http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/services/Feed ${session.getAttribute("locale")} 5 http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:15474 For more than 50,000 years, Indigenous Australians have incorporated celestial events into their oral traditions and used the motions of celestial bodies for navigation, time-keeping, food economics, and social structure. In this paper, we explore the ways in which Aboriginal people made careful observations of the sky, measurements of celestial bodies, and incorporated astronomical events into complex oral traditions by searching for written records of time-keeping using celestial bodies, the use of rising and setting stars as indicators of special events, recorded observations of variable stars, the solar cycle, and lunar phases (including ocean tides and eclipses) in oral tradition, as well as astronomical measurements of the equinox, solstice, and cardinal points. 2013-05-23T01:41:28.606Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:21121 This paper presents the findings from semi-structured interviews with six Indigenous Australian early childhood workers who were asked about how Indigenous families might be better supported to engage with early childhood education and care services. The workers identified three key barriers to family participation: transport difficulties, family embarrassment or 'shame', and community division. Facilitation of family engagement was argued to require an acceptance of individual families as well as the embracing of culture and the wider Indigenous community. In addition, the interviewees stressed the importance of ongoing and appropriate training and support for Indigenous early childhood professionals. This paper contributes to the growing body of research to inform practice in early childhood settings that serve families with complex support needs, and highlights the importance of cultural knowledge and respect. 2012-09-04T21:55:27.318Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:15638 Indigenous Australians participate in higher education at a rate significantly less than non-Indigenous Australians. This disparity becomes increasingly evident according to the level of study undertaken, with postgraduate study revealing the greatest difference. In response to such disparity, Indigenous units were established and are now common place in Australian universities, with their roles and responsibilities varying from one unit to the next. Some units have failed to evolve from their original enclave formation existing for the sole purpose of providing personal, cultural and academic support to students, whilst other units have flourished into larger departments or schools with additional responsibilities that are inclusive of teaching and research. This paper explores the various roles attributed to Indigenous units whilst arguing the need for all units to support the learning needs of their students through a model that centres on understanding through experience. 2012-07-26T18:12:10.614Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:20161 The growing research on the history of emotions has yet to take full account of the extent to which the whole range of human passions and their functions, as understood within the highly influential Thomist model, were useful for a variety of rhetorical purposes in early modern literary cultures. This article explores John Donne's applications of the traditional rhetorical teachings on amplification and its related manoeuvres to some of his specific sermon contexts. This is done in order to show how Donne approaches his attempt to use various passions for his rhetorical purposes. The important dynamic existing between the precise rhetorical construction of an object's value and the precise kind of passionate feeling one should have towards it will be considered. I shall argue that Donne attempts to generate, transmute, and transfer the emotional responses of his audience towards his sermons' particular subjects by employing the amplificatory techniques that are most useful for getting at the contents of memory directly as well as those that carefully shape the cognitive reconstruction of such contexts. 2012-06-28T10:51:42.917Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:19170 The body of literature providing evidence that Indigenous Australians are significantly under-represented in higher education is steadily increasing. For instance, the Review of Australian Higher Education (2008) identified Indigenous Australians as one of the three most under-represented groups. Similarly, key bodies such as the Indigenous Higher Education Advisory Council refer to significant disparity when undertaking statistical data analysis of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. In other words, the fact that Indigenous Australians participate in higher education at a lower rate than that of other students is widely acknowledged – however the reasons underpinning such disparity are less transparent. This paper purports that the culture shock Indigenous Australian students experience when accessing higher education can be detrimental to their academic aspirations and outcomes. When exploring the notion of culture shock there is a tendency to assume that this only affects international students, when in fact it is rampant in our own back yard. The paper concludes by offering a set of recommendations designed to assist institutions to implement strategies to reduce the negative impact of culture shock experienced by Indigenous Australian university students. 2012-06-15T00:11:09.563Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:19524 Māori and other Indigenous scholars have been calling for the Indigenisation of academic space for decades. But what is the day-to-day experience of Māori academics within Aotearoa–New Zealand universities, and how does this experience reveal or enact the commitments to claim space? We interviewed 12 Māori academics and analysed and organised their experiences in the following way: the university can be understood as a site of (1) mobilisation of Māori staff and students; (2) sit-in, or infusing the institutional system with Indigenous values; (3) speaking out, thereby educating not only students, but staff and the public about Indigenous issues; and (4) at which confrontation is part of the academic terrain. The most common outcome of confrontation was negotiation and reclamation of space for Māori people, norms and values. In spite of this apparent willingness of the university to compromise, we find that capitulation (being moulded to the norms of the academy) and (self-)eviction (reconciling difference by leaving the university) are ever-present possibilities for Māori academics. In shaping and presenting the Māori academic occupation as a 4-stage commitment to affirm Māori identity, norms and scholarship, we present a framework within which Indigenous and minority academic work may be understood. 2012-06-15T00:10:55.010Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:19168 This research contributes to an issue of importance in the current Australian political and research climate - that of the engagement of disadvantaged and marginalised groups of people with early childhood education and care settings. More specifically, this research seeks to understand the barriers and facilitators of engagement for Indigenous families in NSW. Research in this area is important because of recent studies supporting low levels of participation in early childhood services for Indigenous families. A qualitative approach was adopted to capture the experiences of 15 mothers of preschool aged children (3 – 5 years). Thematic analysis revealed a number of themes, the most important across the group being the notion of trust. This research also sought the perspectives of preschool aged children. In total 10 children were interviewed. A clear theme emerged from the child interviews around the importance of feeling connected with an adult worker at the centre they attended. This research also supports the importance of resisting the common practice of viewing Indigenous families as a homogeneous group. 2012-05-15T14:12:45.792Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:17706 Young Filipino students are expected to solve mathematical word problems in English, a language that many encounter only in schools. Using individual interviews of 17 Filipino children, we investigated why word problems in English are difficult and the extent to which the language interferes with performance. Results indicate that children could not solve word problems independently when these were given in English. However, appropriate interventions such as presenting problems in Filipino or narrating them led to improved performance. Implications for teaching are proposed. 2012-02-23T12:52:28.108Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:16648 It seems that every public function I attend includes a 'welcome to country' speech presented by a representative of a local Aboriginal group claiming traditional ownership of the land where the gathering is conducted. Indeed, while it was already becoming customary for white officials to acknowledge traditional Aboriginal ownership prior to introducing any kind of its own business in recent years, it seems to have become de rigueur since the 42nd Federal Parliament was opened with a 'Welcome to Country' speech from a Ngunnawal representative in February, 2008. As this paper demonstrates, welcome to country might be understood by whites as a 'safe' kind of inclusive gesture of recognition all the time knowing that such claims are not legally enforceable. But, as the two ethnographic examples I present in this article demonstrate, Indigenous agency, once acknowledged in performance, cannot be fully directed by the nation state to serve its own ends. 2012-01-20T14:36:24.146Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:8825 15 page(s) 2011-12-19T00:36:07.550Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:15997 16 page(s) 2011-11-17T16:50:42.404Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:15031 The night sky played an important role in the social structure, oral traditions, and cosmology of the Arrernte and Luritja Aboriginal cultures of Central Australia. A component of this cosmology relates to meteors, meteorites, and impact craters. This paper discusses the role of meteoritic phenomena in Arrernte and Luritja cosmology, showing not only that these groups incorporated this phenomenon in their cultural traditions, but that their oral traditions regarding the relationship between meteors, meteorites and impact structures suggests the Arrernte and Luritja understood that they are directly related. 2011-09-23T14:20:47.357Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:14611 When people chose to share stories with me during my fieldwork, in the Australian Central Desert community of Alpurrurulam, it was common for the story to be prefaced with the idiom 'I'm gonna give you that story'. These sorts of statements emphasize the relationship between myself and the speaker, pointing to the unique nature of the stories I was given. I was not regarded as a passive listener in this context, but rather I, as a particular person, helped to shape the narratives of the past that were shared with me. We all share our memories in significant ways with the world around us. It is the case across cultures that we learn to remember with, around and through engaging with people. In this, culture plays an important role in shaping the ways that people remember, recall and recount their lives. This article will look at the interdisciplinary and intercultural challenges which face the re-telling of tales in memory studies from the perspective of the listener and, in the case of researchers, the reporter. 2011-08-23T08:00:07.160Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:14284 Supervision is arguably one of the most important support mechanisms provided to higher degree research students. Research into the role of supervision is emerging, with many scholars arguing the importance of establishing a connection between the supervisor and the student. However, problems can emerge when this relationship is overlaid with cultural differences and the supervisor has little knowledge of the student's cultural positioning. This paper will draw on findings of a doctoral research inquiry to explore the supervision provided to Indigenous Australian postgraduate students. Recommendations for change will be offered in the course of the discussion. 2011-08-01T06:22:10.858Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:13804 Many Aboriginal stories have not been allowed to be told historically due to the over-whelming dominance of non-Aboriginal stories. Many Aboriginal stories were once outlawed and so were forgotten, some only partially remembered, many now only told in the language of the invaders. There are other Aboriginal stories, however, especially those of particular urban Aboriginal peoples, which have lain ‘dormant’, protected by subversive family histories and embedded in objects claimed as the possessions of the Aboriginal people concerned. Some of these once ‘swallowed’ stories are now being regurgitated, re-emerging into a world that does not always recognise them as true. I am a non-Indigenous woman anthropologist and in this paper I recount some different versions of a story ‘told’ in different ways; through the signs and symbols of the Australian nation state, the movements of my Aboriginal research collaborators through what is claimed as their Country, through verbal storytelling, and through artefacts and paintings. 2011-06-28T06:22:38.653Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:13774 Traditional Aboriginal Australian cultures include a significant astronomical component, perpetuated through oral tradition and ceremony. This knowledge has practical navigational and calendrical functions, and sometimes extends to a deep understanding of the motion of objects in the sky. Here we explore whether this astronomical tradition is reflected in the rock art of Aboriginal Australians. We find several plausible examples of depictions of astronomical figures and symbols, and also evidence that astronomical observations were used to set out stone arrangements. However, we recognise that the case is not yet strong enough to make an unequivocal statement, and describe our plans for further research. 2011-06-27T03:31:44.823Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:13789 We present 25 accounts of comets from 40 Australian Aboriginal communities, citing both supernatural perceptions of comets and historical accounts of historically bright comets. Historical and ethnographic descriptions include the Great Comets of 1843, 1861, 1901, 1910, and 1927. We describe the perceptions of comets in Aboriginal societies and show that they are typically associated with fear, death, omens, malevolent spirits, and evil magic, consistent with many cultures around the world. We also provide a list of words for comets in 16 different Aboriginal languages. 2011-06-24T23:30:14.201Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:13485 We present a comprehensive analysis of Australian Aboriginal accounts of meteors. The data used were taken from anthropological and ethnographic literature describing oral traditions, ceremonies, and Dreamings of 97 Aboriginal groups representing all states of modern Australia. This revealed common themes in the way meteors were viewed between Aboriginal groups, focusing on supernatural events, death, omens, and war. The presence of such themes around Australia was probably due to the unpredictable nature of meteors in an otherwise well-ordered cosmos. 2011-06-03T12:30:18.401Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:13217 We present evidence that the Boorong Aboriginal people of northwestern Victoria observed the Great Eruption of Eta Carinae in the nineteenth century and incorporated this event into their oral traditions. We identify this star, as well as others not specifically identified by name, using descriptive material presented in the 1858 paper by William Edward Stanbridge in conjunction with early southern star catalogues. This identification of a transient astronomical event supports the assertion that Aboriginal oral traditions are dynamic and evolving, and not static. This is the only definitive indigenous record of Eta Carinae's outburst identified in the literature to date. 2011-05-25T21:43:26.432Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:12718 Descriptions of cosmic impacts and meteorite falls are found throughout Australian Aboriginal oral traditions. In some cases, these texts describe the impact event in detail, sometimes citing the location, suggesting that the events were witnessed. We explore whether cosmic impacts and meteorite falls may have been witnessed by Aboriginal Australians and incorporated into their oral traditions. We discuss the complications and bias in recording and analysing oral texts but suggest that these texts may be used both to locate new impact structures or meteorites and model observed impact events. We find that, while detailed Aboriginal descriptions of cosmic impacts are abundant in the literature, there is currently no physical evidence connecting these accounts to impact events currently known to Western science. 2011-05-02T07:42:10.443Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:12215 "15 August 2008". 2011-04-04T07:02:09.454Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:9580 Book review of "A cautious silence: The politics of Australian anthropology", by Geoffrey Gray. Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 2007. ISBN: 9780855755515. 2011-03-31T19:32:04.023Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:10963 17 page(s) 2011-03-31T07:30:18.859Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:11937 This paper represents a group of Aboriginal people who claim traditional Aboriginal ownership of a large Australian metropolis. They have struggled for at least the last 25 to 30 years to articulate and represent their contemporary group identity to the wider Australian society that very often does not take their expressions seriously. This is largely because dominant discourses claim that ‘authentic’ Aboriginal culture only exists in remote, pristine areas far away from western society and that urban Aboriginal traditions, especially urban religious traditions are, today, defunct. This paper is an account of one occasion on which such traditional Aboriginal religious practice was performed before the eyes of a group of tourists. 2011-03-31T07:30:11.397Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:10077 Warawara, the Department of Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University offers a degree in Community Management, the BCM, which is a designated program exclusively for Indigenous students. It also offers Indigenous Studies units which are available to all students. The Australian Learning and Teaching Council funded the Leadership in Assessment Project (LEAP) which was first implemented in the Department in July, 2007 and has achieved some extraordinary outcomes in that short time. The leadership provided over the course of the LEAP project has created opportunities to open up previously closed avenues of communication, training and support for Indigenous and non-Indigenous academics working in the department. This has resulted in a gradual but radical change in culture which has improved units of study using engaging assessment as the catalyst. This paper reflects on the processes involved in creating a productive, generative interface in which important issues in Indigenous education may be discussed. 2011-03-31T07:22:45.339Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:12280 This paper describes the processes involved in establishing and conducting the pilot and initial phase of a research led learning and teaching project that is designed to facilitate and support collaborative working relationships between schools and universities. This particular project prioritises Indigenous high school students and high schools designated ‘low socioeconomic’ but it is envisaged that such an approach could be generalised to many other contexts. 2011-03-31T07:20:15.090Z ]]>