James Cook University Subject Handbook - 2021

IA5013 - Indigenous Australians

This subject includes an optional excursion onto country for internal students for which students will incur an additional cost.

Subject Description

This subject focuses on the continuity of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, knowledge and traditions across time and place. It explores Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' traditional understanding of their place in the world. Students will have opportunities to develop awareness of how traditional knowledge, forms of social organisation and cultural practices continue to shape contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge, cultural practices and priorities. This subject will provide introductory insights into the diverse and complex traditional knowledge and social systems, as the basis from which to understand the experience of colonisation and the contemporary priorities of Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people, in further Indigenous Studies subjects. The subject includes an optional excursion onto country for internal students for which students will incur an additional cost.

There are additional charges for this subject; please contact the Division of Tropical Environments & Societies for details.

Learning Outcomes

• critically analyse the continuity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge systems in response to the colonisation of Australia
• investigate the relationship between people and place for the production and organisation of shared knowledge, language, cultural practices and values in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities and evaluate its importance in relation to the mobility of contemporary Australian society
• evaluate examples of the continuing value of traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and theorise how this knowledge could be used in concert with technological innovations
• develop and apply dispositions, language and skills for productive discussions of complex knowledge intersections

Subject Assessment

• Participation > Class participation - (10%) - Individual
• Written > Essay (including multi-draft) 1 - (30%) - Individual
• Written > Case study analysis - (40%) - Individual
• Written > Self-reflection task - (20%) - Individual

Note that minor variations might occur due to the continuous subject quality improvement process, and in case of minor variation(s) in assessment details, the Subject Outline represents the latest official information.

Assumed Knowledge:  Academic skills are assumed at postgraduate level (reading, writing essays, applying information to real world situations)

Availabilities