Decolonising Gender: Stories by, About and with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women

Authors

  • Sandra Rennie The University of Queensland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1017/jie.2017.8

Keywords:

Decolonising, gender, stories, Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, women

Abstract

‘What is my story? Like you, I have many’, wrote feminist academic Sara Ahmed (Ahmed, 2010, p. 1). She asks, what is yours, what is mine? and begins her story at a table. ‘Around the table a family gathers’, she says, ‘Always we are seated in the same place. . .as if we are trying to secure more than our place’ (Ahmed, 2010, p. 1). In this paper, I draw upon Ahmed's work on willfulness and diversity work in higher education to explore the gendered stories of pathways through university shared with me by Indigenous Australian students. In the stories told in this paper, the table becomes the university space and the family becomes the students. The stories become more than securing place; they are stories which talk of willful resilience, resistance and persistence within that place called higher education. Grounded in my doctoral work with seven female Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, this paper specifically focuses on the gendered nature of such willfulness to consider the ways in which Indigenous Australian students negotiate pathways and success through university within/against Western colonial and patriarchal institutions.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

AhmedS. (2009). Embodying diversity: problems and paradoxes for Black feminists. Race Ethnicity and Education Online, 12(1), 41–52.

AhmedS. (2010). Feminist killjoys (and other willful subjects). Scholar and Feminist Online, 8(3), 1–11

AhmedS. (2012). On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life. Durham: Duke University Press.

AhmedS. (2014). Willful subjects. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

ChilisaB. (2012). Indigenous research methodologies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Department of Education, Training and Employment. (2011). Yarning circles. Brisbane, QLD: Author. Retrieved from https://harlaxtonss.eq.edu.au/Supportandresources/Formsanddocuments/Documents/yarning-circles.pdf.

KinaneS., WilksJ., WilsonK., HughesT., & ThomasS. (2014). Can't be what you can't see: The transition of aboriginal and torres strait Islander students into higher education. Final Report. Australian Government. Office for Learning and Teaching, Department of Education. Sydney, NSW.

KovachM. (2009). Indigenous methodologies: Characteristics, conversations, and contexts. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.

LeavyP. (2007). The practice of feminist oral history and focus group interview. In S. Hesse-Biber & P. Leavy (Eds.), Feminist research practice (pp. 149–186). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

MartinK. (2003). Ways of knowing, ways of being and ways of doing: A theoretical framework and methods for indigenous re-search and Indigenist research. Voicing Dissent, New Talents 21C: Next Generation Australian Studies Journal of Australian Studies, 76, 203–214.

MartinK. (2008). Please knock before you enter: Aboriginal regulation of outsiders and the implications for researchers. Teneriffe, Qld: Post Pressed.

MartinK. (2009, September). Thinkin’ you know...getting’ it wrong...and us missin’ out – Aboriginal worldview and knowledge, English literacy – great expectations or grating obsessions? Paper presented at the National curriculum perspective conference...What a Difference a Good Start Makes. Melbourne, Victoria.

MartinK. (2014). The more things change, the more they stay the same: Creativity as the next colonial turn. In A. Reid, P. Hart, & M. Peters (Eds.), A companion to research in education (pp. 293–296). Heidelberg: Spinger Dordrecht.

Mitchell-WhittingtonA. (2016). UQ bake sale ends in online rape, death threats. brisbanetimes.com.au Queensland. Retrieved April 6, 2016 from http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/uq-bake-sale-ends-in-online-rape-death-threats-20160406-go02pm.htm

SiumA., & RitskesE. (2013). Speaking truth to power: Indigenous storytelling as an act of living resistance. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 2(1), i–x.

SmithL.T. (2012). Decolonizing methodologies: research and indigenous peoples (2nd ed.). London: Zed Books Supporting learning resource. Brisbane, QLD: Queensland Government. Retrieved from https:harlaxtonss.ed.edu.au/Supportresources/Formsanddocuments/Documens/yarning-circles.pdd

WhiteduckM. (2013). ‘But it's our story. Read it’: Stories my grandfather told me and writing for continuance. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 2(1), 72– 92.

Downloads

Published

2017-06-15

How to Cite

Rennie, S. (2017). Decolonising Gender: Stories by, About and with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 47(2), 83–91. https://doi.org/10.1017/jie.2017.8

Issue

Section

Articles