The paper argues for the need to examine exactly what is being offered when universities provide opportunities for “inclusion”.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 38 , Issue S1: Indigenous Knowledges within the Education Revolution , 2009 , pp. 10 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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