A quick trip on Thursday to Alice
Springs to do a presentation on our proposed Master of Indigenous Policy and
Development at the Indigenous Forces at Work Conference being held there. The
conference title sums up the practical and resolute tone of the
conference. It’s almost impossible
to communicate the richness of such a conference to non-Indigenous outsiders –
issues based politics and personalities provide more accessible and simpler ways
of engaging with Aboriginal communities.
The response to the presentation
was moving. I had particularly wanted to stress for the delegates the matter of
validation as an aspect of our proposed Master of Indigenous Policy and
Development. In the first instance, a validation of the skills and knowledges
accrued by practitioners in the course their work; and following from this, a
personal validation for them as individuals whose contribution and skills are
usually not affirmed in any concrete and meaningful way.
While I thought it would be a case
of airport - conference venue - hotel - airport, Alice still works its magic and
strangeness. Where else but Alice Springs casino would you hear the murmur of
Aboriginal languages mingled with the electronic chatter of poker machines? (Provokes interesting reflections on gambling.) Finally the magic: 7.00 am by the hotel pool before flying out:
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