This paper discusses the PhD research process from my perspective as an Aboriginal man. The paper illuminates how I navigated my way through a Western academic system using an Aboriginal framework. I give insights into the dynamics at play in both academic and traditional ways of knowing, being and doing. As an Aboriginal researcher, I was intent,…

This article takes the form of an interview with Sandy O'Sullivan, who is a partner on the Australian Indigenous Studies Learning and Teaching Network, about key issues that have arisen through Network discussions. She is a Wiradjuri woman and a Senior Aboriginal researcher at the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education. O'Sullivan…

Music educators with little experience in Aboriginal culture have trouble teaching Aboriginal music in schools. Indigenous music activity in the Kimberley region of Western Australia illustrates four contexts in which Indigenous music could be studied: local versus national Indigenous music, and Indigenous music in relation to history, place, and…

A college course in Queensland (Australia) brings Indigenous women into the class to teach their music and dance. Performative pedagogy involves students as audience and participants, providing opportunities to critically engage with the social, political, and ethical dimensions of power and knowledge in the university setting. Student comments…

When the Australian government's Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation terminated at the end of 2000, a people's foundation took up the work. A knowledge of Australian Aboriginal history would foster the respect necessary for reconciliation. Research can help by implementing emerging canons in which Aboriginal perspectives provide the framework…

A White Australian professor of a class on Indigenous women's dance has her Aboriginal sister-in-law conduct workshops on Indigenous dance. The classroom dynamics resulting from the complex power relationships (teacher as White woman, Aboriginal family member, and students) disturbs Western paradigms. The responsibility of "safely…

A 56-year-old Canada Native took a college course on Australian Indigenous approaches to knowledge. He observed that initially many students were hindered by their past experience with linear paradigms of structured academic processes. Eventually they let their minds access spirit and feeling in addition to thought, allowing a recall of life…