Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T15:04:06.690Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Considering The Work of Martin Nakata's “Cultural Interface”: a Reflection on Theory and Practice by a Non-Indigenous Academic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Colleen McGloin
Colleen McGloin*
Affiliation:
Woolyungah Indigenous Centre, University of Wollongong, Northfields Avenue, Wollongong, New South Wales, 2522, Australia
Get access

Abstract

This is a reflective paper that explores Martin Nakata's work as a basis for understanding the possibilities and restrictions of non-Indigenous academics working in Indigenous studies. The paper engages with Nakata's work at the level of praxis. It contends that Nakata's work provides non-Indigenous teachers of Indigenous studies a framework for understanding their role, their potential, and limitations within the power relations that comprise the “cultural interface”. The paper also engages with Nakata's approach to Indigenous research through his “Indigenous standpoint theory”. This work emerges from the experiential and conceptual, and from a commitment to teaching and learning in Indigenous studies. It is a reflection of how non-Indigenous academics working in Indigenous studies can contribute to the development and application of the discipline.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , January 2009 , pp. 36 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Biermann, S., & Townsend-Cross, M. (2008). Indigenous pedagogy as a force for change. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 37(S), 146–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foucault, M. (1977). The archaeology of knowledge (A.M. Sheridan-Smith, Trans). Bristol, UK: Tavistock Publications Ltd.Google Scholar
Freire, P. (1976a). Education for cultural consciousness. London: Sheed and Ward.Google Scholar
Freire, P. (1976b). Education, the practice of freedom. London: Writers and Readers Cooperative.Google Scholar
Huggins, J. (1998). Sister girl: The writings of Aboriginal activist and historian Jackie Muggins. St Lucia, QLD: University of Queensland Press.Google Scholar
Konishi, S., Lui-Chivizhe, L., & Slater, L. (2008). Indigenous bodies. Borderlands, 7(2), 1–11.Google Scholar
McGloin, C. (2008). Recontextualising the award: Developing a critical pedagogy in Indigenous studies. International Journal of the Humanities, 6(4), 81–88.Google Scholar
Moreton-Robinson, A. (2003). Tiddas talkin' up to the white woman. In Grossman, M. (Eds.), Blacklines: Contemporary critical writing by Indigenous Australians (pp. 66–77). Carlton, VIC: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Nakata, M. (2006). Australian Indigenous studies: A question of discipline. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 77(3), 265–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nakata, M. (2007). Disciplining the savages, savaging the discipline. Canberra, ACT: Aboriginal Studies Press.Google Scholar
Nakata, M. (2008, November). Indigenous research student workshop. Paper presented at Woolyungah Indigenous Centre, University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.Google Scholar
Pugliese, J. (1995). Assimilation, unspeakable traces and the ontologies of nation. In Suvendrini, P. (Ed.), Asian and Pacific inscriptions: Identities, ethnicities, nationalities (pp. 237–246). Bundoora, VIC: Meridian Books.Google Scholar
Spivak, G. (2004). Terror: A speech after 9-11. Boundary, 2(31), 81–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar