Indigenous Australian Studies
What is Indigenous Australian Studies?
Indigenous Australian Studies is an interdisciplinary program of study. It gives students an opportunity to develop a deep understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and knowledge systems, and draws upon the ideas and methods of disciplines including history, literature, sociology health, linguistics, film and archaeology to examine the scholarly and everyday construction of knowledges about Indigenous peoples, experiences and histories.
Taught by Koori Centre academic staff, Indigenous Australian Studies units are offered through the Faculty of Arts and are available to all students as a Part A major.
How do you major in Indigenous Australian Studies?
To major in Indigenous Australian Studies you must complete 36 senior credits points (generally 6 units) of Indigenous Australian Studies units. These can be Koori Centre units of study only or you can select up to 18 credit points (generally 3 units) of cross listed units. Cross listed units are offered through the Faculty of Arts, but please contact the Koori Centre to find out more.
To help you attain a cohesive major in Indigenous Studies, the existing Koori Centre units of study have been aligned with an additional 5 units to be introduced in 2011.
The new units reflect the evolving discipline of Indigenous Studies and articulate the many voices, perspectives and priorities of Indigenous Australian peoples and communities. Students are given the opportunity to engage in analysis, discussion and debate around key issues that are of significance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Some of these issues include language revitalization, the burgeoning field of Indigenous film and literature, the ongoing efforts to improve Indigenous health outcomes and the broader pursuit of Indigenous self-determination and social justice.
Need help?
Contact the Koori Centre to find out more about how you can build an Indigenous Australian Studies major that complements your study program.
All these units of study may be undertaken by cross-institutional study
Cross-institutional applications available at: http://sydney.edu.au/arts/current_students/undergraduate/cross-institutional_study.shtml
Approved Crosslisted Units of Study
- ANTH2630 Indigenous Australians and Modernity
- ARCA2605 Archaeology of Aboriginal Australia
- ARHT2636 Contemporary Indigenous Australian Art
- HSTY2677 Australia: Politics and Nation
- LNGS2611 Australia's Indigenous Languages
- SLSS2604 Indigenous Social and Legal Justice
To view all Indigenous Australian Studies units of study please visit:
IAS Units of Study
SEMESTER ONE 2012
KOCR2600 Introduction to Indigenous Australia
Coordinator: Lynette Riley
Prerequisite: 18 junior credit points
This unit of study is the first stepping stone in the Indigenous Australian Studies (IAS) Major. Structured around three themes - representation and identity, invasion and colonisation, and resistance and agency - the unit critically examines the historical, social and political contexts of the survival and growth of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies and cultures. Students will gain a critical awareness of traditional and contemporary Indigenous Australia, and develop a decolonised critical framework which underpins the IAS major.
KOCR2601 Indigenous Land & Culture
Coordinator: Leah Lui-Chivizhe
Co-requisite: KOCR2600
This unit of study traces Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander relationships to country and place, and the continuities and dynamism of contemporary Indigenous Australian cultures. It will celebrate the fact that, despite the impact of colonisation, Indigenous Australian peoples have maintained unique identities and connections to land and sea. Through the themes of Indigenous Sydney, Connections to Place, and Cultural Continuity, this unit of study examines the role of Indigenous kinship and belief systems, art, language, performance, and film on the continued and vibrant connections between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and land and seascapes and the myriad of ways these connections or relationships are maintained and expressed.
KOCR2603 Indigenous Health & Communities
Coordinator: Katrina Thorpe
Co-requisite: KOCR2600
This unit of study is the first of three units that form part of the Health and Wellbeing Stream of the Indigenous Studies Major. This unit aims to give an historical and contemporary understanding of the diverse range of issues impacting on Aboriginal Health. Students have the opportunity to examine sociological and Indigenous health frameworks and identify a range of strategies which work towards improving the health of Indigenous Australians. A highlight of this unit is the opportunity to hear from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people who are passionate about contributing to such improvements. Students will also explore the ways in which they may work with Aboriginal people and communities to facilitate self-determination in Aboriginal health.
KOCR2604 Politics of Identity, Gender & Knowledge
Coordinator: Dr Karen O'Brien
Prerequisite: 18 junior credit points
This unit of study will provide students with grounding in contemporary theories of Indigenous identity and an understanding of current critical writings on identity formation in colonised societies. It will enable students to formulate strategies and methods for understanding and working with notions of identity in relation to Indigenous peoples. In this unit students explore the history and formation of Indigenous identity. Combining contemporary theoretical and historical approaches they will explore the ways in which Indigenous Australians were constructed by colonial discourses. Students explore the multi-layered facets of identity that are held in and on the Indigenous body and identify and critically analyse sites of power, Indigenous knowledges, processes of cultural dissemination and transmission and consider how Indigenous identities were racialised, gendered and subordinated. Students will explore the arena of cultural politics and investigate the ways in which Indigenous agency has manifested, for example, through innovative critical perspectives and through creative re-presentations in a variety of media, in film, documentary, photography and prose.
KOCR2607 Indigenous Creative Expression
Coordinator: Michelle Blanchard
Prerequisite: Nil
This unit of study aims to give students the opportunity to critically engage with a variety of artistic and creative practices undertaken by Indigenous Australians. It's envisaged that students will be encouraged to critically examine and understand the role of Indigenous performance/theatre, writing, dance, film, visual arts and music in Indigenous Australian cultural maintenance.
KOCR2612 Introduction to Aboriginal Literature
Coordinator: Dr Peter Minter
Prerequisite: 12 junior Arts credit points
This unit of study provides an introduction to the literature of Aboriginal Australia. It surveys a range of texts from the late eighteenth to the early twenty-first century, including early letters and chronicles, works of fiction, poetry and plays, and political manifestos and song-lyrics. These texts are read in the light of Aboriginal cultural and political life, the specificities of tradition, colonisation, resistance and survival, and Aboriginal interpolations of modernity, postmodernity and postcolonialism.
KOCR3602 Race, Racism & Indigenous Australia
Coordinator: Lynette Riley and Dr Lynda Blanchard
Prerequisite: KOCR2600
This unit explores theories of race and racism focussing on Indigenous Australian race relations. Opportunity is provided to understand the development of Racism as an impact on individuals – victim and perpetrator; and systemic systems at local, national and international levels. The unit explores what racism means in the social justice agenda through issues such as: equity and anti-racism; in particular the direct impact of racism as a tool in the creation of social and economic disadvantage in Australian Indigenous communities.
This unit aims to provide students with skills to examine theoretical concepts of race and racism and its impact on both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Australia. In analysing race and racism, students will consider theories of structural and cultural violence; and the ways in which racism is linked to poverty, justice and human rights; critical whiteness theory; and race representation. Through such analyses of race and racism – with particular location in Indigenous Australia – students will gain an understanding of visible and invisible racism and skills for unmasking racism as a process of constructive individual and social change.
SEMESTER TWO 2012
KOCR2600 Introduction to Indigenous Australia
Coordinator: Lynette Riley
Prerequisite: 18 junior credit points
This unit of study is the first stepping stone in the Indigenous Australian Studies (IAS) Major. Structured around three themes -representation and identity, invasion and colonisation, and resistance and agency - the unit critically examines the historical, social and political contexts of the survival and growth of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies and cultures. Students will gain a critical awareness of traditional and contemporary Indigenous Australia, and develop a decolonised critical framework which underpins the IAS major.
KOCR2610 Indigenous Community Development
Coordinator: Dr John Evans
Prerequisite : KOCR2600
This unit examines how community development approaches can influence health and wellbeing outcomes for Indigenous peoples. Students will examine past approaches, current trends and theories underpinning community development. Students will reflect on their role in working with Aboriginal communities to develop processes that build capacity in health delivery and support Indigenous self determination. This unit also considers the nature of ethical research practice within an Indigenous community setting.
KOCR2611 Issues in Indigenous Histories
Leah Lui-Chivizhe
Prerequisite : 12 credit points of junior History
Coorequisite : KOCR2600 (waivered if taken as part of History major)
This unit explores the key issues and debates that have shaped the development of Indigenous History in Australia. You will examine how Indigenous responses to colonialism have been variously interpreted; explore Indigenous perspectives on the writing and representation of Indigenous History in historiography, documentary and feature film and literature; and examine the legacy of the past in the present. The unit also considers questions of historical evidence, the uses of evidence and the different ways of presenting history.
KOCR3605 Writing Country: Indigenous Ecopoetics
Coordinator: Dr Peter Minter
Prerequisite: 12 senior Arts credit points
Contact: peter.minter@sydney.edu.au
The representation of nature has been central to human expression for thousands of years. Contemporary transnational ecopoetics situates nature and culture amidst present-day ecological catastrophes and political environmentalisms. This unit examines a uniquely Australian contribution to this field - “Country” - which for Australian Indigenous peoples denotes special cosmological, filial and custodial relations to land. Surveying a range of Indigenous and non-Indigenous works of poetry, non-fiction and art, “Writing Country” defines an Indigenous poetics of nature and explores its broader ecopoetical promise.
KOCR3606 Colonising & Decolonising Histories
Coordinator: Dr Karen O'Brien
Prereqisite: 12 junior credit points
Contact: karen.obrien@sydney.edu.au
Colonised peoples are often classified according to Western intellectual, political and historical priorities. This unit of study critically evaluates Western classifications of Indigenous Australia and the Pacific by investigating three key themes: Indigenous histories and representation, colonising and decolonising Indigenous peoples, and the Pacific in international contexts. It presents revised understandings of the lived realities of Indigenous cultures through exploring regional and cultural identities of Oceania, neocolonialism, nuclear testing, gender relations, dietary colonialism, anthropological reasoning, resistance and overpowering colonialism.
KOCR3608 Case Studies in Indigenous Health
Coordinator: Katrina Thorpe
Prerequisite: KOCR2603
Contact: katrina.thorpe@sydney.edu.au
This unit of study is underpinned by an assumption that the statistical life expectancy gap that exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians will be closed through a range of diverse actions that include but are not limited to the health sector. A series of Indigenous health case studies will be explored through an interdisciplinary approach. Students will develop an understanding of effective ways to collaborate across disciplines to address the goal of improving health and wellbeing outcomes for Indigenous people.
KOCR3609 Indigenous Screen Culture
Coordinator: Michelle Blanchard
Prerequisite: 18 junior credit points
Contact: michelle.blanchard@sydney.edu.au
This unit of study will explore the cultural text of Indigenous Australian film. It will draw upon on knowledge situated within Indigenous content and contexts as they are presented on screen and interpreted. Students will critically examine the role of Indigenous film and conduct a comparative study of films with Indigenous stories by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous filmmakers, taking an analytical approach to reviewing cinematic language and meaning.
KOCR3613 First People: Last Contact
Coordinator: John Hobson
Prerequisite: 18 credit points of Indigenous Australian Studies
Contact: john.hobson@sydney.edu.au
Australian contact history is usually expressed in terms of the last 200 years, consequent cultural loss, economic and social devastation. For Central Australia people this history is much shorter, and the coming of the whitefella, its consequences and the times before remain strong in living memory and oral history. Through preparatory seminars and guided fieldwork (at additional cost) this unit allows students to directly experience and understand the culturally and politically dynamic post-invasion world of the desert people.
KOCR3614 Comparative Indigenous School Experience
Coordinator: Dr Lorraine Towers
Prerequisite: KOCR2600
Contact: lorraine.towers@sydney.edu.au
Formal schooling has been a critical frontier of engagement for Indigenous peoples in both colonial and postcolonial states and societies. This course examines in comparative and historical perspective both the school institution and Indigenous schooling experience across a variety of social and political contexts, including those in Australia and the Americas. Critical consideration is given to school curriculum and culture as well as Indigenous socio-cultural conceptions and practice, for identity including Indigeneity, citizenship, power, resistance, agency, and contemporary circumstance.
Koori Centre Handbook
For further information regarding Indigenous Australian Studies and other courses offered by the Koori Centre, please visit our Online Handbook
Contact Information
Noeleen Smith
Phone: (02) 9351 6113
Toll Free: 1800 622 742
Fax: (02) 9351 6924
Email: noeleen.smith@sydney.edu.au