'ab-Original: Journal of Indigenous Studies and First Nations and First Peoples' Cultures is now in its second year and is gaining wide interest from researchers around the world. In the spirit of forward thinking, original and critical scholarship we again bring you an issue that ranges across issues of importance to Indigenous peoples from Africa to Australia then across the Pacific to North America. I take this opportunity to thank Lorena Sekwan Fontaine for her role as editor in our inaugural year and to introduce Professor Barry Judd as the new member of our editorial team, but certainly not new to the journal as he was part of the founding group and helped set the agenda for its future. Both Lorena and Barry are scholars who include in their practice research with their own communities. Both focus on translating research into applied and tangible outcomes that are useful to the communities with whom they work. It is particularly gratifying to see that, in the same spirit, our contributors are including members of the communities with whom they are conducting research as authors and researchers in their own right. The editors encourage this approach as it is giving voice to people who are often voiceless in scholarly journals. ' (Editorial introduction)
Contents indexed selectively.
'Welcome to Country speeches have become part of many proceedings today. In this opinion piece, the author shares his view that, although these speeches have become tokenistic, they should be seen as an opportunity to educate and inform.' (Publication abstract)
'The task of adequately describing what we call "Aboriginal art" in Australia seems impossible. Whether through the disciplines of art history, anthro-pology, or any of the shifting fields of visual, critical, or postcolonial studies, the challenge is one of the greatest that might be conceived from within the traditions of the humanities and social sciences. Indeed, the idea of assem-bling such a multiplicity of cultural expressions from across vast and diverse historical and geographical dimensions into a coherent whole may seem even more absurd if approached through the epistemologies of Indigenous traditions. It may be argued to be more about imposition than exposition. Yet, this would appear to be the challenge that Ian McLean has set himself with Rattling Spears.' (Introduction)
