- Title
- Sweet potatoes, spiders & waterlilys
- Creator
- Blair, Nerida
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2008
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- Centring Indigenous Knowings when conducting research is more than placing the word 'Indigenous' in front of the word 'research'. Indigenous Knowings represented and embodied here as a Waterlily is fundamentally different to Western Knowledges (represented by a Brick Wall). This thesis explores some epistemological consequences of Knowledge production in Australia; it is a story I know told by many voices, many difference stories - stories that do not contradict each other, they simply co-exist. This thesis documents my struggles and those of other Indigenous researchers operating and existing within a contested zone. A zone of colliding trajectories between The Academy (the Brick Wall) and Indigenous Knowings (Waterlily). Adventuring and exploring within this zone the thesis voices challenges, options and most importantly choices for us as Indigenous researchers; not Indigenous peoples who happen to be doing research about Aboriginal issues, Aboriginal peoples. A webpages designed to accompany this thesis creates and gives dimension and depth to the linear, Western framework that is a thesis. I have journeyed with my colleagues in Desert and Coast yarning with them, being told and shown experiences that form the essence of this thesis. An essence that unequivocally centres and privileges Indigenous voices, Indigenous Knowings. This thesis contributes to a new and vibrant theorising space; one that Denzin and Lincoln identify as the Eighth Moment (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005, p.20). It is an act of intellectual self-determination (Battiste M., 2002, p. 4); an effort to develop new analyses and methodologies to decolonise myself, my communities and the institutions that impact on our daily lives. I reclaim and re-position Indigenous Knowings so that we can all find a path ahead making sustainable and good choices (Henderson, 2000, p. 274).
- Subject
- Indigenous knowledge; Indigenous research; Western knowledge
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1312579
- Identifier
- uon:22436
- Rights
- Copyright 2008 Nerida Blair
- Language
- eng
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