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Monash University

Australian Indigenous studies - Faculty of Arts

Offered by the Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies and School of Humanities, Communication and Social Sciences

The Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies (CAIS)* offers units that aim to encourage students to understand the past and contemporary experiences of Australian Indigenous peoples. Students will acquire a general knowledge of many different aspects of Australian Indigenous cultures and of how these cultures have undergone change and adaptation. Such understanding will require students to construct critical arguments and analyse topics studied in their historical and contemporary contexts. Units in Australian Indigenous studies aim to assist students to develop a good knowledge base about key issues in Indigenous societies. CAIS offers a first-year sequence and later-year units and students do not necessarily have to chose an AIS unit at first year to make up a minor or major sequence in AIS.

Units offered by Australian Indigenous studies take an interdisciplinary approach to the contemporary experiences of Australian Aborigines by including the study of kinship and political systems in urban and remote societies, and the contrasts between Indigenous and non-Indigenous societies.

The AIS first-year sequence is jointly offered by CAIS and Anthropology and consist of the units ANY1010 (semester 1) and AIS1020 (semester 2). ANY1010 is a collaboratively taught unit delivered by Anthropology. Anthropology is the study of the diversity of human expression through space and time that not only focuses on differences and similarities between societies and cultures, but also on connections and contestations between them. This unit will seek to explore these aspects through focusing on the ongoing relationship between Indigenous and Settler Australians. What is of particular interest to this unit is trying to explore the points of contestation and how this has shaped the position of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in contemporary society. The lectures will consider some of the key historical periods in Indigenous Australia and discuss the way in which anthropology, as a discipline, has been involved in the process of understanding Indigenous relationships to each other and to the land. AIS1020 considers the colonial encounter between Aboriginal people and white Australia. Students will gain an appreciation of the historical context in which relationships between Aborigines and white Australia have developed. The unit focuses on the theoretical, political and legal dimensions of Aboriginal encounters with white Australia and provides students with the knowledge required to undertake further Indigenous studies.

Teaching in the centre includes lectures and small tutorial and seminar groups, which encourage debate and inquiry. Presentations, written summaries and essays incorporate reflective, analytical and oral skills specific to Indigenous studies as well as to the arts degree. A number of Arts faculty units offered in anthropology, Australian studies, geography, history, politics, linguistics, environmental science, sociology, visual culture and women's and gender studies complement units offered in Indigenous studies.

Honours can be undertaken in Australian Indigenous Studies and Combined Honours may also be taken with other disciplines provided that all honours requirements have been met in both disciplines and subject to the approval of the honours coordinators or heads of the relevant schools.

All intending postgraduates must discuss their proposed research programs with the director.

The academic staff include Professor Lynette Russell (Director of Monash Aboriginal Programs), , Mr Barry Judd, Dr Stephen Pritchard, Dr Liam Brady, Dr Jane Lydon and joint appointment with Anthropology Dr. John Bradley. A major aim of the centre is to provide excellent and culturally appropriate undergraduate, honours and postgraduate courses.

For information on the units required for a major or minor in Australian Indigenous studies, refer to the `Areas of study' section on the Arts faculty website at http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/current/coursework/study-areas/.

    * Incorporating the Koori Research Centre

Relevant courses

  • Diploma in Arts (Aboriginal Studies)**
  • Bachelor of Arts (and associated double degrees)
  • Bachelor of Arts (Global)
  • Bachelor of Letters.

    ** Available to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.

Contact details

Inquiries (Clayton): Room 219B, level 2, Monash University Museum of Art (building 55), Clayton campus; Telephone +61 3 9905 4200; Email cais@arts.monash.edu.au or visit http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/cais.