Post Script

Another Year and Some Photographs

2011-12-16T14:44:00.000-08:00

Rushing to finish off various chores before Christmas but our end of year party was a chance to step back and relax with friends and supporters.

A Happy and Safe Christmas. See you in the Celtic New Year.

Aboriginal Women and Coloniality

2011-12-05T21:26:00.000-08:00

Aboriginal Women and Coloniality. Surprised but pleased to learn that our second year subject Aboriginal Women and Coloniality has been selected as the subject that best aligns with the aims of the Association of Women on Campus at the University of Melbourne for 2011. One of our students will be awarded a prize as a result.

The Hunter. Daniel Nettheim's The Hunter has been nominated for fourteen Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards. (Formerly the AFI Awards.) The killing of the Tasmanian tiger at the end of the film is the most incredible act of hubris I've ever seen. I found it hard to believe that a filmmaker could even imagine a character doing such a thing, let alone present it in a film as a noble deed. (Otherwise it's an extravagantly beautiful film and worth seeing.)

Racism in Australian universities. The National Indigenous Unit of the National Tertiary Education Union has released a report detailing Indigenous academic and professional staff experiences of racism, and lateral violence (from other Indigenous employees), in Australian universities. Most of the testimony is grievance-based and I can imagine some universities responding by developing 'strategies' and offering 'cultural sensitivity' training provided by soi-disant experts. On a deeper level, if you want to address racism in universities, you need to be patient; in it for the long haul; be prepared to engage with senior people; and be alert for the instance when implicit racisms and racist discourses become objectified in the behaviour of an individual or individuals; then, if you've got the nerve, go for it.

https://www.nteu.org.au/anu/article/New-survey-reveals-racial-discrimination-is-alive-and-well-in-universities-12139

Sade. The first bi-racial superstar visited Australia for the first time in a quarter of a century. She still sets the bar impossibly high. YouTube footage from her Melbourne concert:

Where We've Been

2011-11-24T13:38:00.000-08:00

Wrapping up. Teaching has finished and marks are being finalised. Some of our best students are off to join the Teach for Australia program. For me, the highlight of the university teaching year, was when six students spoke on their experience of Indigenous studies, life and communities in the final lecture of our first year course. Diversity, intellectual confidence, commitment - quite inspiring.

Aboriginal Time. The stereotype is that Aboriginal time meanders; meetings start whenever; people turn up whenever; outcomes take forever. The reality is that Aboriginal time is always constrained. Windows of opportunity are limited for Aboriginal individuals, communities or programs. We produced a poster display for a University of Melbourne colloquium, that summarised what we’ve done over the last few years. (Check out the link at the bottom of this post.) Getting there we've had to crash through a few barriers but sometimes you don't have any choice. (Read the late Hyllus Maris' 'The Concrete Box' as an example of an enduring parable of this structural reality.)

The AIS Poster

Modalities of Whiteness

2011-09-20T22:11:00.000-07:00

Another Story. A Tuesday evening in the outer Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, an Aboriginal community organisation; a meeting in progress: two public servants, the Aboriginal executive officer of the organisation, the rest are Aboriginal men and women who are members of the management committee. Some are Victorian, others are from interstate. The set of challenges being addressed by this committee revolve around family violence, and programs for family and personal, healing and renewal. The same scene is repeated all over Australia. The problem with this undramatic and local work is that it doesn't fit into any of the current frames the mass media use to represent Aboriginals and Aboriginal issues.

Hedda Gabler. Part of the Melbourne Festival and directed by Thomas Ostermeier and performed by Schaubühne Berlin. Brilliant in very respect and an example of what great theatre can still do. One scene that will stay with me occurs after Hedda and Thea have fallen asleep waiting for the return of Løvborg. Hedda (played by Katharine Schüttler) wakes in the early morning and walks outside and, a wraith-like figure, gazes in upon her life and the tragedy that she has set in motion. The Melbourne Festival audience played its own disturbing role in the performance. Mirroring the emotional and ethical dissociation of the characters onstage it tittered and laughed even as the mood of the play darkened, and roared with laughter as Hedda, having taken her own life, lay slumped and bloody on stage. Ibsen would have been proud. When you are involved in Indigenous Studies you study the varying modalities of Whiteness and this audience was a keeper.

http://www.youtube.com/user/schaubuehne#p/search/0/1rxAFgyyM7A

http://www.youtube.com/user/schaubuehne#p/search/1/0EpuznSi93A

Heartland and Greenland

2011-09-10T20:53:00.000-07:00

Daniel Geale. A capacity crowd filled Derwent Entertainment Centre in Tasmania for Daniel Geale's first defence of his International Boxing Federation middleweight title. Geale is Indigenous and enters the ring with the Aboriginal flag, and has a map of Tasmania emblazoned in the Aboriginal colours on his boxing trunks, but in Tasmania he attracts a heartland crowd: anti-Greens and anti-Bob Brown. Passionate in their support for Daniel as a Tasmanian they sang along with the national anthem and knew all the words. It was as close as boxing ever gets to being sport. As well as musing on the crowd I had a chance to watch Geale perform. He wasn't at his best but is Australia's best pure boxer since Johnny Famechon.

Introducing the fighters.

Waiting to sing Advance Australia Fair.

Later this Week. A lecture on Kim Scott's Miles Franklin award winning novel That Deadman Dance for Melbourne Free University at the Alderman in Lygon Street, Brunswick. That Deadman Dance is more accessible than his earlier novels True Country and Benang; the prose is simpler and it's in the popular contact narrative genre. The context as such is immediately evident and there are sentimental moments. There are also continuing passages of majestic writing and evocations of wind, sea and sand that resonate long after reading.

Australian Literature/Aboriginal Writing

2011-08-24T17:44:00.000-07:00

The Letter. The good thing about this blog is that the Australian Indigenous Studies Program, and by extension, myself as an Indigenous Australian, do have a chance to represent what we are doing. Today I've pasted in a letter I wrote in response to two recent articles in The Age. I kept it as succinct and factual as possible and steered cleared of the various agenda of those driving the issues but to no avail. The Age wouldn't publish it- hence today's post.

'Recent articles in The Age (“Speaking up for the Humanities” 16/8) and Sunday Age (“Uni brought to book for snub to local literature” 21/8) have given the erroneous impression that Australian literature is not represented in the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Arts curricula. The University’s Australian Indigenous Studies program teaches undergraduate and honours subjects that emphasise Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian writers. These include Kim Scott, Alexis Wright, Xavier Herbert, B. Wongar, Bruce Pascoe and Katherine Susannah Pritchard. Last year two of our students received high distinctions for honours theses written on Tara June Winch’s Swallow the Air and Alexis Wright’s Plains of Promise.

(Nice to report that since posting this I've had a call from The Sunday Age with respect to publishing the letter.)

Semester 2 Surge

2011-08-19T20:29:00.001-07:00

Semester Two. This semester marks a definite shift into another gear. It's clear that our program's development phase has been completed. We're generating and attracting the sort of energy that is not all that common in corporate entities. One of my key concerns has been the recruitment and development of young Indigenous scholars. Policy developments now mean that's going to be a reality. Our curriculum and teaching coach has commenced working with with us to finesse the Australian Indigenous Studies curriculum as well as conducting one on one sessions with staff. My intention here has been to continue to improve without recourse to the thick-headed carrot and stick approaches used elsewhere.

Critical Debates in Indigenous Studies. It's our capstone subject and compulsory for students completing the Australian Indigenous Studies major. The aim is to give students the chance to engage with practitioners working with Indigenous issues in the corporate world, media, health and arts and others. This year we've got 27 students. Many of whom would not have considered an Australian Indigenous Studies major if they had not enrolled in our first year interdisciplinary foundation subject Australian Indigenous Studies. Both of our subjects rank at the top when it comes to student satisfaction.

Aesopic Voices: Reframing Truth through Concealed Ways of Presentation in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. This edited collection of essays is almost ready for printing. As well as Australian and Australian Indigenous scholars the collection includes essays from scholars from Greece, USSR, United States, France and Germany as well one of the last essays of Professor Greg Dening. The opening sentence of the foreword asks, 'How does one respond, as a humane and critical thinker, when political, social or religious circumstances are hostile to truth and open discussion?' It follows on from a conference I convened with Gert Reifarth in 2008. I'm credited as a co-editor of Aesopic Voices but it's been driven by Gert who's put an in an amazing amount of work with contributors, designers and editors.

Aesop as imagined by Velasquez:

h ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Diego_Velasquez,_Aesop.jpg

And Gert:

Visitor: Uncle Herb Patten came in to lecture in our first year subject. (Pictured with Odette Kelada and Fran Edmonds before the lecture.)

Afterwards he came back to our offices for a cup of tea with some of the students.

Looking forward to: A trip to Hobart to see Daniel Geale defend his world middleweight boxing title, and wondering about a visit to the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA). I’ve heard glowing reports, though I think that it may not be my cup of tea. http://mona.net.au/.

Past Matters and Post Party

2011-05-30T03:41:00.000-07:00

The Past Matters. Another success thanks to Meera Govil and Eltham Bookshop and the Nillumbik Reconciliation Group. Numerous highlights included Anita Heiss discussing her novel Paris Dreaming and explaining why she uses 'chick lit' as a means of presenting contemporary Indigenous issues and subjectivities and a poetry performance by Aly Cobby Eckerman and the legend, Lionel Fogarty.

Lionel chooses one of his poems while Aly zooms in.

After a long day a photo with Meera.

(Photo courtesy of Sasha Trikojus, Nillumbik

Reconciliation Group)

The Office Warming. Nice to catch up with some of our friends and collaborators who made their way to our new offices through a late autumn rainstorm. A heterodox group of professional staff, academics, philosophers, postgrads and undergraduates filled the rooms with warmth and plus energy.

Two of our friends: undergraduate Torie Mcwilliams-Murray and Steph Batsakis. Steph majored in Australian Indigenous Studies and is now completing the Melbourne Law School's Juris Doctor. Torie is starting to consider the range of possibilities offered by an arts degree at the University of Melbourne.

The Past Matters 2011, May 27-28

2011-05-26T17:52:00.000-07:00

The Past Matters 2011, May 27-28. The seventh annual Past Matters series of talks celebrating Indigenous writers, poets and literature kicks off tonight. Convened by the Nillumbik Reconciliation Group and Eltham Bookshop - this year it will be held in The Barn, Montsalvat. Australian Indigenous Studies has had the good fortune to be involved over the years. Featured authors include Nadia Wheatley, Paul Carter, Andrew Stojanovski, Camilla Chance , Anita Heiss, Lionel Fogarty and Adrian Hyland.

A full program can be seen at

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~nrgp/index_files/Past_Matters_2011.pdf

Honouring Indigenous Servicemen and Women. A ceremony honouring Indigenous servicemen and women will be held in the Shrine of Remembrance forecourt next Tuesday at 11.00am.

Right Back Where we Started From

2011-05-08T04:54:00.000-07:00

Returning. AIS has moved back to the John Medley Building where we've re-united with other disciplines housed in the School of Culture and Communication. Thanks to the School’s vision we’ve got a suite of offices with a view across the Quad. I’m not invested in appearance but one of the first things visitors do is gauge the relative centrality of an Indigenous program by its offices. Our previous offices in the Elisabeth Murdoch Building were excellent, and ideal during our early development but back in the Medley is to be squarely in the University.

Honours. Our Honours program is up and running. A small but v. good cohort to start with. I’m expecting an intake of around 10 students in 2012.

Masters of Indigenous Studies by Thesis. Approved and quite a saga. Special thanks to Charles Green, the School’s Director of Graduate Studies, for his attention to detail; and professional staff, Sharon Tribe, Ishara Wishart and Kate Rendell who saw it through its final stage.

Exhibition Opening at Bundoora Homestead Art Centre. Black and White: documenting Indigenous Australia
20 May 2011 - 10 July 2011
‘Aboriginal people have featured in the photographic history of Australia since the earliest days of the camera. They have been keen collectors and producers of photography since the late nineteenth century, and, over recent years, Indigenous photographers have been among the most celebrated figures in contemporary Australian art. From the commercial photography of European immigrants in the 1870s, through to the conceptually driven work of contemporary Aboriginal artists, black-and-white photography provides a vehicle for recording, remembering and re-negotiating cross-cultural relations.’

http://bundoorahomestead.com/whats-on/exhibitions

Australian Indigenous Studies 1.0.

2011-03-29T12:52:00.000-07:00

Already into week 5 of semester! The long twilights giving way to sudden darkness and the temperatures starting to fall. It’s been a lot less stressful than last year though there have been system failures that have affected subject delivery across the Faculty of Arts. At the moment we are overextended as we deliver subjects, develop forward plans, research and support networks. Later this year a coach will work with us in finessing our curriculum and subject delivery. This will mark the transition from Australian Indigenous Studies 1.0 to Australian Indigenous Studies 2.0. It starts with a vision, its implementation and then evaluation and improvement.

Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC). One outcome of the response to damage caused by the Queensland floods has been the Federal Government’s abolition of the ALTC in order to free up funds for the reconstruction. The ALTC was an organisation with some achievements – but its twilight zone ambience provided negative inspiration for the practitioners colloquium we organised for University of Melbourne staff teaching Indigenous students, or Indigenous themed subjects. The floods provided the excuse to get rid of the ALTC: eventually a research body more closely aligned with reality should take its place.

Christian Thompson. Some of the most exciting work in Indigenous art is being done by photographers and one of the best is Christian Thompson. Check out his new exhibition at Gallery Gabriell Pizzi, April 12- May 7. http://www.gabriellepizzi.com.au/home.html

Indigenous Troubadors: The National Library of Australia has funded a study of early Aboriginal folk/country singers from western NSW.
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/01/27/3123379.htm?site=canberra

And on the Money. Trying to set up a meeting with a Bunnerong elder on Labour Day produced this response:
Next Monday celebrates Labour Day, not that anyone works an 8 hour day anymore, somehow the working week has been extended. And of course - you work for that University.

2010 - Wrapping up the Year

2010-12-20T03:02:00.000-08:00

The Last Week. A pleasant time of the year, meetings now tend to be about opening up possibilities rather than sorting out problems or getting my hair dried. With the support of a major peak body in the not-for-profit sector and colleagues in the Graduate School of Education we intend to develop a proposal for a Masters by Course Work degree, and we've commenced planning. I attended a useful University of Melbourne colloquium on Graduate Attributes - a lot of useful experience shared with colleagues and we've already started to factor this into our thinking.

Bronwyn Jane Adams Memorial Award. Johanna Simmons was successful in her application for a Bronwyn Jane Adams Memorial Award:

‘Johanna will undertake a comparative study of two programs demonstrating leadership and best practice in teaching Indigenous studies in Australia and New Zealand. The study will include curriculum inventories, exploration of the two programs’ pedagogy rationales and overarching philosophies and a quantitative study of student numbers. Her visit will contribute to inter-university relationships that could lead to an international academic consortium and specialised exchange programs for students undertaking Indigenous studies.’

Blair's Insights. I know people get angry at the content of Tony Blair's Tony Blair: A Journey but it's artful, intelligent, and often funny. From a literary perspective it's one of those self-exculpatory narratives without the naivety of most of them. There's plenty to be learned from it. Versions of the battle between New Labour and Old Labour are played out in many domains, including Aboriginal affairs.

Interdisciplinary Foundation Subjects. Once more our subject Australian Indigenous Studies topped the quality of teaching evaluations for these subjects. Our tutoring team led by Alicia Coram did a fantastic job. Several students commented on the fact that tutors made the tutorials a place for respectful and open discussion. With 360 students it’s probably the largest non-compulsory Australian Indigenous Studies subject in Australia. The fact that it’s at the University of Melbourne which has never had anything remotely comparable makes it all the more remarkable. The subject introduces students to different aspects of Indigenous Australia – some are inspired to go on and do our Indigenous Studies major. Changes to the current structure for Interdisciplinary Foundation subjects are planned next year and our primary concern will be to ensure that those changes do not detract from our achievements. Our 2nd and 3rd year subjects were very well received by students this semester as well. I really hope that we are developing an identifiable University of Melbourne Indigenous studies culture.

Happy Christmas. The Year of the Tiger has at times been tempestuous. We're happy to have survived and grateful for what we have. We’ll leave you with this song that featured in Four Lions. Even the suicide bombers were singing it.

Anthony Mundine

2010-12-11T04:40:00.000-08:00

Whether he admits it or not, it’s the end of the road (or at least the boxing road) for Anthony ‘The Man’ Mundine. He may fight on, and win a few more fights, but on the evidence, his reflexes are shot and his strength and durability minimal. It’s been quite a journey since he walked away from a rugby league career in 2000. A magnetic presence, The Man was a source of pride to many Koories and his individualism and personal style an attractive alternative to the conformism and uncouthness of some sports people. Unfortunately the expectations some of us had of him as a leader were probably unrealistic. There were moments however when anything seemed possible.

Anthony achieved far more than most could have foreseen as a fighter and is one of a very small group of athletes who’ve performed at an elite level in two distinct sports. The problem was the better he became as a fighter the greater the expectation that he would fight major names in the sport but once he was established he preferred low risk fights in Australia. After each win there was always talk about taking on the best. It never happened and when a head-butting novice finally knocked him out it no longer mattered.

As well as the highlights Anthony also provided a few lowlights - the fight with Lester Ellis (Ellis was an alcoholic at the time) and the fight with Danny Green - with both men engaging in coded race-baiting.

The stand The Man took against racism in rugby league was courageous and the viral response an indication of how insecure a lot of Settler Australians are when challenged by Aboriginals. Unfortunately he undermined any chance to build on this. His comments on race sometimes seemed to coincide with the publicity demands of his fights and ten years after leaving rugby league it's hard to say if his understanding of issues affecting Aboriginal Australia is any more developed. This all sounds pretty tough but I believe it's the result of trying to balance his contradictory roles as fighter, promoter, and Aboriginal leader. Once The Man is out of boxing we'll see his full potential.

Winter's Bone, Age and Youth

2010-12-03T22:31:00.000-08:00

Winter’s Bone. Now on general release, I saw this at the Melbourne International Film Festival. I’d just seen a few blockbusters so at first it seemed amazingly low-tech and needy in its demanding of sustained attention. The film works with a subtle narrative so it won’t appeal to everyone but it effectively sketches out the lives of a group of Ozark mountain people. What struck me was the eros of their attachment to the animals they hunted for food and those they kept a pets. For some Murri rural workers this eros was a transmutation in a post-colonial setting of the original relationship with land and creation. I count myself fortunate in that I’m part of a minority who were actually connected to people who embodied it. Some of the women in Winter’s Bone looked like they had Native American ancestry as well, so I wasn’t completely surprised to read an interview with the director in which she talked of the importance of animals to the Ozark community she worked with and the Native American connection.

http://thefastertimes.com/film/2010/07/08/q-and-a-winters-bone-debra-granik/

Jindalee Lady. Thanks to Jane Brown, School of Culture and Communication Library Manager, for arranging a screening of this film at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. We never quite untangled the riddle of why this film is almost impossible to see. Johanna, Jane and I watched it, and a consensus opinion was that though Brian Syron’s film may be naïve in its cinematic technique, and some of its representations, there is nothing naïve in its emotional power. The film is a tribute to Aboriginal women centred on conception and the mother-child connection. Lydia Miller amps up the intensity with an outstanding performance.

Age and Hypocrisy. We’d received emails from a Settler woman from another university who’d received some grant and was inviting people to a workshop. (The workshop included the usual genuflections to Indigenous people.) It looked like it could be relevant to our program but on the day of the workshop we couldn’t attend because it clashed with our School planning day. As a compromise I arranged for a 20 year old high-achieving Aboriginal undergraduate (who does some work for me as a research assistant) to attend as an observer. The intention was for AIS academics to attend further meetings. The woman who had been emailing us was notified by email that this would happen. On the day of the meeting there was torrential rain and despite having a bad cold the research assistant put on a shirt with a collar and leather shoes and headed off to the workshop. On arriving at the room where the workshop was supposed to be he was confronted by a middle-aged Settler woman whose opening gambit was, ‘Who are you?’ and who then dismissed him with the words, ‘I think you’ve come to the wrong place.’ If he’d only confirmed that woman’s name I’d be doing a lot more with this but that’s where mentoring comes in.

Age and Marginality. A post-graduate student of mine (in his early twenties) presenting a paper at one of those off-campus/para-university events was subject to an unchecked half hour of blather and personal attack by an ‘independent scholar’. I’m not blind to the imperfections of sandstone universities and the University of Melbourne but I sincerely believe that this couldn’t have happened if it had been held at the University of Melbourne. In fact I was surprised the other week when attending a contentious paper presented by a visiting scholar on Indigenous issues, at the fairness and courtesy of the critique by University of Melbourne scholars.

Incidents like these and our continued response to them are the substratum necessary for the advancement of Australian Indigenous Studies.

Volunteering. If you know a student or recent graduate who is interested in volunteering Youth Challenge Australia is worth considering. More on these opportunities next year.
http://www.youthchallenge.org.au/

Islam dreaming and a rare drawing

2010-11-20T22:09:00.000-08:00

Farewell. We’ve had to farewell Heather Dorries, Endeavour Research Fellow based in Australian Indigenous Studies. Heather had to return home to Canada because of a family commitment. While she was with us she was the ideal visiting fellow: interested in learning about us, the University of Melbourne, Australian society, Aboriginal Australia, as well as providing us with perspectives on Indigenous issues in Canada, and carrying out her own research.

Also Johanna Simmons who has been the backbone of the AIS program for the last three years has left us to take up a position in the Office of the Provost. We’ll miss her but it’s great to see her achievements recognised with a promotion. ( The photograph is of Johanna at the end of winter. She wasn't usually dressed like that.)
http://www.provost.unimelb.edu.au/

Greg Inglis. A big year for Inglis with the latest news suggesting that he is going to play for South Sydney. If that happens it will be a huge source of pride for grass roots Koories in NSW. I had one of those I was there moments when Inglis made his debut for the Melbourne Storm as slight teenager filling in for Billy Slater at fullback. His development as a footballer is self-evident but Inglis also showed a firmness of character in the way he addressed the Andrew Johns racial vilification incident. ‘Mediation’ should be well and truly consigned to the past.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/23/2935266.htm

Massacre Drawing. The latest edition of the national Library’s eNews reports on a rare drawing of a massacre carried out by settlers in QLD in the 19th century.

‘The drawing is of the massacre of a group of Aboriginal men, women and children by white squatters at One Tree Hill near the road from Moreton Bay to Darling Downs. The drawing depicts eleven squatters firing on a group of 25 Indigenous people, likely to be of the Barunggahm, Jarowair, Giabal and Keinjan language groups.’

http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn4970952

Pecan Summer. Attended the premiere of Debra Cheetham’s Pecan Summer in Mooroopna. The production had many profound moments – my favourite was the last scene where people assemble in Federation Square to hear Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Apology to the Stolen Generations. Following the broadcast of Mr Rudd’s speech Ursula Yovich and Caitlin Munro, playing the separated mother and daughter, sing a duet (independently of each other) before leaving the stage without ever connecting.

Launch. Dr Peta Stephenson's Islam Dreaming: Indigenous Muslims in Australia was launched at the Post Colonial Institute. Lots of people in attendance and an upbeat mood to welcome a groundbreaking text.
http://www.unswpress.com.au/isbn/9781742232478.htm

Happened

2010-10-08T04:36:00.000-07:00

Happened. Indigenous Studies Teaching Colloquium. Over 40 registrations and at times 50 or so people present. The aim was to have an open dialogue with a view to uncovering possibilities for cooperation, collaboration, and improvement. We commenced the day with four concise presentations by practitioners on key issues relating to Australian Indigenous studies and then broke off for discussion. What was evident was that there has been a rapid shift in what can be identified as Australian Indigenous studies at the University of Melbourne. Many of those in attendance were from schools and disciplines not previously associated with Australian Indigenous studies. It was energising to encounter exciting new initiatives being pursued in a spirit of openness and collegiality. Special thanks to the AIS team and Emma Kowal, Rebecca Garcia Lucas, and Alicia Coram.

Read. Leonard Peltier, Prison Writings: My Life is my Sun Dance. Leonard Peltier has spent years in prison for a crime many believe he didn’t commit: the shooting of two FBI agents in 1975 at Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota. Peltier’s description of the American prison system is brought into sharp relief by his commitment to Native American spirituality and his refusal of a degraded, inmate’s mentality. Chief Arvol Looking Horse, Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe writes the foreword to Prison Writings…

Seen. Yohanghza Theatre Company’s Midsummer Nights Dream and Hamlet. Essential Shakespeare presented through the prism of Korean shamanism and traditional culture. Inspiring – and left me increasingly dissatisfied with a lot of Australian and Australian Indigenous theatre. Maybe the theatre companies need less constraints and more corporate and public sector support.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/spirited-korean-take-on-denmarks-woes/story-e6frg8po-1225926373952

Melbourne Fringe. AIS student Tom Carmody appears in Coma and the Good Times, The Open Stage, University of Melbourne. <http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/coma-and-the-good-times/>.

Australian Indigenous Studies Practitioners' Colloquium

2010-09-13T05:42:00.000-07:00

The Australian Indigenous Studies Program and the Indigenous Studies Teaching and Learning Programs Sub-Committee are convening an annual colloquium for  staff who teach and develop subjects with Australian indigenous content, or  who teach Indigenous Australian students. The colloquium will focus on common  issues, shared experiences and identification of best practice. It will  conclude with a discussion of themes for a 2011 forum. Morning tea and lunch  will be provided. Friday 17 September, 9:45am - 2:30pm, Yasuko Hiraoka Myer Room, Sidney Myer Asia Centre. Enquiries: Johanna Simmons 8344 8143. RSVP (essential) to: jsimmons@unimelb.edu.au

The New Semester

2010-08-29T04:22:00.000-07:00

Australian Indigenous Studies 100181. The start of a new semester and the good news is that we’ve held student numbers in our interdisciplinary foundation subject Australian Indigenous Studies. It will probably be the only chance many of these students have to do an Australian Indigenous studies subject, and one which introduces a breadth of perspectives and facts. It’s also the necessary foundation for developing an Indigenous studies program and I'll have more to say on this in future.

Dr Rachel Nordlinger, Linguistics and Languages, lecturing on Aboriginal languages for 100181 students.

Open Day, Sunday 15 August. As usual, louring weather as the AIS team backed up for an additional day’s work. Notwithstanding the weather this was a special Open Day for AIS. Each year an increasing number of the gifted and motivated make their way to our presentation. This year I was able to go through the suite of concordant subjects that make up the AIS major and honours program – an advance on the grab bag of subjects that sometimes follows from cross-listing, or discordant subjects sometimes quite loosely held together by the notion of ‘discipline’. It all made me think back to 2007 when we stepped up to back the Growing Esteem strategy. The spirit of optimism in the air then has been realised.

Tutor Coordinator Alicia Corum and tutor Tom Newman-Morris workshop ideas at a 100181 team meeting.

Odette Kelada, Australian Indigenous Studies and Jason Eades, Koorie Heritage Trust, lecturing for Critical Debates in Australian Indigenous Studies students.

NAIDOC Week

2010-07-14T05:30:00.000-07:00

Honours. I’ve just received news that our Honours program has been approved. Thanks to Johanna Simmons, Sharon Tribe and Peter Eckersall, School of Culture and Communication, for support; and Marion Campbell, Associate Dean, Teaching and Learning, Faculty of Arts, for guidance. I’ve always envisaged a two-year window for setting up our courses. That’s been achieved.

Worawa College, Healesville. Worawa College has experienced some upheaval in recent years but has re-established itself as an Indigenous all girls school. It’s meeting an important need and we wish the school every success.

http://www.worawa.vic.edu.au/

Didn’t see Jindalee Lady. Few people have seen this 1992 film though it is referred to in Marcia Langton’s Well I Heard it on the Radio… . Directed by the late Bryan Syron, it’s one of a corpus of hard to find films with Aboriginal actors made in the ‘80s and early ‘90s – an important transitional period in recent Aboriginal history. Unable to find a dvd of Jindalee Lady I subscribed to a company that listed the film for on-line viewing. After trying several computers and watching a blank screen I gave up. Eventually I’d like a collection of these films in the University library.

Attended. Deborah Cheetham’s ‘Til the Black Lady Sings’ (Cheetham providing some insight into her life with reminiscence and song) and a preview (with cast) of ‘Pecan Summer’. The performance took place at BMW Edge and there was the magical combination of music, and outside, Melbourne’s lights reflected in the Yarra. Previously I’ve mentioned the Indigenous opera community Cheetham has created - noteworthy on the night were the numbers of grass roots Indigenous people in attendance and the powerful and immediate way they recognised the medium of opera as giving form to their histories and sentiments.

Visitors. Heather Dorries, an Indigenous Canadian scholar (Anishinaabe) arrives later this month to spend the semester with us.

A special perspective. Mr John Howells was a student in the subject Key Thinkers and Concepts last semester. No big deal except that Mr Howells is 78 years old and enrolled as part of the Community Access Program. His thoughts on the subject:

BACK TO SCHOOL

People over fifty years of age like me (born 1932) learned little at school about Australia's indigenous people. How different it is now. Today nearly four hundred first year students at Melbourne University each year enrol in the subject, "Australian Indigenous Studies". Many go on to complete a major in the field and some go on to post-graduate study and research work. Every university across Australia has similar programs. School programs today also reflect this growing interest. One may expect that over the next ten or twenty years Australians will become well-informed about our indigenous people.

It is important that those of us, who are over fifty and who are concerned about the protection of human rights in Australia, seek to be well-informed about our indigenous citizens. With this in mind I took the second year subject, "Key Thinkers and Concepts", at Melbourne University during Semester 1 this year. There was a lecture each Tuesday morning from 9.00 till 10.30 and a tutorial from 11.00 till 12.00. Our lecturer, Philip Morrissey, a tall Aboriginal man, was excellent and introduced us to the anthropologists W.E.H.Stanner and Eric Michaels, the cultural studies theorist Stephen Muecke, the cultural nationalists Mudrooroo, Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Kevin Gilbert, the public servant and statesman Nugget Coombs, the reconciliation and social justice thinkers Mick and Patrick Dodson, the conservative thinker Noel Pearson, the Aboriginal educationalist Chris Sarra, and the Yolgnu leaders Mandawuy and Galarrwuy Yunupingu. It was fascinating and I enjoyed every moment of it. During the tutorials we took it in turn to introduce to our small group one of the set texts and to lead a discussion of it. We also had to write two essays on set topics during the course.

I was very nervous at first, but it was a great course and a great experience. The other students were all about nineteen or twenty years of age, but were very accepting of an old fellow like me. The first time the tutor called the roll and I answered "yes", one chap asked, "How long, John, since you last answered a roll-call?" When I replied, "about 60 years", there were grins all round. I was able to enrol through the University's Community Access Program which admits mature age students without prerequisites. How much did it cost? It is not cheap. As a former student I got a 20% discount, but it still came to $1,339.

I am now all fired up to share some of things I have learned and some of the books and other writings I have read. My first instalment follows. I hope you will be encouraged to read the book I am recommending.

John Howells

NAIDOC breakfast. A pleasant interval last Friday as Indigenous staff and students gathered with non-Indigenous colleagues for a NAIDOC Week breakfast. Simone Brotherton from the Centre for Indigenous Education orchestrated proceedings; Acting Provost Pip Pattison welcomed guests; Centre for Indigenous Education Manager Chris Heelan spoke on the history of NAIDOC; and Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin conducted the Welcome to Country in her own inimitable style that combines maximum dignity with personal warmth.

Stepping Up

2010-06-15T02:42:00.000-07:00

Semester 1 2010 is now over. Once again thanks to our great tutors Naomi Tootell and Scott MacKay who really stepped up. The AIS team were challenged by things outside their control so the ride had its bumpy moments but there were a lot of highs. In delivering our new major the AIS team gave about thirty new lectures. Two of the lectures I gave, which still resonate, were on Dr H.E.C. ‘Nugget’ Coombs in our second year course Key Thinkers and Concepts and Deborah Cheetham and her forthcoming opera Pecan Summer, in another second year course Aboriginal Women and Coloniality. I always find it hard to square Coombs’ great achievements and evident wisdom with his impracticable, and sometimes irresponsible, ideas about Aboriginal development. In spite of my own reservations, Dr Coombs’ ideas carried the day with a fair number of the students. Pecan Summer is set to be a sensation when it opens later this year. As well as writing the opera Cheetham has created an Aboriginal opera community from scratch. These developments remind me of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance community developed by Carole Johnson and others in Sydney in the 1980s which eventually led to the establishment of Bangarra Dance Theatre.

Grants. In the last fortnight we’ve submitted two grant applications – done while I’ve been in Europe. It would have been impossible without great support from Fran Edmonds (who has been coordinating applications) and Johanna Simmons.

Turku. I’ve just been at the International Society for Cultural History annual conference in, Turku, Finland. A great conference but occasionally standard history was presented as cultural history. ‘Micro-history’ seems to be the buzz word and will undoubtedly prove a useful rice bowl for historians. A couple of remarks from key note speaker Professor Jacques Revel that stuck in my mind:

‘Why should reasons [explanations] be simple?’

‘Why should we be simple when we can be complex?’

Read. Philip Roth’s The Human Stain 2000. A Jewish professor accused of racism is really an African American who, many years before, passed as white man. The novel suggests that his reasons for passing had more to do with the desire for freedom than opportunism though his sister observes that it was as logical for a light-skinned African American to pass in the1940s as it is to claim every drop of blackness in an age of affirmative action.

Watched. The Baader Meinhof Complex 2008, dr. Uli Edel. The best foreign language film I’ve seen in years. Tough and challenging, and a reminder that a few things were lost on the journey away from the Sixties.

Attended. I made use of 48 hours in London to attend a performance of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and August Wilson’s Joe Turner's Come and Gone. I doubt that I’d see The Crucible performed at a comparable standard in Australia and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone requires an Afro-diasporic cast. The hieratic final scenes of The Crucible were as powerful as theatre ever gets. August Wilson’s play was written in the 1980s – so it’s of the same era as Jack Davis’ No Sugar. It left me wondering if we will ever see Aboriginal theatre re-emerging as a central Indigenous art form.

http://www.openairtheatre.com/pl113reviews.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2010/jun/15/august-wilson-joe-turners-come-gone

Visited. Yinka Shonibare’s ‘Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle’ at Trafalgar Square. I was glad I took time out from my trip to the airport to check out this artwork. I’d expected it would be one more bleak work critiquing/deconstructing British imperialism. Instead its most salient qualities are lightness, freedom and optimism.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/may/24/shonibare-fourth-plinth-ship-bottle

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/may/16/yinka-shonibare-fourth-plinth-trafalgar

http://www.london.gov.uk/fourthplinth/plinth/shonibare.jsp

An Explanation and Three Films

2010-04-10T00:55:00.000-07:00

A key staff member had to take unplanned leave just before semester started and we've struggled a bit delivering our new subjects. Productive work units get a lot of their dynamism from the positive emotional energy of staff. Even the most unhappy and dysfunctional workplace will have some rhetoric about team building. (Undoubtedly it's bound to be one of some team leader's key performance indicators.) So it's been hard - not just because there is more work for less people, but because we've lost a colleague and the inspiration they bring.

On a more upbeat note: it's been a good summer for films. The one I liked best was Rob Marshall's Nine but I saw three that have some relevance to Australian Indigenous Studies: Avatar, Bran Nue Dae, and Precious.

Avatar.

1. Major in its conception and execution.

2. The pseudo-problematic of the white ex-marine, Jake Sully, saving the Indigenous Na'vi is as boring as yesterday's newspapers. The Na'vi of course are cats and cats don't symbolise anything but cats. (One of the Na'vi warriors has part of his ear missing; presumably bitten off in a fight. Conclusive proof that they are cats.)

Bran Nue Dae.

1. It's been nice walking into mainstream cinemas and seeing Bran Nue Dae posters up alongside the standard Hollywood productions. One more sign of a small and productive shift in Settler Australia's perception of Indigenous Australia.

2. I enjoyed seeing some veteran performers again, as well as a new generation of Indigenous talent. I have however seen the original musical and it was impossible not to compare the film with the stage performance. The subtle wit of the musical has disappeared and the religious symbolism has been completely garbled. Catholicism and Evangelicalism are treated as though the differences are meaningless. In the musical the differences actually meant something. The closing scenes which are so powerful in the musical are oddly dissonant in the film - performers blithely singing about a 'magic night' in broad daylight.

Precious.

1. I was worried about this film. It's a favourite of Barbara Bush; and some African American critics have attacked, what they saw, as demeaning portrayals of black American men and black urban life. Surprisingly I found the film moving even though there is a lot to take against if you are inclined.

2. Notwithstanding her appalling life, sixteen year old Precious dreams of future happiness and gives this symbolic form in the fantasies she concocts from popular culture. Like many American films it's absurdly gauche but actress Gabourey Sidibe establishes Precious' subjectivity in the first frames of the film and then establishes an almost hypnotic narrative.

3. It's a classic tale of an outsider's desire for a community, and a place, not just where they can be happy but where they can be known, in all that miraculous singularity we're condemned to.

Anathemas and Universities

2010-02-26T19:15:00.000-08:00

One of the most challenging aspects of contemporary Indigenous affairs is accounting for the diversity of perspectives held by Aboriginal leaders and intellectuals. The debate over the Northern Territory Intervention is probably the most salient example. Otherwise think of the differing political philosophies of Patrick and Mick Dodson, Noel Pearson or Warren Mundine. There is commonality but also important differences.

The challenge for Indigenous Studies is to develop coherent narratives that can frame this diversity and allow students to develop critical thinking skills with a view to forming philosophies cognate with their core values. The problem is that for some people Indigenous issues are the equivalent of moral issues, with right and wrong clearly defined. Those who are 'wrong' in this schemata are then anathematised - usually with the aid of some derogation. Any style of teaching Indigenous Studies, any Indigenous Studies subject, that offers 'right' answers will prove seductive even if the intellectual outcomes are verifiably limited. There is much more to be said on this; though I will note that the unsavoury aspect of this style of teaching can manifest as student on student bullying and name calling.

Shocking News

2010-02-18T00:21:00.000-08:00

Shocking news this morning of the sudden passing of Ruby Hunter. Ruby was gold, tried and proven by the fire of racism, and probably unaware of the number of people she inspired.

It's almost twenty years since I saw Ruby for the first time, on commercial television. I was living in Sydney when the video of 'Down City Streets' was broadcast by a Sydney television station. The combination of the song and the spiritual presence of Ruby and her partner Archie Roach had an immediate impact.

Neither of them were ever the sort of people commercial television gave much space to. As I watched and listened, I couldn't help but wonder at how both of them had emerged intact from the experience that gave meaning to the song, and turned it into art.

Ruby's personal dress style (both regal and whimsical), and her numerous performances, were moments of reassurance, manifestations of a profound and deep Aboriginality which reached back to a distant past.

Listen to Archie's, 'From Paradise'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhCy8iur_8o&feature=related

Aboriginal Guest Lecturers

2010-02-10T04:58:00.000-08:00

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.

Boot Camp for Teachers

2010-01-28T15:50:00.000-08:00

I’m not directly affected by the release of the school league tables and it's not an area I claim any expertise in but as someone who respects teachers who work in the public school system it’s hard not to be annoyed when they are presented as the problem. Federal Minister for Education Julia Gillard is skitching parents on to teachers who are apparently not delivering; underperforming school principals are to be mentored; the reality show ’Boot Camp for Teachers’ is probably in pre-production.

Not having any school age children I thought I’d check the league table results for my old primary school. XYZ Public School is situated in Northern New South Wales. Many of the families of students are transients; 34% of students identify as Indigenous, and many of the school’s students come from single parent families. The school’s performance in literacy and numeracy, as represented by the National Assessment Program, isn’t very good and it’s outperformed by Cherbourg State School. Cherbourg State School is the school Aboriginal educationist Chris Sarra had such a profound impact on and it has become in a sense a ‘show school’ for the new regime in education. Comparisons with XYZ Primary School are revealing. XYZ Public School has a student population of 216 while Cherbourg State School has 199 with 99 % of the school’s students being Indigenous. Students at Cherbourg State School were intensively coached for the National Assessment Program tests and its website showcases an extensive range of programs for students. It’s the disparity in staffing levels that is most confronting. Cherbourg State School has a teaching staff of 19.2 and a non-teaching staff of 13.6. In comparison, XYZ Public School has a teaching staff of 15.8 and a non-teaching staff of 4.6. I assume that these figures are also a pretty good indicator of the relative level of resources available to both schools. Because it is so poorly resourced there doesn’t seem much of a chance at XYZ Public School that a child with learning difficulties will get the intensive support they need. The Cherbourg State School results are to be applauded: I’d also be applauding if comparable resources and attention were being directed to XYZ Public School.

Finally for my old teachers at XYZ Public School – one or two you were doozies but you’re remembered with affection and gratitude. You were my first point of contact with White Australia and the greater world. Something worked…

The job gets done...

2010-01-03T01:55:00.000-08:00

2010 starts for the Australian Indigenous Studies program tomorrow. I’m feeling primed and ready to roll but deadlines are already pressing. We’re developing teaching materials for new subjects as well as reviewing previously taught subjects. Everything has got to be ready for the coming semester. As well as that we’ve got to finalise our Honours program for 2011 - that has to be completed by the end of January. I’d have liked to have been further advanced with these tasks but this is the time frame we’ve got. Add up various other deadlines and commitments and it’s a combination of optimism and fatalism that will see us through. As for fatalism, one of my former bosses, an ex-army officer, used to say, ‘The job gets done; it might be done differently; it might be done worse, but it gets done.’ Aboriginal affairs generally is bedevilled by short-term goals, and short-sighted, sometimes cynical, strategies; thankfully that’s not the case with the Australian Indigenous Studies program. The optimistic vision is that the completion of each of January’s tasks lays the foundations of a unique program.

Thoughts on Returning from a Conference

2009-12-14T21:54:00.000-08:00

Guest blog: Odette Kelada

Baz Luhrmann’s Australia Reviewed: An interdisciplinary conference on history, film and popular culture, 7 Dec – 8 Dec.

Thoughts on returning from a conference on the film ‘Australia’ by Baz Luhrmann - Two days to pour in detail over the sprawling colourful ‘epic’ that attempts to meld a ‘Gone with The Wind’ romantic exuberance with a larrikanesque knock about aussie adventure tale. I embarked with the AIS team to Canberra rather unsure of what might await and with a few questions in mind. I’m no big fan of the film as I read it as a highly troubling and current day colonial fantasy, but was there a chance that all the brilliant minds at this forum may persuade me otherwise? Could it be that in the mire of critical race reading, I had lost the ability to enjoy a generous entertainment spectacle when it came bounding in all its red dust kangaroo embossed technicolor glory? And was that catchy slogan – something about going walkabout to find oneself, really capitalist white tourist induced appropriation or eerily insightful observation on the modern day concrete oppressed office worker?

Standout keynote speech by Prof. Meaghan Morris launched the conference with a wonderful nuanced reading of the complexities in the responses to this film, an original take on cliché and a great description of Nullah’s magic weaving gestures as ‘oogabooga’ that looked more kungfu claw (taught by the cook perhaps) than anything identifiably Indigenous . Morris’s observations traveled with me over the next two days as I listened to various presentations and attempted to emulate the spirit of openness and dialogue fitting such an auspicious start. In the first session, Ann Genovese gave one of the most interesting papers from a cross-disciplinary perspective, as she connected the film’s narrative around the Stolen Generation with legal cases brought by Indigenous litigants fighting for recognition of the illegality of their removal. Her paper offered a fascinating reflection on myths in law and how these sit alongside the mythmaking around the story of Nullah in the film. Philip Morrissey in his thoughtful presentation on the film offered much to ponder but it was his shocking and yet uncannily persuasive suggestion that given Nullah’s propensity to pop up in inappropriate places (including the bedroom), interrupting any ‘wrong side’ business that was afoot, and his strange long haired allure as he ‘sings’ Lady Ashley, that Nullah was possibly going to come back and marry Lady Ashley, which drew an illicit gasp from the audience. ‘Australia’ as Oedipal fantasy certainly broadened the implications of the film’s narrative arc. Johanna Simmons, project coordinator of AIS, gave a compelling insight into the spectacularistion of history that has been repressed, drawing attention to Luhrmann’s representations of the Stolen Generation and the Darwin Bombing as two such histories. Simmons sophisticated exploration of how the film may be read as an attempt to counter this repression and the effect of melodrama as genre on this endeavor, was enhanced by the presentation of images illustrating various cinematic devices employed by Luhrmann. The visual impact of seeing the poster for ‘Australia’ juxtaposed with the poster for the American film ‘Pearl Harbor’ left little doubt that in the almost identical imagery, Luhrmann was reaching self-consciously beyond intertextual referencing to overt mimicry. ‘Redeeming Aboriginal masculinity’ by Shino Konisho was another paper that stood out as she gave a unique reading of the film, opposing Germaine Greer’s condemnation of King George as ‘a tasteless joke’ by suggesting that he was on the contrary, a positive example of paternal love. The range of presentations varied in substance and clarity over the duration of the conference but overall most had something of interest to say, be it on landscape, aural semiotics or international reception.

Apparently the enthusiasm by academics to attend a conference on ‘Australia’ outweighed the expectations of the conference conveners, Konisho and Maria Nugent, who did an excellent job of providing a cohesive program from the many threads. Indeed by the end, rather than assuaging the appetite for this film, the participants appeared well able to continue the discussion ad infinitum. After the two days, while I found myself adhering to my initial concerns and sense of disturbance, there’s certainly a great deal more to the film than I had appreciated. There’s no doubt from all the multi-disciplinary approaches that Luhrmann created a fertile landscape for debate, controversy and analysis on diverse fronts. Witnessing some of the fervent affection by a number of participants for the film, I swayed between a sense of oversaturation with all things ‘Australia’ and starting to wish that I too had been able to be swept away with the Drover and the Wizard of Oz, to some far far away place. But no, we were still in Canberra, the locus of many a flawed fantasy, and soon to be in the airport lounge.

Other Eyes: The half-caste in Luhrmann's Australia

2009-11-27T15:54:00.001-08:00

The AIS team is heading off to Canberra in a fortnight. The National Museum of Australia is convening an interdisciplinary conference addressing Baz Luhrmann’s Australia and we’re all presenting papers. Films like Australia can be easy targets for academics and I hope I can temper my discussion with some acknowledgement of where the film suceeds.

The expansiveness of Luhrmann's vision of Australia and his understanding of a mass-viewing audience goes without saying. However Australia aspires to be more than popular entertainment and accordingly warrants consideration and critique. Though set in the 1940s, in northern Australia, the film invites the Australian viewer to interpret it in a larger framework, resonant with contemporary Aboriginal-Settler concerns. From this perspective we are obliged to note some of the film’s shortcomings. For instance, the issue of sovereignty is never addressed and Lady Sarah Ashley’s tenure of Faraway Downs is unproblematised.

In my conference paper I will address another major shortcoming - the manner in which it attempts to resolve the ‘half-caste problem’ as embodied in the figure of Nullah. At the conclusion of the film Nullah goes off with his ‘full-blood’ grandfather to be initiated and to become not only a proper Aboriginal but also a human being. Underlying this is the racialist belief that the ‘half-caste’ is a being, in a sense, without a caste. This 'romantic pessimism' is still present in some popular conceptions of the relation between Aboriginals and traditional culture.

Co-optation or Survival?

2009-11-09T14:36:00.000-08:00

2009 has been one of the most productive years ever for Australian Indigenous Studies in the Faculty of Arts. Last week we had the inaugural Narrm Oration and the launch of the Murrup Barak Institute for Indigenous Development. Professor Ian Anderson has been a key figure in conceiving, and guiding these initiatives to completion.

As part of the Oration there was an academic procession of Aboriginal staff. I knew immediately I received the invitation that I should accept but remained ambivalent about the academic procession and Indigenous co-optation into the resulting pomp and circumstance. Henry Louis Gates' description of ‘official marginality’ and universities still has a certain measure of truth:

once scorned now exalted. You think of Sally Field’s [1985] address to the Motion Picture Academy when she received her Oscar, ‘You like me! You really like me!” we authorised others shriek into the microphone, exultation momentarily breaking our dour countenances.’

Actually the Oration was a profound and satisfying event. The Oration by Professor Mason Durie, a Maori, and Deputy Vice Chancellor of Massey University, New Zealand, was wise reflection on the relationship between Indigenous peoples and universities. Arriving a few minutes late I was struck by the gowned figures of my colleagues: Aboriginal academic and professional staff, and Aboriginal students, waiting quietly in the order they would enter the theatre. As sometimes happens in moments of intensity I had the experience of being both participant and observer. My final thoughts? 'We're gonna shout to the top...'

Sally Field's Oscar acceptance speech

Goodwill

2009-10-10T17:37:00.001-07:00

We had the launch of the Australian Indigenous Studies major on Tuesday - it’s important to mark achievements, otherwise the academic year is reduced to an infinite set of problems to be solved and deadlines to be met.

It was also an occasion to thank some of those who

contribute to the success of the Australian Indigenous Studies Program. Academic staff give their time to teach into it; tutors take on the challenge of working through concepts and ideas with students; professional staff ensure that our administrative infrastructure is sound and that we are appropriately advised.

Underlying this is the less quantifiable fact of goodwill. Without it an interdisciplinary program has no future. Goodwill can be unacknowledged but its absence is immediately obvious.

At the launch: Ruby Lowe, Diane Jones, Odette Kelada and Erin LaRue

Pecan Summer

2009-09-19T19:40:00.000-07:00

I had a pleasant interlude on Friday before the mid-semester break. (Sorry, I’m slipping into bloggese.) Deborah Cheetham and the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development held their Spring Recital. The Joan Hammond Recital Room at the VCA was full to capacity; Aboriginal and Settler opera singers performed classic arias and excerpts from Ms Cheetham’s opera Pecan Summer for an appreciative audience. Pecan Summer intertwines Deborah Cheetham’s personal history with communal history and gives meaning and profundity to that banal term ‘shared history’. The excerpts we heard were superb. Pecan Summer will premier next year and the production has auditioned for the 2010 Melbourne Festival.

http://www.deborahcheetham.com/pecan_summer

AIS Major up and running

2009-08-29T21:55:00.001-07:00

I’ve just received news that our proposed major in Australian Indigenous Studies has been signed off on by the final university committee. The approval was a lengthy process as the proposal was vetted by ascending layers of university committees.

It’s the only interdisciplinary Australian Indigenous Studies major in Australia, founded on the principles of intellectual exchange, interdisciplinarity, and social relevance.

The major itself was developed during 2008 - a difficult year for everyone in the Faculty of Arts, and it would have been easy to walk away, but I know from experience that its often in times of organisational turmoil, or what Dabrowski would term ‘creative disintegration’, that opportunities for innovation and rapid development arise.

The AIS team is now developing teaching templates for all the AIS major subjects for 2010. The challenge is to develop ways to maximise the intellectual inputs of lecturers perpetually short of time.

Foundation for the Future

2009-08-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

Our First Year course Australia Indigenous Studies has 388 students enrolled in it this semester. When we ran it for the first time in 2008 it had 188 students. One of our goals has been to transform possible perceptions of Australian Indigenous Studies as a minority interest field to one of mainstream relevance. It’s a privilege to have so many University of Melbourne students choosing to do this subject and it’s the foundation for the future of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne.