Introduction to indigenous Australia module 2 PDF

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Introduction to Indigenous Australia lecture 2 module 2 notes and summary...

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Introduction to indigenous Australia module 2 Part A – indigenous cultural philosophy and relationality  

Acknowledging land is a formal process and a tradition Smoking ceremony is to cleans objects and people of bad spirits

Why do we make offerings to land and why do we have to be welcomed to it? - Is a formal protocol and ancient custom of respect - Seeking permission to access land and or territory - Respect for caretakers of that land = traditional custodians - Respect for land - We don’t own the land, the land own us – believed by the traditions owners Land as an indigenous cosmological philosophy  Land is the basis from which indigenous knowledge systems and culture is derived.  The balance between the physical and metaphysical realms  A non-human centric model for living reality and existence  Our experiences as humans are not divorced from the environment and or the spirit world around us. Why is this significant for non-indigenous people?  Acknowledging your positionality Positionality  Positionality – understanding your social positioning as visitors/outsiders or insider?  Positioning – as individuals also connected to your own lineages and acknowledge systems that share both a historical and contemporary relationship with indigenous people.  Respect, reciprocity and relationships.  Indigenous knowledge systems, protocols, and structure of governances might be invisible within the dominant society, but are still here. Lecture objectives: knowledge and philosophy - Understanding the concepts of the centre and periphery. - Power relations = what is seen as valid and true and what is seen as not. - Social control = social order = perceptions of reality and truth - Alternative systems of knowledge – 3 knowledge bands

Part B – indigenous relationality: indigenous knowing, being, doing Philosophy - Ontology (being): the nature of being existence or reality. - Epistemology (knowing): The nature of knowledge and the ways we know. - Axiology (Doing): values and ethics Indigenous ontology – worldview, stories and relatedness - Example, an objective or a thing is not as important as relationships

Quandamoompah worldview - Ancestral core: creator beings and ancestors from them originates  Life source  Stories  Lore (law) - Spirits: the elements (earth, water, fire, wind) - Entities: people, skies, land, waterways, animals, plants and climate Indigenous connectedness cosmology and spirituality - Indigenous spirituality encompasses the intersubstantiation (to give form or embody) of ancestral beings, humans and physiography. - The world is organic and populated by spirits which connect places and people. - Notions of time and space are too interconnected. - The spiritual world is immediately experienced because it is synonymous with the physiography of the land - The reality of spirituality is a physical fact because it is experienced as part of one’s life. Totemic systems of interconnectedness -

Personal totem – reminds us environment Clan totem – connected to others Spiritual totem – connection to spirit world and ancestors Connected to our environment and responsibility to protect it. To ensure that air and water are clean and that eco systems are strong vibrant and cared for.

What is indigenous epistemology -

A system of knowledge that is connected to land and environment Relational ways of knowing/knowledge How you come to know your world and your place within it Related to dreaming lore and kinship

Relational indigenous epistemology 1. Stories of law 2. Stories of relatedness 3. Identity sense of belonging 4. Lore and land (roles and responsibilities) What is indigenous axiology - Value, principles and ethics - Axiology: the things we come to value - The things we value influences and inform our actions and behaviours. Which are determined or rooted in our ethics and our values

Guest lecturer Positionality – everyone has it - It is a combination of  Who you are (the context that creates your identity)  What your lens is (how your identity influences your perception) You can become more aware of positionality, and learn more about yourself, others and the world around your Reflexivity -

Is the examination of one’s own beliefs, judgements and assumptions in the research process Is how we think (reflection is what we think) Opens up insight, but also can lead to challenges and dilemmas Is an ongoing process – with more reflexivity, it is possible to unpack yet more understanding, and so on

Class Imperialism - so imperialism is the policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and dominion of a nation especially by direct territorial acquisitions or by gaining indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas - policy by which string nations extend their political, military and economic control over weaker territories - a policy in which a strong nation seeks to dominate other countries politically, socially and economically Colonisation - going to another country and taking over it in hopes of making it better - the expansion of countries into other areas where they establish settlements, control the people, and use the resources. - The expansion of countries into other areas where they establish settlements, control the people, and use the resources. - - colony , a settlement ruled by another country Globalization - growing interdependence of the world's economies, cultures, and populations, brought about by cross-border trade in goods and services, technology, and flows of investment, people, and information. The increasing number of ties between different parts of the world, including economic, cultural, and political connections Post-colonial - Postcolonialism examines how societies, governments and peoples in the formerly colonised regions of the world experience international relations. -

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It is an intellectual discourse that holds together a set of philosophies, political sciences, literature, and films. These discourses are reaction to the cultural legacy of colonisation, one country sets up colonies in another culture – takes over, colonialism

Indigenous - Aboriginal custodians of the lands. - Having originated in a particular region or environment. Native belonging to a particular place by birth Decolonisation - Breaking free of a mother country and establishing independent economic and political systems. - It means revisiting and rewriting the past, and understanding colonisation as ‘unfinished business’ - When colonies become independent of the colonizing country...