For Indigenous scholars in health sciences, finding “ways of doing” research that value Indigenist knowledge is an important consideration. Indigenist research methodology offers a useful alternative to mainstream research approaches that draw upon orthodox Western knowledge systems. However, as Indigenous research approaches have only recently entered the academic discourses of health science, few courses currently exist to support Indigenous students and their supervisors who work in this area. While negotiating Indigenist methodologies is challenging, more Indigenous scholars are recognising the importance of doing so. This paper will outline some of the issues experienced by two Indigenist research students coming to terms with the relevance of an Indigenist research approach to their study, as well of those of their supervisor, the third author of the paper.

This paper explores the dynamics and outcomes from a collaborative, cross-cultural approach to teaching an Indigenous education elective unit in a Bachelor of Education (Primary) undergraduate degree at University of Ballarat in 2009. The three facilitators, one non-Aboriginal and two Aboriginal were a lecturer, an Aboriginal Centre Manager and Local Aboriginal Education Consultative Group member from the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative respectively. The paper explores the open-ended and collaborative approach used to facilitate the learning, including pedagogies, activities and assessment. The paper, and the collaborative cross-cultural teaching approach it arguably embodies, is presented as a model of desirable practice with undergraduate education students, in particular for pre-service teachers undertaking a P-10 Bachelor of Education degree. As we describe later in the paper, these pre-service teachers, with some exceptions, in general had very limited and often stereotyped knowledge and experience of Aboriginal education, Aboriginal students or Aboriginal perspectives in other areas of the school curriculum. The teaching process we adopted and that we articulate in this paper attempted to address this previous lack of engagement with the subject matter of Indigenous education by actively modelling the processes of local Aboriginal consultation and collaboration that we were trying to teach.

A strong educator-learner relationship is continually identified as the most significant form of involvement affecting the student experience. Yet, within the current dominant higher-educational context, student-faculty interactions are also identified as an area in need of improvement. This paper explores the educator-learner relationship within a space created by “Indigenous pedagogy” and epistemology through a case study conducted with undergraduate students at The University of Western Australia. Within this context distinctions such as “inside” and “outside” the classroom are seen to inhibit interconnectedness within a holistic system of knowing. Extensive qualitative enquiry in the form of observations, non-Indigenous and Indigenous student focus groups and faculty interviews, informed a descriptive case study of the unit offered through the University of Western Australia titled “Aboriginal Ways of Knowing”. It was found that this space, as Indigenised, offered students the opportunity to connect spiritually and personally with themselves, one another and their educators. Furthermore, in reading this space as an “interface” between Western and Indigenous systems of knowing, a productive tension emerged in emulation of what Indigenous people experience throughout their daily lives. This research contributes to a growing body of literature indicating the potential of Indigenous pedagogy and epistemologies within the tertiary context.

In this paper, I consider the importance of Indigenous studies programs, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as critical elements in enabling Indigenous Australian students to engage in the academe in ways that not only allow them to empower themselves, but, ultimately, to become effective change agents within both their own and the wider Australian community. While this paper will highlight the challenges that Indigenous Australians face in their engagement within the university learning environment, it will also reveal the increasingly successful outcomes that are being achieved. A particular focus of the paper will be to acknowledge higher education as a tool of empowerment – a process that enables people to identify and address their own issues, and to use such knowledge and understanding as the platform for personal, positive growth. Finally this paper will contextualise higher education from within an Indigenous perspective to demonstrate how Indigenous studies not only contributes to the empowerment of the individual but also has a critical role in ultimately re-positioning Indigenous Australians in the wider Australian society.

This research begins with the premise that non-Aboriginal students are challenged by much Aboriginal writing and also challenge its representations as they struggle to re-position themselves in relation to possible meanings within Aboriginal writing. Many non-Aboriginal students come to read an Aboriginal narrative against their understanding of what it means to be an Aboriginal Australian, accumulated via their prior reading of Australian history, literature and more contemporary social analysis and popular commentary. Aboriginal writing is confronting when it disturbs the more familiar representations of Aboriginal experience and characterisation previously encountered. The aim of this paper is to provide a more informed basis from which to consider higher education pedagogy for this area of literary studies. A further aim is to contribute to the literary studies discourse on Aboriginal representation in Australian literature.

The paper reports on embedding an Indigenous graduate attribute into courses at the University of Western Sydney (UWS), providing the background to the development and implementation of a holistic and individual Indigenous graduate attribute. It details the approach taken by the Badanami Centre for Indigenous Education in advising the UWS staff on the process for endorsement of the Indigenous graduate attribute. The UWS's recognition of its moral purpose and social responsibility to Indigenous people in Greater Western Sydney has led to the successful re-establishment of Indigenous education at UWS. The paper outlines the unique and innovative approach taken to implement the Indigenous graduate attribute, including: consultation across the Schools at UWS; developing and establishing relationships through the respect of disciplinary culture and tradition; the UWS-wide reform of the traditional discipline approach and the first step towards recognition of the domain of Indigenous knowledge in teaching and research; establishing a team of Indigenous academics; developing a learning and teaching framework for Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous studies; and integrating Indigenous content into curricula at UWS. The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations funded UWS to develop the Indigenous graduate attribute and implement it by embedding cultural competency and professional capacity into UWS courses.

The interface between Indigenous knowledge systems and Western scientific knowledge systems is a contested space where the difficult dialogue between us and them is often reduced to a position of taking sides. Storytelling is however a very familiar tradition in Indigenous families where we can and do translate expertly difficult concepts from one generation to the next. This article is based on my attempt to story our way through the difficult dialogue and to posit opportunities for more productive engagements about the place of Indigenous knowledge in our future deliberations at the Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Knowledge Conference series.

The notion of Indigenous epistemologies and “ways of knowing” continues to be undervalued within various academic disciplines, particularly those who continue to draw upon “scientific” approaches that colonise Indigenous peoples today. This paper will examine the politics of contested knowledge from the perspective of three Indigenous researchers who work within Yunggorendi First Nations Centre for Higher Education and Research at Flinders University in South Australia. In particular, the authors outline a collective process that has emerged from conversations regarding their research projects and responding to what Ladson-Billings and Donnor (2008, p. 371) refer to as the “call”. In developing an Indigenous standpoint specific to their own disciplines and their research context, the authors demonstrate how these collective conversations between each other and their communities in which they work have informed their research practices and provided a common framework which underpins their research methodologies.

This paper addresses understandings and theorising of identity in cyberspace. In particular, it focuses on the construction, maintenance and performance of urban Indigenous identities on the contemporary internet social space, Facebook.

The Kimberley Language Resource Centre (KLRC) earned its status over three decades as the representative body for Kimberley languages. In 2004, the organisation started to respond to grassroots concerns about the lack of language speakers in the younger generations. Aboriginal people are also connecting loss of languages to loss of bio-cultural knowledge. In 2006, the KLRC began promoting language continuation strategies such as Teaching On Country. The organisation uses a series of diagrams to assist with this work and is developing an Aboriginal oral curriculum. Lack of support from within government and education circles for these strategies led the organisation to reflect on the difference between Aboriginal and Western knowledge systems. This paper questions Western approaches to education and argues that Aboriginal holistic knowledge must be supported within appropriate teaching and learning contexts to ensure the survival of languages and knowledge. It makes a case for evidence based, community engaged research examining language and knowledge continuation. It asks that Western education providers, who segregate language knowledge from experience and from country, examine and revise their practices. In conclusion, it calls for a realistic dialogue with government which honours the intentions of former Prime Minister Rudd's Apology to the Stolen Generations.

Storytelling is an integral part of life for Indigenous Australians. Before the arrival of Europeans and continuing after; gathered around the campfire in the evening stories were and are still shared; passed from one generation to the next. In modern times, in addition to a continuing oral traditions, another method of storytelling has risen from the ashes of the fire: filmmaking and multi-media production. In the past stories were verbally passed from one family member to the next. Sometimes these “yarns” were presented on a “message stick” and the modern form of the traditional message stick is the DVD or the internet. This paper will examine the importance and crucial element of re-representation of images, archives or productions that have in the past, and in the majority, portrayed Indigenous cultures and communities in a derogatory or less than flattering manner. Further, it will explain the main factors for appropriate manifestation of Indigenous perspectives within any film production that is portraying or capturing Indigenous individuals, narratives and/or communities. The paper relates the key elements that must be in place to ensure appropriate and robust Indigenous agency in any film production. Finally, the paper concludes with an affirmation of the need to creatively engage in the third space; between Indigenous values and priorities and Western formats and narrative structures, to arrive at a uniquely modern Indigenous telling that is accessible, firstly to Indigenous Australians, and secondly, to those with whom we wish to share our stories.

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.