Topic outline
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Aboriginal HDR candidates can experience challenges which can be devastating. How would you respond to the following real challenges to counterbalance them and not make them worse?
Challenge 1
Researchers may show a lack of respect for Aboriginal worldviews and research approaches which differ from Western worldviews. For example, a panel member may not value Aboriginal worldviews. Such perspectives may emerge in discussions which consider Aboriginal methodology as ‘new’ despite being over 65,000 years old or that Aboriginal knowledge systems are not valid. In response to this, an Aboriginal HDR candidate may feel they are continually marginalised or need to be defensive.
Possible responses
- Ensure that an Aboriginal scholar is part of the supervisory panel.
- Find a research assistant role for the candidate with an established Aboriginal researcher so the candidate can understand and identify existing literature from an Indigenist worldview.
- Write collaboratively with the candidate to develop strong and compelling arguments to become more resilient.
Challenge 2
Aboriginal HDR candidates are sometimes viewed as being inferior to and knowing less than other HDR candidates because they have special privileges (e.g. an Aboriginal scholarship). Some Aboriginal HDR candidates experience how the colour of their skin often changes the interactions that they have in the research world. Their intellectual contribution to the academy may be questioned continuously. Furthermore, because their background may be vastly different from other HDR candidates, they may find it hard to engage in ‘water-cooler’ conversations which may reinforce dominant norms of white privilege. Collectively these experiences can be very isolating and demeaning for the candidate resulting in racial prejudice. Despite such attitudes being expressed in unintentional language and behaviour, racial prejudice still hurts and exists in universities even though not explicitly discussed and instead ‘tiptoed around’. People may not realise that they are invoking white privilege and appear racist. Just one instance of racial prejudice can undo years of collaboration between the candidate and supervisors.
Possible responses
- Find an Aboriginal researcher as a mentor for the Aboriginal HDR candidate.
- Discuss racism in research centres to enable researchers and other university staff to identify their own biases.
- Encourage the candidate to engage in the Edge workshops and meet fellow HDR peers.
- Learn more about the dynamics of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement.
Challenge 3
Institutional racism or racial discrimination may be evident in various ways, as people do not think carefully about the impact of their words and actions on Aboriginal HDR candidates. In general, people in academia do not see themselves as racist, yet Aboriginal candidates and staff members experience racist behaviour. Sometimes feedback comments can be blatant and inexcusable. Journal reviewers, for example, may reveal their bias and racism in their commentary. This was demonstrated by a reviewer in one case claiming that the writer needed to: ‘… say why the Aboriginals are so boring and why they are not doing anything. Why they are basically a failed society' (deidentified). Another form of institutional racism is that Aboriginal HDR candidates and academics can be bullied into taking on responsibilities because it suits the agenda of non-Indigenous researchers, for example, so a grant application may have a ‘token’ Aboriginal member listed.
Possible responses
- Keep a good working relationship with your candidate so all instances can be discussed in safety.
- Reinforce core human values of respect and ensure that the local research environment does not tolerate institutional racism.
- Work with the candidate to talk back to the journal and call out racism.
Reflection: Read more about dimensions and the impact of institutional racism remembering that the Australian Constitution, Section 18C of the Anti-Discrimination Act, states: It is unlawful to ‘offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate’ a person because of their race, colour or national or ethnic origin.
Further reading
1. ‘Academia isn’t a safe haven for conversations about race and racism’.
This resource, from the Harvard Business Review (2020) about racism-evasive tactics, suggests ways to have conversations to make a difference.Tsedale, MM & Beeman, A 2020, ‘Academia isn’t a safe haven for conversations about race and racism’, Harvard Business Review, 25 June 2020, viewed, 8 July 2020, https://hbr.org/2020/06/academia-isnt-a-safe-haven-for-conversations-about-race-and-racism.
2. ‘The legacy of racism and Indigenous Australian identity within education’
This reflective historical paper names possible strategies to combat institutional racism.Bodkin-Andrews, G & Carlson, B 2016, ‘The legacy of racism and Indigenous Australian identity within education’, Race, Ethnicity and Education, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 784–807.
Bodkin-Andrews and Carlson (2016, p. 800) suggest that workable strategies to combat racism develop from:
… a strong sense of personal and collective agency … the need to acknowledge the existence of racism (as opposed to questioning its existence), to emotionally distance oneself from the racism by framing it as a problem of the racists, not oneself … to stay positive and recognise that fighting racism (calmly and not violently) can make one stronger and more resilient. Such strengths [are] also closely tied to maintaining and enhancing one’s sense of identity and family/social support that encourage a stronger sense of pride in being an Indigenous Australian … the need to challenge racism [is] emphasised not only with regard to correcting the racist attitudes and/or behaviours, but also considerable emphasis [is] placed on the need to challenge racism from an internal point of reference … one must endeavour to prove the racist wrong, and that racism itself may become a motivator for success.
3. ‘Institutional racism’
Soutphommasane, T 2017, ‘Institutional racism’, Keynote speech at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation’s Institutional Racism conference, November 2007, Melbourne, viewed 15 September 2020, https://humanrights.gov.au/about/news/speeches/institutional-racism.
This 2017 keynote conference speech by Dr T Soutphommasane, the then Race Discrimination Commissioner from the Australian Human Rights Commission, highlights the challenges of institutional racism.