Cirrus@Austlit

'According to the NSW K–10 English Syllabus, all students should engage with ‘texts that give insight into Aboriginal experiences in Australia’. Along with the inclusion of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cross Curriculum Priority, this suggests that texts in English should develop deep understanding of Aboriginal cultures, experiences and perspectives. This project uses critical discourse analysis followed by content analysis, adapted from Lowe and Yunkaporta’s (2013) Cultural Analysis Matrix, to analyse representations of Aboriginal experiences and perspectives in six commonly used classroom texts to ascertain the nature and depth of the Aboriginal voices, experiences and perspectives within each text. This paper argues that texts which include Aboriginal characters and experiences through non-Aboriginal perspectives remain at risk of tokenism and/or shallow inclusion. However, texts which embody and value Aboriginal ways of knowing, doing and being demonstrate a capacity for more nuanced and genuine insights into Aboriginal experiences in Australia.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

''Yuta Gonydjuy (The New Wax)' is a children's story written by Kathy Guthadjaka, an Indigenous Elder from Gawa, Elcho Island, northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. 'Yuta Gonydjuy' has been illustrated and published in both Warramiri and English via the bilingual Literature Production Centre at Galiwin'ku, in 1998. There is also a digital, interactive version of the story, and it is available online (as alphabetic text only) as part of the 'Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages' (2015). 'Yuta Gonydjuy' is an allegorical parable with both traditional Yolnju and Christian themes, and considering the 'transculturation' history and ontological priorities of the Warramiri Yoltu, 'Yuta Gonydjuy' is a most appropriate text. Furthermore, the potential for 'Yuta Gonydjuy' to be utilised within a 'Lonydju'yirr' (aligning side-by-side) multiliteracy approach at Gawa is compelling and offers fresh insight into a generative, 'bothways' Yoltu pedagogy.'

Source: Author abstract.

'This paper reports findings from a study investigating trends in character, historical setting, authorship and themes across Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) text selection lists between 2010 and 2019. We address the fictionalisation and imagining of Australian history through narratives about Indigeneity and settler-colonisation. While we will describe positive trends that have emerged over time, by and large this study agrees with Leane’s (2016) and Langton’s (1993) assertions regarding the transmission of knowledge and representation of Indigeneity and Australian history in the classroom; namely, there is an under-representation of Indigenous authors, poets, playwrights, film directors, and complex, non-stereotypical charactertypes and an over-representation of non-Indigenous authors representing themes and stories of Indigeneity, reconciliation and colonisation.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.