First Nations Resistance, Activism and Empowerment
Overview
This unit focuses on the history of First Nations' resistance, self-representation and sovereignty expressed through cultural strengths, alliance-building capacity, and effective participation in decision-making processes. Students develop critical understandings of their journey toward becoming culturally responsive, and how this relates to building maturity in Australian society. Students explore anti-colonial and political movements, creative expression, education, and other forms of resistance to the colonial state, to enhance their understandings of truth, treaty, and reconciliation in pre-contact Australia. Examples of resistance provide critical insight into colonial hegemony, and the formation of grass roots activism and alliance-based campaigns. The unit privileges First Nations peoples’ standpoints in Australia and elsewhere, to develop critical understandings of resistance, activism and empowerment through media, literature, education, sport, and art. The strength of self-determination and culture emerges as a theme.
Requisites
50 credit points
01-June-2025
Learning outcomes
Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:
- Identify key moments, expressions, or patterns of Indigenous resistance to colonisation, sovereignty, and self-determination in Australian history and in contemporary culture
- Lead a critical discussion on the diverse expressions of First Nations cultures and the various ways resistance is embedded in the cultural continuity of people’s everyday lives
- Engage with scholarly debates about power, resistance, and accountability in Australia's contemporary cultural landscape, through the experiences and perspectives of First Nations peoples and cultures
- Evaluate the diverse and varied forms of silencing and compliance, disruption and dissent, individual and collective (re)action, as it occurs over time since Australia became a colonised State
- Identify and engage with culturally safe terminology in reference to Indigenous Australian peoples and cultures
Teaching methods
Hawthorn
| Type | Hours per week | Number of weeks | Total (number of hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-campus Class |
2.00 | 9 weeks | 18 |
| Live Online Lecture |
1.00 | 9 weeks | 9 |
| Live Online Class |
2.00 | 3 weeks | 6 |
| Online Lecture (synchronous) |
1.00 | 3 weeks | 3 |
| Specified Activities Various |
3.00 | 12 weeks | 36 |
| Unspecified Activities Various |
6.25 | 12 weeks | 78 |
| TOTAL | 150 |
Assessment
| Type | Task | Weighting | ULO's |
|---|---|---|---|
| Presentation | Group | 30% | 2,3,4,5 |
| Written Assignment |
Individual | 40% | 2,3,4,5 |
| Written Assignment | Individual | 30% | 1,2,4,5 |
Content
- Introduction to Australian Frontier Violence and First Nations Resistance;
- Era of Protectionism - Australia's approach to Segregation and Assimilation;
- Rights-based Movements against Systemic Racism and Political Oppression;
- First Nations self-representations across a variety of contexts AND political frameworks;
- Cultural Safety in Alliance-building, Professionalism, and Best Practice;
- Empowerment through Cultural and Political expressions and forms;
- First Nations self-empowerment through Culturally Responsive information sharing, decision-making, and capacity-building;
- Anti-colonial and decolonising theoretical constructs that disrupt Systemic White Privilege;
- Cultural strength-based ways of knowing, being and doing activism.
Study resources
Reading materials
A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.