Published: 2010
ISBN: 978-1-921214-71-4
Pages: 230
Imprint: Post Pressed
Dr. Payi Linda Ford is a senior Rak Mak Mak Marranunggu woman whose country is Kurrindju in the Finniss River and Reynold River regions of the Northern Territory. Educated in an Aboriginal cultural context of Traditional knowledge and practices growing up with her Traditional mother, uncles, aunts, grandparents and extended family, she was authorised to use Rak Mak Mak Marranunggu epistomology and ontology by her Ah-la Ngulilkang Nancy Daiyi in her Doctoral studies at Deakin University and Charles Darwin University. Payi is currently Senior Lecturer with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Unit at the University of Queensland and a Board member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). As a mother, academic, researcher, educator and practitioner of Indigenous traditions, Payi Linda Ford possesses a unique experience that she now shares with those who wish to enhance their understanding of the Indigenous cross-cultural environment.
The thesis on which this book is based is a culmination of my research which drew on tyangi wedi tjan Rak Mak Mak Marranunggu and Marrithiel knowledge systems. These awa mirr spiritual knowledge systems have guided our Pilu for millennium and have powerful spiritual affi liation to the land and our continued presences. The understandings of the spiritual connectedness and our practices of relatedness have drawn on Pulitj, our deep awa mirr spiritual philosophy that nourishes us on our country. This philosophy gave us our voice and our presence to act in our own ways of knowing and being on the landscapes created by the Western bureaucratic systems of higher education in Australia to bring forth our Tyikim knowledge systems to serve our own educational interests.
From this spiritual ‘Puliyana kunun’ philosophical position the book examines colonising constructions of Tyikim peoples, Tyikim knowledge systems in education, Tyikim research and access to higher education for Tyikim students. From the research, it is argued that the paradigm, within which the enclave-derived approach to Indigenous higher education is located, is compatible with the normalising imperialistic ideology of higher education. The analysis of the Mirrwana/Wurrkama participatory action research project, central to the research, supported an argument for the Mirrwana/Wurrkama model of Indigenous higher education. Further analysis identifi ed fi ve key pedagogical principles embedded within this new model as metaphorically equivalent to wilan~bu of the pelangu. The book identifi es the elements of the spirituality of the narrative exposed in the research-in-action through the “Marri kubin mi thit wa!”. This is a new paradigm for Tyikim participation in higher education within which the Mirrwana/Wurrkama model is located. Finally, the book identifi es the scope for Tyikim knowledge use in the construction of contemporary ‘bureaucratic and institutionalised’ higher education ngun nimbil thit thit teaching and learning experiences of Tyikim for the advancement of Tyikim interests. Here the tyangi yigin tjan spiritual concepts of narrative and landscape are drawn upon both awa mirr metaphorically and in marri kubin mi thit wa Tyikim pedagogical practice.
Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction to the Study. Ma!
Chapter 2 Positioning the Researcher in the Study
Chapter 3 Positioning the Study
Chapter 4 Research Methodology
Chapter 5 Case Study: Wurrkama - getting to the sweet bread in Mirrwana
Chapter 6: Analysis on the Case Urra ngung ngi~ing yangi marri! “Give me your story!”
Chapter 7: Narratives and Landscapes in Indigenous Higher Education Kar-na Marri gu nidin kan!
Chapter 8: Conclusion to the Study Marri gu Waki tjan!
References
Appendix 1 Ethics Application: Plain Language Statement for Student Teacher Participants
Index
Table of Figures
Figure 1: The Action Research ‘Moments’ and Spiral
Figure 2: Mapping the Changes in Indigenous Education at NTU/CDU
Figure 3: The Mirrwana/Wurrkama Model of Indigenous Higher Education applied to one Unit of study in a Pre-service Teacher Education Degree Course at CDU
Figure 4: An Expanded Mirrwana/Wurrkama Model of Pre-service Indigenous Teacher Education
Figure 5: Addressing Indigenous Knowledge through Pedagogical Principles acting Holistically in Higher Education
Payi Linda Ford has written a groundbreaking book.
The book draws on the knowledge systems within which Payi grew up guided by her Elders; the tyangi wedi tjan Rak Mak Mak Marranunggu and Marrithiel knowledge systems. It was from within these same Aboriginal knowledge systems that Payi identified deep metaphors that her people, her Tyikim, had used to guide their understandings of spiritual connectedness and practices of relatedness that nourishes them on their country. In this book Payi has turned these metaphors to give voice for Indigenous action in ways of knowing and being on the contemporary landscapes created by the Western systems of higher education in Australia.
This book is a timely contribution to the debates over the place of Indigenous knowledges within universities in Australia and elsewhere in the world. It is particularly timely for Australian universities given that in this book Payi argues that it is time to move beyond the enclave-derived paradigm, now over thirty years old, for providing access to higher education for Aboriginal Australians. This paradigm provides, at best, limited respect for the knowledge and cultural positioning of Aboriginal adult students. Payi argues that universities are still trapped within colonising constructions of Indigenous peoples and their knowledge systems in education, research and access to higher education for Indigenous students.
Payi provides a description and analysis of a participatory action research project, centred in academic context of the Northern Territory University and on the Aboriginal countries of the hinterland of Darwin. From this project Payi presents, with the full support of her Elders, an argument for the Mirrwana/ Wurrkama model of Indigenous higher education. Through this model Payi shows how Aboriginal peoples can bring forth their own knowledge systems to serve their own educational interests. Recommended reading for those in universities and elsewhere seeking an avenue into a more powerful paradigm of Indigenous higher education.
Dr John Henry, Geelong, Victoria, Australia