Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T14:01:55.790Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Martu Storytellers: Aboriginal Narratives Within the Academy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Craig Somerville ,
Kirra Somerville  and
Frances Wyld
Craig Somerville
Affiliation:
University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, South Australia, 5001, Australia
Kirra Somerville
Affiliation:
University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, South Australia, 5001, Australia
Frances Wyld
Affiliation:
University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, South Australia, 5001, Australia
Get access

Abstract

The Martu people originate from the Pilbara region in Western Australia. Despite policies of removal, incarceration in prison and the need to leave community fo health services, Martu maintain identity and connection to country. Their narratives have used to inform a wider Australian audience about the history and culture of Aboriginal people. But the stories have also received criticism and been the subject of a Westernised anthropological view. With the emergence of storytelling as method in the academy, a new space is being created for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people to find a more robust foothold within the Social Sciences to story our world. This paper is written by three Martu people who position storytelling as transmission and preservation of cultural knowledge and to privilege a voice to speak back to Western academics. Storytelling also brings an opportunity to engage with an Aboriginal worldview, to use narrative as an inquiry into ontology and one's connection to people and place. This brings benefits to all Australians seeking stories of country, connection and identity.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 39 , Issue S1: Indigenous Studies, Indigenous Knowledge: Dialogue Or Conflict In The Academy? , 2010 , pp. 96 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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

Denzin, N., & Lincoln, Y. (2005). Sage handbook of qualitative research. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Denzin, N., & Lincoln, Y. (2008). Critical methodologies and Indigenous inquiry. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Dudgeon, P. (2008). Empowering research with Indigenous communities. Ngoonjook: A Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues, 32, 8–26.Google Scholar
Kovach, M. (2009). Indigenous methodologies: Characteristics, conversations and contexts. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Martin, K. (2008). Please knock before you enter: Aboriginal regulation of outsiders and the implications for researchers. Teneriffe, QLD: Post Pressed.Google Scholar
Moreton-Robinson, A. (2000). Talkin' up to the white woman: Indigenous women and feminism. St Lucia, QLD: Queensland University Press.Google Scholar
Richardson, L., & Adams St Pierre, E. (2005). Writing a method of inquiry. In Denzin, N. & Lincoln, Y. (Eds.), Sage handbook of qualitative research (pp. 959–997). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Rigney, L. (1999). Internationalization of an Indigenous anticolonial cultural critique of research methodologies. A guide to Indigenist research methodologies and its principles. Wicazo SA Journal of American Native Studies Review, 14(2), 109–121.Google Scholar
Smith, L. T. (2005). On tricky ground: researching the native in the age of reason. In Denzin, N. & Lincoln, Y. (Eds.), Sage handbook of qualitative research (pp. 85–107). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Tonkinson, R. (1974). The Jigalong mob: Aboriginal victors of the Desert crusade. California: Cummings Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Wilson, S. (2001). Coming to an understanding: A panel presentation – What is Indigenous research? Canadian Journal of Native Education, 25(2), 166–174.Google Scholar