Indigenous Australian creative practice and ways of knowing

The word 'Blak' by Kuku and Erub/Mer multi-disciplinary artist Destiny Deacon differentiates itself from 'Black' as it enables Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to have a collective identifier to express and locate themselves to. The unit acknowledges the profound legacy of Destiny Deacon as a photographer and political activist.

This unit offers an overview of Indigenous Australian creative practice as a vehicle for the production of knowledge. It promotes an examination of Indigenous cultural productions from an Indigenous viewpoint and lens, which enables you to experience not only an acquisition of content of Indigenous practice but through a unique methodological Indigenous approach. You will examine historical and recent cultural productions to learn about their significance in Aboriginal and Torres Strait culture, society and its knowledge economy and its relationship to the broader Australian historical, cultural and political space. Lectures and tutorials provide you with necessary knowledge and a platform to engage with this knowledge in an appropriately ethnographical and experiential way. These lectures provide insight into Indigenous production in context of pre-colonial history, an imagined post-colonial trajectory through to its interactivity with de-colonisation. You will develop a deep understanding of the relationality that Indigenous culture has with the premise of Country, its impact on practice and its relationship to their own place and situated experience.