Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-nptnm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-11T22:16:15.186Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Non-Indigenous Academic and Indigenous Autonomy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Geoffrey Partington
Geoffrey Partington*
Affiliation:
School of Education, The Flinders University of South Australia
Get access

Extract

One of the many fascinating problems raised in recent issues of the Australian Journal of Indigenous Education (AJIE) is that of Indigenous autonomy in education. Although opinions differed about the extent to which Indigenous people currently exercise educational autonomy in various situations, there was wide agreement that there ought to be Indigenous control or ‘ownership’ of all knowledge relating to Indigenous life and culture, past and present. Sister Anne Gardner, then Principal of Murrupurtyanuwu Catholic School in NT, explained (1996: 20) how she decided to ‘let go, to move away from the dominant role as Principal’, in order that Indigenous persons could take control. She had been helped to this conclusion by reading Paulo Freire, Martin Buber and Hedley Beare, and, within the NT itself, ‘people of that educational calibre, such as Beth Graham, Sr Teresa Ward, Fran Murray, Stephen Harris, all pleading with us to allow education to be owned by Aboriginal people’. Sr Gardner held that ‘Aboriginal people never act as “leader”, a view shared by her designated Indigenous successor, Teresita Puruntayemeri, then Principal-in-Training of Murrupurtyanuwu Catholic School, who wrote (1996: 24-25) that ‘for a Tiwi peron it is too difficult to stand alone in leadership’. One way to share the burdens of leadership is, she suggests, to ‘perform different dances in the Milmaka ring, sometimes in pairs or in a group’.

Type
Section A: Teaching and Learning
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , 2000 , pp. 15 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bradley, J., Devlin-Glass, F. and Mackinlay, E. (1999). ‘Diwurruwurru: Towards a new kind of two-way classroom’. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education 27(2): 24–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Budby, J. and Foley, D. (1998) ‘Where to now?’ Cultural liberation or continued subjugation'. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education 26(2): 28–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colman-Dimon, H. (2000). ‘Relationship with the school: Listening to the voices of a remote Aboriginal community’. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education 28(10): 34–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foley, D. (1996). ‘Perspectives on effective student support for Indigenous students in a tertiary institution’. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education 24(2): 53–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foley, D. (1998). ‘Review of Serpent Dust by Debra Adelaide’. The Australian Journal of lndigenous Education 27(1): 43–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foley, D. (2000). ‘Indigenous research, differing value systems’. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education 28(1): 17–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, , Anne, Sister (1996). ‘Aboriginal education–A reality in the 1990s’. The Australian Journal of lndigenous Education 24(2): 20–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Roux, J. (1997). ‘A culture of poverty with special reference to the Aboriginal community and the former South African dispensation. The Australian Journal oflndigenous Education 25(1): 42–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Roux, J. and Dunn, M.J. (1997). ‘Aboriginal empowerment through the Oorala Aboriginal Centre at the University of New England’. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education 25(2): 8–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackinlay, E. (1998). ‘Towards reconciliation: Teaching gender and music in the context of Indigenous Australian women's performance’. The Australian Journal of lndigenous Education 26(2): 18–277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Puruntayemeri, T. (1996). ‘Group leadership towards Aboriginalisation or localisation of Murrupurtiyanawu’. The Australian Journal of lndigenous Education 24(2): 24–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, A. (1997). ‘Indigenous research ethics: Policy, protocol and practice’. The Australian Journal oflndigenous Education 25(1): 23–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, R.G. (1996). ‘Towards a composite educational research methodology: Balancing the authority equation in Aboriginal education’. The Australian Journal oflndigenous Education 24(2): 33–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stewart, J. (1999). ’Empowerment of lndigenous Australians in mainstream education’. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education 27(2): 27–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar