Changing the narrative: Shoalhaven year 12 indigenous graduation ceremony 10 years on (original) (raw)
Related papers
Mythologising culture Part 1: Desiring Aboriginality in the suburbs
The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 2010
In western Sydney, I found an extreme version of what I propose is a national Aboriginal mythopoeia, that is, a powerful system of beliefs and practices in relation to Aboriginal people and culture. A reified Aboriginal culture is promoted at institutional sites and in reconciliation discourses that evokes the presence of something precious and mysterious that must be re-read into local Aboriginal people, but which assiduously avoids their actual circumstances and subjectivities. The awkward relationships and avoidances evident in a western Sydney reconciliation group are posited as a benign example of this mythology, born of a 'sentimental politics' of regret and reparation at work in Australia. Unity between the state and civil society is evident here, thus requiring an analysis that goes beyond a critique of government policies and programmes as intentional and rational, and grasps the nature of the widespread desire for Aboriginality. Through ethnographic attention to the actual relationships of Indigenous people and others, anthropologists can avoid being complicit in this regressive, separatist construction.
2011
This paper discusses the findings of a three-year study that examined the role and significance of Australian Indigenous cultural festivals on community and youth wellbeing. The study found that Indigenous organisations and communities, funded by government and philanthropic agencies, are increasingly using festivals as vehicles to strengthen social connections, intergenerational knowledge transmission and wellbeing (Phipps & Slater 2010). However, at both a state and national level, Indigenous affairs routinely continue to assert social norms based upon non- Indigenous national ideals of experience and wellbeing. On the basis of the empirical findings, it becomes clear that there is a need to promote and support public spaces, such as Indigenous cultural festivals, that foster culturally appropriate, localised and stable Indigenous control, voices and values. This paper focuses on two distinctly different festivals, both with the express aim of celebrating Indigenous culture: Croc ...
2011
This paper discusses the findings of a three-year study that examined the impact of Australian Indigenous cultural festivals on community and youth wellbeing. The study found that Indigenous organisations and communities, funded by government and philanthropic agencies, are increasingly using festivals as vehicles to strengthen social connections, intergenerational knowledge transmission and wellbeing (Phipps & Slater 2010). However, at both a state and national level Indigenous affairs routinely continues to assert social norms based upon non-Indigenous national ideals of experience and wellbeing. On the basis of our empirical findings, it becomes clear that there is a need to promote and support public spaces, such as Indigenous cultural festivals, that foster culturally appropriate, localised and stable Indigenous control and 'authorship'. The paper focuses on two distinctly different festivals, both with the express aim of celebrating Indigenous culture: Croc Fest and th...
Mapping local and regional governance: reimagining the New South Wales Aboriginal sector
Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal
With reference to four case study localities in New South Wales, this paper offers new insights into calls from Indigenous Australians for recognition within the national political discourse. Examining the literature on the history of the Aboriginal sector that emerged following the 1970s self-determination policy era, this paper argues earlier conceptions of the ‘Aboriginal sector’ are insufficient and do not grasp the wider shift that Aboriginal people seek within the political life of the nation. Instead, the four case studies reveal Aboriginal initiative and interest in creating a sense of association and being, drawing on pre-colonial patterns of identification and shaped by new imaginings of ‘nations’ and ‘political communities’.
Negotiating belonging in Australia through storytelling and encounter
Identities: Global Studies in Power and Culture, 2014
From 2010-2012 a diverse group of young people participated in an oral history theatre project, Chronicles, which aimed to support them to claim a personally meaningful Australian identity. Oral history theatre was used to facilitate a process whereby the young people were able to reconnect with their personal family histories, encounter Aboriginal young people and stories, and together interview Aboriginal Elders. Through this process, they could develop new understandings of their own social identities, and meanings of and possibilities for belonging. 'Centreing diverse lives, decentering whiteness' and 'a different starting point: Aboriginal ways of knowing', were the two key outcomes that we report on. Bringing people from diverse cultural and social backgrounds together to share stories of history, culture and identity, offers a unique vantage point from which to rupture dominant narratives about belonging/non-belonging and show up whiteness, and together forge a new Australian identity reflective of everyday multiculturalism.
Asia Pacific Journal of Arts and Cultural Management, 2011
This paper discusses the findings of a three-year study that examined the role and significance of Australian Indigenous cultural festivals on community and youth wellbeing. The study found that Indigenous organisations and communities, funded by government and philanthropic agencies, are increasingly using festivals as vehicles to strengthen social connections, intergenerational knowledge transmission and wellbeing . However, at both a state and national level, Indigenous affairs routinely continue to assert social norms based upon non-Indigenous national ideals of experience and wellbeing. On the basis of the empirical findings, it becomes clear that there is a need to promote and support public spaces, such as Indigenous cultural festivals, that foster culturally appropriate, localised and stable Indigenous control, voices and values. This paper focuses on two distinctly different festivals, both with the express aim of celebrating Indigenous culture: Croc Fest and the Dreaming Festival.