Resilience, Responsibility, and Resurgence: First Peoples' Experiences and Ways of Being

This course allows students to further develop insight into First Peoples' perspectives, knowledge, experiences and ways of being and to reflect on the impacts of colonisation broadly. It creates a learning experience for students that requires self-reflective practices, consistent engagement and ethical engagement with content important to First Peoples. In this course we create opportunities for students to develop insight into First Nations and other Indigenous peoples' diverse perspectives on experiences since the British commenced colonisation of this continent, its islands, seas and peoples. Students will learn more about shared histories, and explore the systems and structures that have developed and their impacts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, other Indigenous peoples, and reflect on how colonisation affects contemporary Australian society. We focus on selected significant events, reflect on the resilience and agency of First Peoples until now, and learn more about the context of resurgence. While focussing on the more recent shared past, this course creates an opportunity for students to develop insight in the deep past of this continent and its continuities, and reflect on the implications of that for contemporary issues over time, including the relations of First Peoples and settlers in the Australian state. Students will have an opportunity to learn about the lived reality of First Peoples' rights in Australia, and reflect upon this in a global context. This is an introductory course in Australian Indigenous Studies that centres First Peoples' diverse perspectives and that critically engages with scholarly and popular narratives about key events. Students will be introduced to methodologies in relation to standpoint, positionality and reflexivity, and research ethics and protocols. This course complements and interleaves with the other foundational course in Australian Indigenous Studies, INDG1001. These courses are designed to be taken in either order.