Indigenous Bodies (Aboriginal Australians‪)‬

From 2005 to 2007 we had the enriching, yet demanding, experience of teaching Indigenous Australian studies together at the Koori Centre, University of Sydney. We each taught a number of different units of study including a large survey course, Introduction to Indigenous Australia, to local and international students. In the last few years of the Howard government it was no easy task to convey to young non-Indigenous Australian students the particular history and experience of Indigenous Australians. Most had grown up in a conservative culture which marginalised Indigenous people and silenced Indigenous political voices, and so had little experience in engaging with Indigenous history or the continuing legacy of Australia's colonial past. While the majority of our students were open-minded and possessed a genuine willingness to learn, they were also keenly attuned to any seemingly excessive pro-Indigenous bias on our part. Any readings deemed too political or theoretical, were assumed to lack practicality and treated with scepticism--'A treaty? Australians would never accept that!' Thus we faced the at times stomach-churning and teeth-gritting task of having to objectively and dispassionately explore the motives and implications of the Howard government's dilution of native title rights, dismantling of the peak Indigenous representative body, and intervention into the lives of Aboriginal Northern Territorians. We also taught Indigenous students, whose frustration with the conservative status quo was often entangled with their visceral identification with the injustices and tragedies of the past, posing challenges of a different kind. Here we had to encourage students to collectively move beyond the personal and anecdotal, and engage with theoretical and scholarly examinations of Indigenous Australian history and culture.