Aboriginal Guest Lecturers

In 1983 Stephen Muecke (currently Professor of Writing at the University of NSW) problematised the ethics of Aboriginal-Settler collaboration when he and the late Nyigina elder Paddy Roe published Gularabulu: Stories from the West Kimberley. Prior to this, Aboriginal narratives and texts were often edited without reference to their authors, and Aboriginal knowledges used without permission, recompense, or acknowledgement. In Reading the Country: Introduction to Nomadology, a 1984 publication with Paddy Roe and Krim Bentarrak, Muecke noted that the only bibliographic references for Paddy Roe in the National Library of Australia were for Gularabulu - although generations of academics from a range of disciplines had sought out and benefited from Paddy Roe’s knowledge and circulated it under their own names.

In spite of the impact of Gularabulu: Stories from the West Kimberley, the ethics of Settler academics relying on Aboriginal guest lecturers to deliver Aboriginal content remain largely unexamined. What does it mean when a non-Aboriginal lecturer with access to the relative security and perks of the tenured academic teaches an Aboriginal studies subject where over 50% of the lectures are delivered by Aboriginal guest lecturers? Is a guest lecturer’s fee a fair exchange? It might be a non-issue if the guest lecturers were all Aboriginal professionals of equivalent salary, job security, career prospects, and social status. And what about the impact on students? Do they come to believe that the only person with a right to speak on Aboriginal issues is an Aboriginal?

I know one Settler scholar teaching in Aboriginal studies who, after years of using Aboriginal guest lecturers, decided to take responsibility for the lectures himself and to supplement them with relevant audiovisual material. An extreme response, but at least one that registers the problem.