Who we are and what we do is all tangled up in our identity. This subject considers how identities are constructed and maintained through mediated processes of self and other. The subject investigates the myriad demands and devices that figure in constructing our senses of self and other (including language, leisure, beliefs and embodied practices). By exploring identity in diverse contexts, across time and place, the subject maps varying conceptions of self and other and how these conceptions are constructed and maintained. A key focus is on how these mediated conceptions of self and other are translated into material practices of inclusion, exclusion, discrimination, violence and criminalisation.

Language plays a central role in the central disciplinary areas in the humanities and social sciences. This subject gives students tools for thinking about language in a range of disciplines, including linguistics, history, sociology, politics, literary studies, anthropology, language studies, psychology and psychoanalytic theory. It shows how language can be analysed as a system, but also how language features centrally in politcal and social contexts: for example, in the processing of the claims of asylum seekers, in developing views of ethnicity, race and nation, and in colonialism; and in the construction of gendered and sexual identity. The role of language in the psyche, and the process of acquisition of languages in children and in adults, are also important topics. Knowing how to think about language, and familiarity with the main thinkers who have discussed language in a range of humanities and social science disciplines, provide an indispensable basis for study in any area of the Arts degree.

The idea of power is a way to grasp the character of social relations. Investigating power can tell us about who is in control and who may benefit from such arrangements. Power can be a zero-sum game of domination. It can also be about people acting together to enact freedom. This subject examines the diverse and subtle ways power may be exercised. It considers how power operates in different domains such as markets, political systems and other social contexts. It also examines how power may be moderated by such things as regulation and human rights. A key aim is to explore how differing perspectives portray power relations and how issues of power distribution may be characterised and addressed.

Reason, many believe, is what makes us human. Until recently, most scientists and philosophers agreed that the ability to use the mind to analyse and interpret the world is something intrinsic to the nature of our species. Reason has a long and extraordinary history. We will explore a number of inter-related themes: the nature of reason from Ancient Greece to our contemporary world; the ever shifting relationship between reason and faith; reason's place in the development of scientific experimentation and thinking; shifting perspectives about the uses of Reason and, finally, how reason relates to theories of the mind, exploring the tensions between reason, the passions and the will.

Reason will take you on a journey from Plato's cave to the neuro-scientists' lab. We will visit revolutions in science, thinking and politics. We will explore the impact of some of the great philosophers of history, including Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Bentham, Coleridge, Marx, Nietzsche, Foucault and many more besides. By the end of this subject you will have a deep understanding of the importance of the idea of reason to human history and philosophy. You might, even, be able to answer the question: 'does reason exist?'

Reason is an Arts Foundation Subject and we will argue that understanding the history and philosophy of reason provides great insights into many aspects of the humanities from political philosophy to understanding history. We will, of course, be paying particular attention to the foundational skills that will help you successfully complete your Arts major: particularly critical thinking and argument development.

This subject will provide students with an introduction to the complexity, challenges and richness of Australian Indigenous life and cultures. Drawing on a wide range of diverse and dynamic guest lecturers, this subject gives students an opportunity to encounter Australian Indigenous knowledges, histories and experiences through interdisciplinary perspectives. Across three thematic blocks - Indigenous Knowledges, Social and Political Contexts and Representation/Self-Representation - this subject engages contemporary cultural and intellectual debate. Social and political contexts will be considered through engagement with specific issues and a focus on Indigenous cultural forms, which may include literature, music, fine arts, museum exhibitions and performance, will allow students to consider self-representation as a means by which to disrupt and expand perceptions of Aboriginality.

Humans grapple with representations of themselves and their contexts. They also like to imagine other possible worlds. We use words, language, images, sounds and movement to construct narratives and stories, large and small, about the trivial and the profound, the past and the future. These representations can help us to understand worlds but they can also create worlds for us. This subject explores how different genres such as speech, writing, translation, film, theatre and art generate representations of social life, imagination and the human condition. A key aim of the subject is to develop a critical appreciation of how language, images and embodied gestures are used to construct empowering and disempowering discourses.

This subject introduces socio-political, economic and cultural drivers, constraints and opportunities challenging Indigenous identity in Australia today. Students will gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be Indigenous from urban, on Country and Australian nation imaginings. They will be exposed to a widening array of first peoples’ narratives and artforms, reflecting deep time values through to the brutal historical actualities of being Indigenous in the face of colonisation.

This subject expands and develops a deeper understanding of the wider complexities of land tenure across Australia, and the impact of a foreign values system leading to colonisation, arming students with an ability to academically engage, debate and express the underpinning drivers of politically motivated treaties, native titles and legislation as they affect Indigenous peoples both internationally domestically and on Country. This subject is a key offering that bridges this need and will produce far better-informed students who will be better prepared to articulate Native Title issues in future academic endeavours or professional careers.

Internationally, Indigenous Environmental Heritage is one of the fastest developing subjects. Its popularity is in part driven by a new generation who are caught in a world of increasing climate instability. From government policy to local conservation managers, Indigenous ways of engaging with their environments is in demand. Our students will gain academic understanding of the deeply rooted traditions of knowledge, including Indigenous science, still maintained by Indigenous peoples worldwide, with particular focus on the Australian situation. It will examine current responses and how they might contribute to potential short, medium, long term threats and opportunities from Indigenous Environmental Heritage perspectives.

Aboriginal Women and Coloniality is a multidisciplinary subject looking at the various roles Aboriginal women have played in Aboriginal and Settler society. It examines stereotypical representations of Aboriginal women in colonial art and culture, the depiction of Aboriginal women in literature, cinema and fine arts, the role Aboriginal women have played in the economy as workers, as well as their roles as nurturers and carers, activists and community leaders. Theories and approaches from gender and post-colonial studies and new historicism will be utilised to provide the intellectual framework for this subject. The subject will conclude with consideration of the critique that female Aboriginal artists and writers have made of these representations, and the forms of self-representation produced in their work.

This subject aims to enhance student's racial literacy with a focus on representations of Indigeneity and whiteness in Australia. The term, "racial literacy", devised to describe anti-racist practices, entails students becoming literate in critically reading and understanding multiple modes of race representation. The inter-disciplinary approach enables students to analyse the relationships among texts, images, language and social practices, drawing on Australian literature, media, film and the visual arts. In this way, the subject equips students to become multi-literate in critiquing race constructions of identity formation and nation building through the creative and communicative arts. The subject introduces students to critical theoretical frameworks incorporating postcolonial, race and whiteness studies. It will engage with questions of voice, position, power, agency, capital and social justice issues to explore how representations of Indigeneity and whiteness operate with regard to the intersections of race, gender and class relations in an Australian context (with links and comparisons also made to examples of race representation in a global context).

Embracing the tremendous diversity and strength of Indigenous arts practices with a focus on the south-east of Australia, this fully online subject gives a broad and holistic view of the roles played by First Nations artists and their contribution to the political landscape of Australia. Utilising Indigenous ways of mapping learning, students will chart their independent journeys through reflection on positionality and structural privilege by engaging with historical and contemporary impacts of colonisation in a non-linear digital inquiry-based approach over six modules. Students will reflect on their learning about First Nations perspectives, knowledges and artistic and cultural practices and the role of cultural reclamation for self-actualisation and resilience.

This subject develops an appreciation of the role of language in Aboriginal Australia, traditionally and today. On completion of the subject, students should have a general knowledge of the linguistic features which characterise Australian Aboriginal languages, including characteristics of grammar and pronunciation, and understand the ways in which social factors affect language structure and use in Aboriginal Australia.

The subject studies Australian indigenous politics in the comparative context of settler societies. First, it explores their historical dispossession and exclusion that left Indigenous people as citizens without rights, and economically and socially marginalized in their own country. Second, it evaluates the ongoing processes of recognition and inclusion, including anti-discrimination measures, land rights, state and federal policy measures, social policy and Indigenous initiatives that have marked the uneven path to reconciliation and recognition of the full rights and entitlements of Indigenous people, including special group rights and compensation.

This subject studies Aboriginal dance, theatre and popular music, cultural and sporting festivals; governmental arts funding agencies; and Aboriginal arts organisations. It focuses on theoretical and political issues which arise from Aboriginal culture being both a commodity and a vehicle of Indigenous identity and resistance. It uncovers the diverse and transitional nature of contemporary Aboriginal cultural production and the social and political contexts which frame the creation and use of contemporary Aboriginal cultural production. Students undertaking this subject should develop an understanding of the politics of consumption and appreciation of Aboriginal cultural productions as well as the politics of content.

This intensive subject will explore what it means to be on country in Parkville, Melbourne. Students will be introduced to the values of the Wurundjeri people through local on-country experiences and be co-hosted in Bunjilaka, Museum Victoria over a week-long period with access to academics, curators, artists and Indigenous knowledge experts. The subject provides an opportunity for students to experience, better understand and academically engage with the knowledge systems and boundaries as exclusively maintained by a local Indigenous community. Students will also learn about the responsibilities maintained by host Indigenous communities in relation to other kin group’s material culture resting on their Country. Further outcomes will include identification of inherent requirements of reciprocity across generations, not least concerning the dead.

The capstone subject will allow students to draw together the knowledge and learning experiences they have had in the Indigenous Studies Major. Students will also have the opportunity to reflect on the deeper implications of this knowledge and apply multidisciplinary research perspectives to a project of their own choosing. Many lectures will be delivered by eminent Aboriginal and Settler practitioners in such fields as education, the public sector, health, law, the media, arts and culture. Students will have the opportunity to engage in dialogue with these practitioners and demonstrate an informed awareness of relevant policy developments in these areas and knowledge of cultural sensitivities. This subject is the practical fruition of the interdisciplinary perspectives that make up the Indigenous Studies major and connects those perspectives to the social world. Students will have the opportunity to explore the intersection between those disciplinary perspectives and cognate ideas in various fields of practice. Students will also have the chance to experience the spectrum of vocational possibilities in Australian Indigenous affairs, and finally, to develop and communicate a mature and broad intellectual perspective on Australian Indigenous affairs.

Starting with the acrylics of the Western Desert (Papunya) and ending with the most recent developments in new media, the field of contemporary Aboriginal art will be surveyed. Issues such as copyright and appropriation, the art market, women’s art practice, curating and collection policy are debated in this subject and key works in painting, sculpture, printmaking, and photography are studied and discussed. By the end of semester students should have a familiarity with the main issues concerning the interpretation of Aboriginal art in Australia and have a broad knowledge of the pictorial practices of prominent contemporary Aboriginal artists. Guest lectures by artists, academics and industry professionals, as well as visits to art galleries and museums, are a feature of this subject.

This subject studies Aboriginal fiction, poetry and drama, as well as life stories and criticism, focusing on questions of reading positions (particularly for non-Aboriginal students) and representation. It pays particular attention to the diversity of Aboriginal writing in terms of form, content, voice and place and examines the manner in which the reception of Aboriginal texts has been conditioned by political and economic factors. On completion of this subject students should understand the problematics of Aboriginal writing in the context of postcolonial Australia, and its relation to everyday life.

Fire is one of the most important controls over the distribution of vegetation on Earth. This subject examines the role of fire in natural systems, with a particular emphasis on the importance of fire in determining global vegetation patterns and dynamics over long periods of time. The aim is to understand how terrestrial systems have evolved to cope with and exploit fire, and to place the extreme flammability Australia's vegetation within a global context. The subject will examine concepts such as resilience, positive feedback loops, hysteresis and alternative stable states. The use of fire by humans to manipulate environments will be examined, with a particular emphasis on the variety of approaches employed by people across a diversity of environments over long periods of time, allowing an exploration of the social and cultural dynamics of fire and environmental management. A field excursion in Tasmania will visit a number of sites which will exemplify the subject themes. The practical exercises leading up to the field trip will focus on how to gather fire-related ecological data. The practical exercises following the field trip will be devoted to processing, analysing, interpreting and reporting on the field data. At the end of the subject, students will have gained an understanding of the way in which fire has shaped natural systems, as well as acquiring the skills necessary to formulate and test hypotheses.

More information about the subject and field trip can be seen at: http://michaelsresearch.wordpress.com/GEOG30025/

The estimated additional cost of the 7 day field trip to Cradle Mountain, Tasmania, is in the vicinity of $750.

Note this subject may be taken as the Capstone subject in the Geography major of the BA and BSc. All students, whether they are capstone students or not, will be required to complete online introductory materials that are common across all field classes.

This subject examines the history of Indigenous peoples’ resistance to colonialism in Australia, the Pacific and the Americas. In addition to covering the key protests of the last one hundred years, we see activism as more than just a twentieth-century phenomenon and explore the diverse forms that it took across the last three centuries. What is activism? What is resistance? And how big or small do actions have to be to enter the historical record? From political protest to music, sport, art, environmental activism, imperial literacy, feminism, space, land, mobility, sovereignty, refusal and silence, this subject will broaden students’ understanding of the history of the many ways Indigenous peoples have negotiated with and shaped the ‘post’colonial world.

The subject examines the governance arrangements that have shaped the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples since settlement. Prior to, at the time of, and since Federation, Indigenous Australians have been uniquely affected by a range of public policy settings, approaches and frameworks. Part One of the subject introduces students to foundational concepts in public policy making and then critically examines different ‘epochs’ in Australian Indigenous Public Policy: elimination, assimilation, self-determination and intervention. Part Two will explore various policies across these periods that have shaped Indigenous Australians’ experiences of land, family, health, education, employment and justice in different ways. Across both parts, students will have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge about historical and contemporary political controversies, including: the Don Dale controversy, the refusal of The Uluru Statement from the Heart, the Closing the Gap framework and others. Students will be expected to use knowledge of particular cases to examine the social, political and institutional challenges that shape the landscape of contemporary Australian Indigenous Public Policy.

For millennia, the Indigenous peoples of Australia have understood and cared for their various environments and not only adapted to their surroundings but modified and managed them sustainably – living with the land rather than living off it. Increasingly, we are becoming aware that this frequently involved the application of sophisticated engineering principles and design.

In this subject, students will experience an on-country two-way learning exchange with the Gunditjmara community at the Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape at Lake Condah in south-west Victoria.

Students will explore specific examples of Indigenous design and engineering, including the aquaculture system developed over thousands of years by the Gunditjmara people in the Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape at Lake Condah in south-west Victoria. Assisted by elders from the Gunditjmara community, students will examine and gain an understanding of not only the technologies involved but also the physical and cultural context of the system, together with its underlying values.

Students will also explore the significance of Indigenous Cultural Heritage, protocols for working with Indigenous communities and will develop a proposal for a specific engineering design project identified with Gunditjmara community.

This subject will require two visits to Budj Bim, one visit in Week 3 (Saturday-Monday, inclusive) and another 4 day visit during the mid-semester break.

This subject provides an in depth study of the historic Indigenous political struggle for racial equality, land justice, heritage control, and for self determination, by focusing on the Yorta Yorta as a case study. It embraces a number of relevant Indigenous political and historic themes. These will focus on pre- and post-contact history, colonisation, government policies and administration, land/heritage management, and the Yorta Yorta politico-legal struggle for their inherent rights to land, heritage, water and self determination.

Who we are and what we do is all tangled up in our identity. This subject considers how identities are constructed and maintained through mediated processes of self and other. The subject investigates the myriad demands and devices that figure in constructing our senses of self and other (including language, leisure, beliefs and embodied practices). By exploring identity in diverse contexts, across time and place, the subject maps varying conceptions of self and other and how these conceptions are constructed and maintained. A key focus is on how these mediated conceptions of self and other are translated into material practices of inclusion, exclusion, discrimination, violence and criminalisation.

Language plays a central role in the central disciplinary areas in the humanities and social sciences. This subject gives students tools for thinking about language in a range of disciplines, including linguistics, history, sociology, politics, literary studies, anthropology, language studies, psychology and psychoanalytic theory. It shows how language can be analysed as a system, but also how language features centrally in politcal and social contexts: for example, in the processing of the claims of asylum seekers, in developing views of ethnicity, race and nation, and in colonialism; and in the construction of gendered and sexual identity. The role of language in the psyche, and the process of acquisition of languages in children and in adults, are also important topics. Knowing how to think about language, and familiarity with the main thinkers who have discussed language in a range of humanities and social science disciplines, provide an indispensable basis for study in any area of the Arts degree.

The idea of power is a way to grasp the character of social relations. Investigating power can tell us about who is in control and who may benefit from such arrangements. Power can be a zero-sum game of domination. It can also be about people acting together to enact freedom. This subject examines the diverse and subtle ways power may be exercised. It considers how power operates in different domains such as markets, political systems and other social contexts. It also examines how power may be moderated by such things as regulation and human rights. A key aim is to explore how differing perspectives portray power relations and how issues of power distribution may be characterised and addressed.

Reason, many believe, is what makes us human. Until recently, most scientists and philosophers agreed that the ability to use the mind to analyse and interpret the world is something intrinsic to the nature of our species. Reason has a long and extraordinary history. We will explore a number of inter-related themes: the nature of reason from Ancient Greece to our contemporary world; the ever shifting relationship between reason and faith; reason's place in the development of scientific experimentation and thinking; shifting perspectives about the uses of Reason and, finally, how reason relates to theories of the mind, exploring the tensions between reason, the passions and the will.

Reason will take you on a journey from Plato's cave to the neuro-scientists' lab. We will visit revolutions in science, thinking and politics. We will explore the impact of some of the great philosophers of history, including Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Bentham, Coleridge, Marx, Nietzsche, Foucault and many more besides. By the end of this subject you will have a deep understanding of the importance of the idea of reason to human history and philosophy. You might, even, be able to answer the question: 'does reason exist?'

Reason is an Arts Foundation Subject and we will argue that understanding the history and philosophy of reason provides great insights into many aspects of the humanities from political philosophy to understanding history. We will, of course, be paying particular attention to the foundational skills that will help you successfully complete your Arts major: particularly critical thinking and argument development.

This subject will provide students with an introduction to the complexity, challenges and richness of Australian Indigenous life and cultures. Drawing on a wide range of diverse and dynamic guest lecturers, this subject gives students an opportunity to encounter Australian Indigenous knowledges, histories and experiences through interdisciplinary perspectives. Across three thematic blocks - Indigenous Knowledges, Social and Political Contexts and Representation/Self-Representation - this subject engages contemporary cultural and intellectual debate. Social and political contexts will be considered through engagement with specific issues and a focus on Indigenous cultural forms, which may include literature, music, fine arts, museum exhibitions and performance, will allow students to consider self-representation as a means by which to disrupt and expand perceptions of Aboriginality.

Humans grapple with representations of themselves and their contexts. They also like to imagine other possible worlds. We use words, language, images, sounds and movement to construct narratives and stories, large and small, about the trivial and the profound, the past and the future. These representations can help us to understand worlds but they can also create worlds for us. This subject explores how different genres such as speech, writing, translation, film, theatre and art generate representations of social life, imagination and the human condition. A key aim of the subject is to develop a critical appreciation of how language, images and embodied gestures are used to construct empowering and disempowering discourses.

This subject introduces socio-political, economic and cultural drivers, constraints and opportunities challenging Indigenous identity in Australia today. Students will gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be Indigenous from urban, on Country and Australian nation imaginings. They will be exposed to a widening array of first peoples’ narratives and artforms, reflecting deep time values through to the brutal historical actualities of being Indigenous in the face of colonisation.

This subject expands and develops a deeper understanding of the wider complexities of land tenure across Australia, and the impact of a foreign values system leading to colonisation, arming students with an ability to academically engage, debate and express the underpinning drivers of politically motivated treaties, native titles and legislation as they affect Indigenous peoples both internationally domestically and on Country. This subject is a key offering that bridges this need and will produce far better-informed students who will be better prepared to articulate Native Title issues in future academic endeavours or professional careers.

Internationally, Indigenous Environmental Heritage is one of the fastest developing subjects. Its popularity is in part driven by a new generation who are caught in a world of increasing climate instability. From government policy to local conservation managers, Indigenous ways of engaging with their environments is in demand. Our students will gain academic understanding of the deeply rooted traditions of knowledge, including Indigenous science, still maintained by Indigenous peoples worldwide, with particular focus on the Australian situation. It will examine current responses and how they might contribute to potential short, medium, long term threats and opportunities from Indigenous Environmental Heritage perspectives.

This subject studies Aboriginal dance, theatre and popular music, cultural and sporting festivals; governmental arts funding agencies; and Aboriginal arts organisations. It focuses on theoretical and political issues which arise from Aboriginal culture being both a commodity and a vehicle of Indigenous identity and resistance. It uncovers the diverse and transitional nature of contemporary Aboriginal cultural production and the social and political contexts which frame the creation and use of contemporary Aboriginal cultural production. Students undertaking this subject should develop an understanding of the politics of consumption and appreciation of Aboriginal cultural productions as well as the politics of content.

This intensive subject will explore what it means to be on country in Parkville, Melbourne. Students will be introduced to the values of the Wurundjeri people through local on-country experiences and be co-hosted in Bunjilaka, Museum Victoria over a week-long period with access to academics, curators, artists and Indigenous knowledge experts. The subject provides an opportunity for students to experience, better understand and academically engage with the knowledge systems and boundaries as exclusively maintained by a local Indigenous community. Students will also learn about the responsibilities maintained by host Indigenous communities in relation to other kin group’s material culture resting on their Country. Further outcomes will include identification of inherent requirements of reciprocity across generations, not least concerning the dead.

Starting with the acrylics of the Western Desert (Papunya) and ending with the most recent developments in new media, the field of contemporary Aboriginal art will be surveyed. Issues such as copyright and appropriation, the art market, women’s art practice, curating and collection policy are debated in this subject and key works in painting, sculpture, printmaking, and photography are studied and discussed. By the end of semester students should have a familiarity with the main issues concerning the interpretation of Aboriginal art in Australia and have a broad knowledge of the pictorial practices of prominent contemporary Aboriginal artists. Guest lectures by artists, academics and industry professionals, as well as visits to art galleries and museums, are a feature of this subject.

This subject studies Aboriginal fiction, poetry and drama, as well as life stories and criticism, focusing on questions of reading positions (particularly for non-Aboriginal students) and representation. It pays particular attention to the diversity of Aboriginal writing in terms of form, content, voice and place and examines the manner in which the reception of Aboriginal texts has been conditioned by political and economic factors. On completion of this subject students should understand the problematics of Aboriginal writing in the context of postcolonial Australia, and its relation to everyday life.

Fire is one of the most important controls over the distribution of vegetation on Earth. This subject examines the role of fire in natural systems, with a particular emphasis on the importance of fire in determining global vegetation patterns and dynamics over long periods of time. The aim is to understand how terrestrial systems have evolved to cope with and exploit fire, and to place the extreme flammability Australia's vegetation within a global context. The subject will examine concepts such as resilience, positive feedback loops, hysteresis and alternative stable states. The use of fire by humans to manipulate environments will be examined, with a particular emphasis on the variety of approaches employed by people across a diversity of environments over long periods of time, allowing an exploration of the social and cultural dynamics of fire and environmental management. A field excursion in Tasmania will visit a number of sites which will exemplify the subject themes. The practical exercises leading up to the field trip will focus on how to gather fire-related ecological data. The practical exercises following the field trip will be devoted to processing, analysing, interpreting and reporting on the field data. At the end of the subject, students will have gained an understanding of the way in which fire has shaped natural systems, as well as acquiring the skills necessary to formulate and test hypotheses.

More information about the subject and field trip can be seen at: http://michaelsresearch.wordpress.com/GEOG30025/

The estimated additional cost of the 7 day field trip to Cradle Mountain, Tasmania, is in the vicinity of $750.

Note this subject may be taken as the Capstone subject in the Geography major of the BA and BSc. All students, whether they are capstone students or not, will be required to complete online introductory materials that are common across all field classes.

This subject examines the history of Indigenous peoples’ resistance to colonialism in Australia, the Pacific and the Americas. In addition to covering the key protests of the last one hundred years, we see activism as more than just a twentieth-century phenomenon and explore the diverse forms that it took across the last three centuries. What is activism? What is resistance? And how big or small do actions have to be to enter the historical record? From political protest to music, sport, art, environmental activism, imperial literacy, feminism, space, land, mobility, sovereignty, refusal and silence, this subject will broaden students’ understanding of the history of the many ways Indigenous peoples have negotiated with and shaped the ‘post’colonial world.

The subject examines the governance arrangements that have shaped the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples since settlement. Prior to, at the time of, and since Federation, Indigenous Australians have been uniquely affected by a range of public policy settings, approaches and frameworks. Part One of the subject introduces students to foundational concepts in public policy making and then critically examines different ‘epochs’ in Australian Indigenous Public Policy: elimination, assimilation, self-determination and intervention. Part Two will explore various policies across these periods that have shaped Indigenous Australians’ experiences of land, family, health, education, employment and justice in different ways. Across both parts, students will have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge about historical and contemporary political controversies, including: the Don Dale controversy, the refusal of The Uluru Statement from the Heart, the Closing the Gap framework and others. Students will be expected to use knowledge of particular cases to examine the social, political and institutional challenges that shape the landscape of contemporary Australian Indigenous Public Policy.

For millennia, the Indigenous peoples of Australia have understood and cared for their various environments and not only adapted to their surroundings but modified and managed them sustainably – living with the land rather than living off it. Increasingly, we are becoming aware that this frequently involved the application of sophisticated engineering principles and design.

In this subject, students will experience an on-country two-way learning exchange with the Gunditjmara community at the Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape at Lake Condah in south-west Victoria.

Students will explore specific examples of Indigenous design and engineering, including the aquaculture system developed over thousands of years by the Gunditjmara people in the Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape at Lake Condah in south-west Victoria. Assisted by elders from the Gunditjmara community, students will examine and gain an understanding of not only the technologies involved but also the physical and cultural context of the system, together with its underlying values.

Students will also explore the significance of Indigenous Cultural Heritage, protocols for working with Indigenous communities and will develop a proposal for a specific engineering design project identified with Gunditjmara community.

This subject will require two visits to Budj Bim, one visit in Week 3 (Saturday-Monday, inclusive) and another 4 day visit during the mid-semester break.

This subject provides an in depth study of the historic Indigenous political struggle for racial equality, land justice, heritage control, and for self determination, by focusing on the Yorta Yorta as a case study. It embraces a number of relevant Indigenous political and historic themes. These will focus on pre- and post-contact history, colonisation, government policies and administration, land/heritage management, and the Yorta Yorta politico-legal struggle for their inherent rights to land, heritage, water and self determination.