Topic outline
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This section introduces the long history of Australian Aboriginal research and development of sustained Aboriginal knowledge systems because non-Aboriginal supervisors need to understand the historical context of research with Aboriginal Peoples. This historical context, including colonialism, is explained in the NHMRC guidelines (Guidelines for Ethical Research in Australian Indigenous Studies) for the conduct of Aboriginal research as follows:
Historical context of research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
The history of the relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and the conduct of post-colonisation research provides an important context [for conducting research ethically with Aboriginal peoples] … How people see the world is generally informed by their own cultural experiences, values, norms and learning. From the earliest periods of colonisation, views about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and social organisation (including their values and mores) were based on ill-informed perceptions and assumptions. These perceptions arose from inappropriate comparisons of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander world to the spiritual, social, political and economic perspectives of European colonisers.
Colonists viewed the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and societies through their own cultural lenses and judged these attributes by the degree to which they perceived them conforming to European customs and norms. Not surprisingly, the early colonisers knew nothing about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and their cultures. The substantial errors of judgement and the misconceptions that followed have had a significant impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples ever since. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples are considered to be the most researched peoples in the world. Despite this, they have received very little perceivable benefit. [emphasis added]
However, contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies continue to draw their strength and cultural continuity from the body of knowledge, values and wisdom that has emerged from contact with their traditions, historical events and wisdom and stories of the Elders.
In 2007, after more than 20 years of negotiations at the United Nations level, Indigenous peoples globally welcomed the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Australia endorsed in 2009. In order to address their human rights and cultural recognition, Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have advocated for the articles in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to be integrated throughout policies and programs. The right to self-determination means that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have the freedom to live well and to live according to their values and beliefs. There are four ways in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples exercise self-determination:
- having a choice in determining how their lives are governed and their development paths
- participating in decisions that affect their lives
- having control over their lives and future including economic, social and cultural development
- having the means by which every person might achieve their full potential.
Reflection: What are the implications of this historical explanation for supervisors in their relationships with Aboriginal research degree candidates and their research?
This historical relationship needs to be acknowledged to develop culturally competent relationships in supervisory spaces because the pervasive denial about colonial history continues to have an impact on Aboriginal Peoples and all Australians. Find out about the truth about history which includes 65,000 years of Aboriginal research and a culture which has the oldest educational, legal, health and healing systems. Supervisors should also understand potential impacts of history experienced by their Aboriginal HDR candidates. Some impacts may be related to the ongoing dispossession of Aboriginal Peoples, for example, parents or grandparents being forced to live on missions and then in the 1960s moving to urban centres or being part of the Stolen Generations.
Continue to learn the true facts of history and colonisation, especially more recent history since the 1960s when Australian laws changed, and Aboriginal Peoples started to become part of mainstream Australian society. Prior long-term forcible removal from traditional lands and living on reserves and missions continue to impact the current generations. Find out about Aboriginal Peoples and their relationship to Country, and about the need for ‘truth telling’.
Suggested strategies
- Listen to Aboriginal leaders and Elders about the ongoing effects of colonisation today, such as how the doctrine of terra nullius continues to have implications for Aboriginal Peoples today and their relationships with non-Aboriginal Peoples.
- Continue to develop a deep knowledge of Aboriginal history to understand its ongoing impacts on Aboriginal Peoples. Consider the way in which the effects of colonisation and white privilege influence research thinking.
Also find out more about research implications about this history on Aboriginal HDR candidates:
- talk to Aboriginal researchers and academics who have finished their PhDs and find out from them: What worked well for you in your supervisory relationships? What do you wish your supervisors did that they didn't? And what do you wish they didn't do, that they did?
- value Indigenist research, explained by Rigney in his highly influential 1999 article 'Internationalization of an Indigenous Anticolonial Cultural Critique of Research Methodologies' as being based on principles of: resistance as the emancipatory imperative, political integrity and privileging Indigenous voices.
- recognise that Aboriginal knowledge systems, although well-established and valued within Aboriginal community, are relatively new to universities and the Academy. Increasingly universities are investing in Aboriginal research.
- find out more about the similarities and differences between Aboriginal knowledges and scientific knowledge. These knowledge systems are complementary and not binary opposites as sometimes depicted. For a nuanced comparison of traditional knowledge and Western science from a Canadian perspective, see Figure 20.1 (Sparrow et al. 2006, p. 327).
Sparrow EB, Dawe JC, Chapin FS III, 2006, ‘Communication of Alaskan boreal science with broader communities’, in Chapin FS III, Oswood M, Van Cleve K, Viereck LA, Verbyla DL (eds) Alaska’s changing boreal forest. Oxford University Press, New York, 323–331.
Reflection
- Reflect on your personal story and how it influenced you coming to research. How does your story inform the ways in which you interact with others in your research?
- In what ways can you reimagine or reshape the research space that better supports Aboriginal histories, knowledges, Peoples and communities?
- Reflecting on the UniSA Aboriginal Research Strategy, what are some research protocols you could put in place within your supervisory panel to ensure that Aboriginal knowledge is respected and given a rightful place?
- If you have time, read Martin (2017) and reflect on the relationality between Indigenous and Western knowledge from the perspective of an Indigenous scholar.
Martin, B 2017, ‘Methodology is content: Indigenous approaches to research and knowledge’, Educational Philosophy and Theory, 49(14), 1392–1400, DOI: 10.1080/00131857.2017.1298034.