AustLit

'Is it possible for Indigenous ways of knowing, which draw on earth song and storywork, to find a place within the academy? Indigenous peoples recognise that the earth has a song, which we can listen to as story. In return, we can sing our story to the world and of the world. In this paper, the authors explore their own stories and songs. They explain the ways that listening to the earth’s song and working with stories can inform their work in the academy – as teachers who support younglings to hear their voices and develop their own songs, and as the writers and tellers of curriculum. The authors ask whether it is possible for Indigenous academics to combine their academic work with Indigenous ways of knowing. They argue that, not only is the combination possible, it can be used to create a harmonious voice that will help them to reclaim their power as Indigenous academic women.' (Publication abstract)

'This article brings together two Indigenous scholars who have come to better know their Indigenous history as they story it alongside their work as historians and academics. We find that the historical landscape changes when family history is better understood: time and space become embodied, history becomes personal. Sámi scholar May-Britt Öhman speaks of singing to the hillside in a ‘Sound of Music’ style, and then feeling forced to break out of song and into yoik.1Similarly, Aboriginal Australian scholar Frances Wyld writes about her connection to land and family history, including a visit to desert Australia where she no longer saw a world of silos, but of solace. Through embodiment comes a new identity, shared and understood. As scholars understanding the power-laden binaries of colonised and coloniser, writing at the intersection of personal and public using ego-histoires, we find shared methodologies to tell stories of the self inhabiting lands of fire and ice. Applying ego-histoire, we argue for a new version of history as academic discipline: a discipline which includes the Indigenous peoples’ embodied vision and experiences; a history discipline which challenges the coloniser’s current Hi-Story, within which Indigenous peoples are made the other, the exotic, primitive and invisible ‘vanishing race’; a history which empowers and strengthens ourselves as scholars and at the same time provides our students (Indigenous as well as non-Indigenous) with a history which takes into account Indigenous peoples visions, experiences and stories.'  (Introduction)

'In reverence and using rich colours 18 th century artist Joseph Wright depicts a life under pressure as experiment and entertainment in the same way that social scientists today are using life writing as offerings in research. This presentation looks at an example of this and discusses the ethical implications of using narrative over a two year period as an honest and therapeutic journey into a new understanding of self. The painting, An experiment on a bird in an air pump, depicts philosopher/scientist, bird as subject and onlookers. A vacuum is used to deprive the bird of oxygen that will eventually lead to its death.

'The writer of life narrative is story and story teller, researcher and subject. The writer must consider the ethics of using family, friends and self in the story and this writing experiment uses metaphor and symbols to both entertain and protect others. But the self cannot be protected if a therapeutic value is to be had. The writer must tell the truth. Here the end is predicted to justify the means. The metaphor of vacuum is used to describe a life that is under pressure from work in academia as an Aboriginal woman, studying part time and coming to terms with trans-generational trauma. That in being aware of the conditions of vacuum, pressure from within and without, in naming this space the bird will become cognizant of its own storied demise and that a new ending can be written. The bird can rescue itself. That in controlling your own story or mythology of self, in being both researcher and subject the outcome can be known. The storyteller also calls on her ancestral tradition of Indigenous use of story work in reverence and richness as seen in the painting of this bird.' (Abstract sourced from http://fhrc.flinders.edu.au/events/story/abstracts.htm#Wyld )