Critical Indigenous Studies

Critical Indigneous Studies scholarship honours the deep and astounding continuities of knowledges about our places, peoples and our place in the existence. Indigenous scholars developed the theoretical and methodological tools of Critical Indigenous Studies to make sense of their Peoples' experiences and their contexts, to explore ways that we could resist destructive forces in our lives and nurture our unique knowledges. The rich and often complex theories and methodologies developed and developing within the disciplinary field of Critical Indigenous Studies reveal assumptions, disrupt misrepresentations and critique asserted logics. Piercing the interfering glosses of bias, these Indigenous scholars have developed methodologies that make it possible for others to develop insight into First Peoples' perspectives. By decentring the western disciplinary canon, Critical Indigenous Studies has created spaces within educational structures for First Peoples to participate in research and education. Critical Indigenous Studies engages with social, political and legal theory, intersects with theories of other disciplines and is distinctive not only because of the fields (the areas or places) from which it emerges but also because of its unique epistemologies. This scholarship has expanded contemporary sensibilities about what knowledge is, how it can be transmitted and who can transmit it. This is an advanced course in Indigenous Studies, allowing students to explore more deeply key concepts and methodologies in Australian Indigenous Studies and the scholarship that has influenced it. This is an immersive course that supports students in reading scholarship from influential critical Indigenous Studies scholars from Australian and other places whose peoples are developing Indigenous Studies.