Indigenous History

The approach to history within the Wollotuka School of Aboriginal Studies moves well beyond the confines of what happened and when to how it happened and why. History is not just examined through the Western lens but grounds Indigenous practice and method at the centre of historical understanding and practice. The aim is to introduce the student to the complexities of Australian Aboriginal history. Importantly, this acknowledges that this a shared history, made up of diverse and interwoven experiences and stories. It will allow the students to develop tools and methodologies for thinking about and understanding Indigenous perspectives and frameworks of historical practice, to encourage shared and collaborative approaches to cross-cultural historical research. In focusing upon the many different and contested stories that make up our understanding of the Aboriginal past, we will be sampling a variety of the different ways historians Indigenous/non-Indigenous may approach such stories, and the impact of these in the present.