Indigenous History, Memory and Politics

This course examines the ways in which Indigenous people, in Australia and elsewhere, have assumed the right to tell their own histories of imperialism, colonialism and dispossession through diverse forms of memorialisation, performance, writing, art and other modes of meaning-making. The creative labour of Indigenous intellectuals, artists, filmmakers, writers, and historians shapes contemporary public culture in Australia and other settler-colonial nations, such as Canada, southern Africa, New Zealand and in the Pacific. This course explores such creative labour, both in the past and present. We will examine the ways in which Indigenous people have engaged with and challenged imposed cultural and historical forms and practices in ways that have redefined concepts such as sovereignty, self and other, nation and place, and history and time. Students will gain experience working with archives, images, objects, performance, television, lyrics, film and digital forms of storytelling.