RRP: AUD $65.00 + p&p.
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Aboriginal Knowledge Narratives & Country
Marri Kunkimba Putj Putj Marrideyan
By
Payi Linda Ford.
ISBN: 978-1921214-71-4
AUD $65.00 + p&p.
About
Payi Linda Ford has written a groundbreaking book.
The book draws on the knowledge systems within which Payi grew up guided by her Elders; the tyangi wedi tjan Rak Mak Mak Marranunggu and Marrithiel knowledge systems. It was from within these same Aboriginal knowledge systems that Payi identified deep metaphors that her people, her Tyikim, had used to guide their understandings of spiritual connectedness and practices of relatedness that nourishes them on their country. In this book Payi has turned these metaphors to give voice for Indigenous action in ways of knowing and being on the contemporary landscapes created by the Western systems of higher education in Australia.
This book is a timely contribution to the debates over the place of Indigenous knowledges within universities in Australia and elsewhere in the world. It is particularly timely for Australian universities given that in this book Payi argues that it is time to move beyond the enclave-derived paradigm, now over thirty years old, for providing access to higher education for Aboriginal Australians. This paradigm provides, at best, limited respect for the knowledge and cultural positioning of Aboriginal adult students. Payi argues that universities are still trapped within colonising constructions of Indigenous peoples and their knowledge systems in education, research and access to higher education for Indigenous students.
Payi provides a description and analysis of a participatory action research project, centred in academic context of the Northern Territory University and on the Aboriginal countries of the hinterland of Darwin. From this project Payi presents, with the full support of her Elders, an argument for the Mirrwana/Wurrkama model of Indigenous higher education. Through this model Payi shows how Aboriginal peoples can bring forth their own knowledge systems to serve their own educational interests. Recommended reading for those in universities and elsewhere seeking an avenue into a more powerful paradigm of Indigenous higher education.
Dr John Henry, Geelong, Victoria, Australia
Dr. Payi Linda Ford is a senior Rak Mak Mak Marranunggu woman whose country is Kurrindju in the Finniss River and Reynold River regions of the Northern Territory. Educated in an Aboriginal cultural context of Traditional knowledge and practices growing up with her Traditional mother, uncles, aunts, grandparents and extended family, she was authorised to use Rak Mak Mak Marranunggu epistomology and ontology by her Ah-la Ngulilkang Nancy Daiyi in her Doctoral studies at Deakin University and Charles Darwin University. Payi is currently Senior Lecturer with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Unit at the University of Queensland and a Board member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). As a mother, academic, researcher, educator and practitioner of Indigenous traditions, Payi Linda Ford possesses a unique experience that she now shares with those who wish to enhance their understanding of the Indigenous cross-cultural environment.
Proudly published by Post Pressed
Contents
- Dedication
- Language use in this book
- Acknowledgements
- Overview
- List of Acronyms
- Index
- Introduction to the Study. Ma!
- Positioning the Researcher in the Study
- Positioning the Study
- Research Methodology
- Case Study: Wurrkama - getting to the sweet bread in Mirrwana
- Analysis on the Case Urra ngung ngi~ing yangi marri! "Give me your story!"
- Narratives and Landscapes in Indigenous Higher Education Kar-na Marri gu nidin kan!
- Conclusion to the Study Marri gu Waki tjan!
- References
- Appendix 1 Ethics Application: Plain Language Statement for Student Teacher Participants
- Index