Bunma-li (Change with Hand)- Organisational Positioning

  1. We are an Aboriginal organisation: more than 51 percent our members and management committee are Aboriginal people. Local Aboriginal community in Warren prefer the use of the term Aboriginal when referring to anything related to our people, community, activities and organisation.

  2. We are a bespoke organisation: we are a person-centred organisation. Person-centred practice ensures the individuals and families we service are listened to and heard.

  3. We are a not-for-profit organisation: all our income goes back into the organisation to deliver resources, programs, events, activities and workshops for the realisation of our vision.

  4. We are an organisation with a transformative world view: our organisation is informed by critical theory and allows us to look at society and history through a critical lens to ensure past policies and approaches causing the disenfranchisement of Aboriginal peoples are not repeated and systemic racism is dismantled.   

Aunty Beth teaching young mob the Gunimara Baluwaa (Respecting Mother Earth dance) - the dance was inspired by the late Lousie Fuller , Wayilwan woman of Warren and Peter Mackay, Wayilwan knowledge holder. Coby Hall, proud Wayilwan youth, is supporting Aunty Beth on the clapsticks.

A transformative world view is framed by recently developed epistemological approaches, including but not limited to Critical Indigenous Pedagogy (CIP) (Denzin, Lincoln & Smith, 2008).

The CIP supports a bespoke organisational structure. Unfortunately, epistemology prior to the introduction of methodological approaches to research, such as CIP, have resulted in ethnological research which reinforces a colonial status quo (Barker, Crerar & Goetze, 2018). Such research has informed a foundation for our institutions and society’s world views in general and needs to be deconstructed.

Deconstruction of a colonial world view occurs by doing things differently.

How Warraan Widji Arts does things and why is dependent on keeping abreast of the most recent and credible ethnological studies. Such studies provide foundations for evidence-based practice and ensures transformative change.

References:

Barker, S., Crerar, C., & Goetze, T. (2018). Harms and wrongs in epistemic practice. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements. 84, 1-21. Cambridge University Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1358246118000528

Denzin, N. & Lincoln, Y. (2008). Introduction: critical methodologies and indigenous inquiry. In Denzin, N.K., Lincoln, Y.S., & Smith, L.T. Handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies (pp.1-20). Thousand Oaks: SAGE. Doi: 10.4135/9781483385686

Further research and evidence in the field which supports a transformative world view includes but is not limited to:

Cook, T. (2011). We are what we keep; we keep what we are: Archival appraisal past, present and future. Journal of the Society of Archivists, 32(2).pp173-189.

Creswell, J.W., & Creswell, J.D. (2018). Research design (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Sarra, C. (2011). Strong and smart. Routledge: Taylor and Francis Group.

Stacey, M. (2019). Deficit discourses and teachers’ work: The case of an early career teacher in a remote Indigenous school. Critical Studies in Education, (60)4, doi: 10.1080/17508487.2019.1650383

Stoler, A.L. (2002). Colonial archives and the arts of governance. Archival Science, 2(1), 87-109. DOI: 10.1007/BF02435632

 

As an Aboriginal organisation we employ an Indigenous Standpoint Pedagogy (ISP) (Phillips, 2019). An ISP:

  1. grows our organisation’s cultural capability, particularly, as an organisation whose members are still impacted by the inherent affects of Australia’s Assimilation Policy.

  2. guides us in the engagement of non-Aboriginal allies as teachers/tutors and

  3. informs how we identify and strengthen collaborative partnerships

A summary of the foundational principles of ISP (Phillips, 2019, p. 9) is below:

  • In the context of education, research and learning, Australia’s recent history has largely resulted in our peoples being studied and observed, as opposed to peoples who are engaged with meaningfully and who contribute to the knowledge building process.

  • Deficit narratives are inherent of colonial understandings of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples. As such, deficit discourse perpetuates a colonial mindset.

  • Institutions such as schools, universities, galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) perpetuate and condone power imbalances and the disenfranshisement and objectification of our people. Past epistemological research methods have contributed to contemporary discourses which justify the role of such institutions in society which inherently marginalise and perpetuate institutional racism.

  • Resistance to transformative change is evidence of a disruption to an inherent colonial mindset.

Reference

Phillips, J. (2019). Indigenous Australian studies, Indigenist standpoint pedagogy, and student resistance. Oxford Research Encyclopedia, Education. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.257