About

Veronica Arbon is an Arabana woman of the west Lake Eyre region of central South Australia. Previously the Director of Batchelor Institute, an Indigenous university in the Northern Territory, she is currently Professor and Chair in Indigenous Knowledge Systems at Deakin University.

"She has succeeded in delineating and elaborating on the dialectics of colonizer-colonized interaction in the tertiary education arena in a way that expands our understanding and opens up many new questions and avenues for inquiry and praxis." -- Ray Barnhardt, University of Alaska Fairbanks

"This book turns western epistemology on its head... It shows how colonialism is 're-born' in externally defined accountability structures, standards, and funding limitations. This is the impasse found when 'experts' speak for Aboriginal peoples." -- Manulani Aluli Meyer, University of Hawaii.

"This is indeed a magnificent book that lifts the nexus between Indigenous and western knowledge systems beyond mere comparison to a new high that forensically examines both through mutually stalwart lenses." -- Mark J Rose, Victorian Aboriginal Education Association Inc.

"She has good knowledge and shows deep understanding of our knowledge and culture and shows appropriateness whenever it is right to do so in context to whatever is being discussed." -- Syd Strangways

Proudly published by Post Pressed

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Contents

• Acknowledgements
• For Readers of this Book
• Arabana Language -- Wangka Arabana

  Chapter 1: My Story Wangka Anthuna

  A broad sweep of the issues

  Circles and Tracks -- Yalka as Metaphor

  Key Questions

  Chapter 2: They Call Us Arabana Kariru arinha Arbana pidlharnda

  Arabana Ularaka -- Ontologies

  To be as Arabana

  Being is Embodied

  Being is Reciprocal

  Being is Related

  Essence, Identity and Consciousness

  To Know as Arabana

  Knowing is Experienced

  Knowing is Organised

  Knowing is Controlled

  Knowing Exists, Is Located and Has Presence

  To Do as Arabana

  Doing is Engaged

  Doing is Interpretive

  Doing is Understanding

  Dialogued, Mentored and Responsible

  Chapter 3: Indigenous Tertiary Education

  Engagement for Survival

  Indigenous Tertiary Education -- A Broad Crisis

  Access to the Mainstream

  Supported Learning

  Curriculum Additions

  Aboriginal Tertiary Education in the Northern Territory

  Aboriginal Teacher Education Centre

  Batchelor College Emerges from ATEC

  Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education

  Chapter 4: Batchelor Institute and Colonialism

  Batchelor Institute

  Growing Strength in an Indigenous Knowledge Focus

  Colonialism Reborn

  Chapter 5: Know From Where? Ngurka Intyara-rnda

  How is Knowledge Constructed in the Western Tradition?

  Western philosophies

  Agency unto themselves

  Distinction with Indigenous Knowledge

  Phenomenology and Hermeneutics: Possibilities Perhaps

  Indigenous Approaches to Knowledge Creation

  Chapter 6: Doing Research

  Research Histories

  Indigenous Challenges to Research in Australia

  Broader Issues Within Indigenous Research

  Insider and Outsider Issues

  Essentialism and Authenticity

  Written and Oral Knowledge

  Ethics and the 'Proper Way'

  Indigenous Knowledge, Metaphor and 'Proper' Doing

  Doing in Research

  Chapter 7: Curriculum Yanhi-rnda arratya

  Curriculum

  Curriculum Struggles at Batchelor

  English Literacy and Numeracy

  Vocational Education and Training

  Indigenous Knowledge Within the Curriculum

  Indigenous Standards

  Institute Staff and Staff Development

  Resistance

  Chapter 8: Employment Yanhi-rnda arratya

  Indigenous Employment

  Indigenous Employment at the Institute

  English Literacy and Work

  Merit and Employment

  Indigenous Knowledge and Employment

  Institute Staff and Staff Development

  Resistance

  Chapter 9: Insights and Understandings

  Understanding Resistance to Indigenous Knowledge

  Decolonisation of the Academy

  Embodiment Requires Us at the Core

  Experience Brings Knowing

  Engagement is Responsibility

  Indigenous Pedagogy -- A Beginning

  Chapter 10: Conclusion Yalka yuka thikarnda

  Returning to the Key Research Questions

  Resistance Has Many Guises

  Decolonising Consciousness and Counter-Hegemony

  Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Specificity

  Authority, Employment and Curriculum

  My Journey

• Bibliography
• Index

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