Handbook : Unit informationEdith Cowan University

School: Arts and Humanities

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

• Unit Title

  Aboriginal Histories of the Present

• Unit Code

  SWK2111

• Year

  2016

• Enrolment Period

  1

• Version

  1

• Credit Points

  15

• Full Year Unit

  N

• Mode of Delivery

  On Campus
  Online

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Description

The unit examines the experiences of Aboriginal peoples since invasion and colonisation, using the notion of whiteness to understand the way in which history is contested and discursive. The unit analyses the history of dispossession, resistance, adaptation and survival of Aboriginal people in Australia, tracking these experiences against a backdrop of historical events. The unit will examine the historical and contemporary nature of oppression and resistance as reflecting power inequities between groups.

Non Standard Timetable Requirements

Students undertaking this unit in the online mode are required to attend a 4-day Residential on the South West Campus (Bunbury) to pass the unit. The unit content is compacted into a shorter study period of seven weeks for the online students.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

1. Analyse the historical and contemporary nature and impact of colonisation, discrimination and oppression.
2. Describe and analyse whiteness as a construct which shapes the dominant ideas about Australia's social, economic, cultural and political history.
3. Develop a way of thinking about Australian contemporary society which is based on an understanding of historical events from Indigenous perspectives.
4. Examine and reflect on the self as a conscious personal and professional actor within the dynamic of ethnic interchanges.
5. Identify the significance of key events and milestones in Australia's history as they have been influenced, and interpreted, by Aboriginal people.

Unit Content

1. Contested histories.
2. Key events and milestones in Australian economic, social and political history.
3. Resistance as a response to colonisation.
4. Self as social change agent: opportunities to challenge oppression.
5. Welfare and human service structures and services as manifestations of a dominant white welfare discourse.
6. Whiteness as a conceptual framework.

Additional Learning Experience Information

Readings, lectures and tutorials, online lectures and learning activities, guest speakers, discussion groups, audiovisual resources, residential for off-campus students.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant Board of Examiners.

Text References

• ^ Choose one of the mandatory texts
• ^ Collard, D. (2003). Busted out laughing: Dot Collard's story. Broome, Australia: Magabala Books.
• ^ Chalarimeri, A. (2001). The man from the sunrise side. Broome, Australia: Magabala Books.
• ^ Lockyer, B. (2009). Last truck out. Broome, Australia: Magabala Books
• ^ McGee-Sippel, L. (2009). Hey Mum, What’s a Half-Caste?. Broome, Australia: Magabla Books.
• ^ Pryor, B. (2010). Maybe tomorrow / Boori (Monty) Pryor with Meme McDonald. Crows Nest, Australia: Allen & Unwin.
• Altman, J.C., & Sanders, W. (1995). From exclusion to dependence: Aborigines and the welfare state in Australia. In J.Dixon & R.Scheurell (Eds.), Social Welfare with Indigenous peoples. Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, ANU.
• Bolton, G. (2001). Resourceful humans. A view from the edge: An Australian stocktaking. In D. McDonald (Ed.). Highlights of the Boyer lectures, 1959-2000. (pp. 422-430) Sydney: ABC Books.
• Goehring, B. (1993). Indigenous peoples of the world: An introduction to their past, present, and future. Saskatoon: Purich Publishers.
• Macintryre, S. & Clark, A. (2003). The history wars. Carlton: Melbourne University Press.
• National Inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families (Australia). (1997). Bringing them home: Report of the National inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families. (Commissioner: Ronald Wilson). Sydney: Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
• Pearson, N. (2001). Mabo: Towards respecting equality and difference. In D. McDonald (Ed.). Highlights of the Boyer lectures, 1959-2000. (pp. 444-453) Sydney: ABC Books.
• Reynolds, H. (1990). The other side of the frontier: Aboriginal resistance to the European invasion of Australia. Ringwood, Vic: Penguin Books.
• Rothenberg, P. (2005). White privilege: Essential readings on the other side of racism. (2nd ed.). New York: Worth Publishers.
• Stanner, W.E.H. (2001). The great Australian silence. In D.McDonald (Ed.). Highlights of the Boyer lectures, 1959-2000. (pp. 112-123) Sydney: ABC Books.
• Trudgen, R. (2000). Why warriors lie down and die: Towards an understanding of why the Aboriginal people of Arnhem Land face the greatest crisis in health and education since European contact: Djambatj mala. Darwin: Aboriginal Resource and Development Services Inc.

^ Mandatory reference

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