INDIGENOUS
STUDIES
FEATUREDCOURSES
Indigenous Australian Issues:
Past, Present, Future
ABTS1000
This course explores Indigenous Australian
(Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) history
and culture to gain insight into contemporary
Australian issues of the past, present
and future. Drawing on the knowledge
of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people from diverse backgrounds through
guest lecturers and through accessing
other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
viewpoints, the course provides you with a
unique experience of engaging in dialogues
with Indigenous Australian people to learn
about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people’s experiences. You will learn skills
to establish an understanding of the cross-
cultural dimensions of issues and perspectives
relevant to Indigenous Australians.
Torres Strait Islander Studies
ABTS1010
In this course, you will have the opportunity
to participate in Torres Strait Islander dance
and song, prepare Islander food, and meet
Torres Strait Islander elders. The course
also provides exploration of a wide range of
topics from the unique geography of Torres
Strait to the influences of post-colonial
history, the intricate relationship of the
“sea”, and the social organisation and social
structure within Torres Strait Islander society
and culture, then and now. Interwoven
throughout the course are themes of
colonisation, marginalisation, governance,
identity and cultural perspectives. You will
consider both traditional and contemporary
Torres Strait Islander society and culture,
and learn from guest lecturers and
community elders from the Torres Strait
Islander community in Brisbane.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island
Approaches to Knowledge
ABTS2020
The philosophy and ethics of teaching
and learning applied in this program
aim to model Indigenous approaches to
knowledge. This is achieved through a
flexible, open and friendly environment
with respect for individual diversity in
approaching an understanding of issues.
You will engage in open and frank
discussions with staff in which the widest
possible range of views are presented and
challenged with the aim of establishing a
balanced understanding of any given aspect
of Indigenous worldviews. Indigenous
knowledge is “making sense of the world”: it
is a living knowledge.
Aboriginal Music: Performing,
Place, Power and Identity
ABTS2102
The course aims to deconstruct categories
of Indigenous Australian performance
such as traditional and contemporary;
situate Indigenous Australian performers
in terms of their fluid and dynamic
identities; relate performance practice to
status, authority, ownership, power and
knowledge; understand the complex
relationship between performance and
country; and discuss representations
of Indigenous Australian performance.
Through a combination of independent
research, readings and meetings with the
course coordinator, you will increase your
understanding of the impact of colonialism
on Indigenous Australian peoples and their
contemporary music making; raise your
awareness of the diversity of Indigenous
performance; and examine and reflect
on how Indigenous Australian performers
simultaneously resist and use colonialist
constructions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander performance to create new and
exciting forms.
Anthropology of Aboriginal Australia
ANTH2010
This course explores relations among and
between Indigenous and non-Indigenous
Australians in contemporary Australian
society, with a focus on Aboriginal Australian
society. You will examine the topic through
an anthropological lens, with some special
attention to the ways in which anthropologists
have worked with Australian Aboriginal people
in applied and academic research. The course
looks at the diversity of Indigenous societies
in Australia, and case examples in lectures
are used from many different areas of the
Australian continent and islands, taking in
remote “outback” social realities and histories,
as well as urban life and politics. Considered
are Aboriginal people’s relationships to land,
the process of colonisation in Australian
society, the role of anthropologists in
Aboriginal communities, as well as the work of
anthropologists in understanding Indigenous
relationships with non-Indigenous Australians.
Themes such as kinship, cosmology, material
culture, health and gender are discussed, as
well as concerns such as land rights, effects of
government policy, and identity politics.
UQ CODE COURSE NAME
ABTS2010 Aboriginal Women: Gendered Business
ABTS2060
Family, Country, Community:
Indigenous Australian
Understandings of Kinship
ABTS2080 Independent Project
ABTS2090 Independent Project
ABTS3000 Aboriginal Politics and Political Issues
ABTS3010
Work Placement in Indigenous
Australian Studies
ABTS3020 Working with Indigenous People
ANTH2098
Aboriginal Heritage: Anthropological
and Archaeological Perspectives
ARTT2103 Australian Indigenous Art
INDH1005
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Health
INDH2109
Alcohol, Substance Use and Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander People
LINDAKARLSSON
(SWEDEN)
Incoming Exchange student
“
ABTS1000 Indigenous Australian
Issues: Past, Present, Future
is the
course I am enjoying most. One of
the main reasons I chose to study in
Australia, and particularly at UQ, was
because the University seemed to have
well developed courses in Indigenous
studies. Since I am studying a Bachelor
in Equality and Diversity Management,
I wanted to gain further knowledge
about how Australian society is working
with its different problems between
Indigenous and non-Indigenous
Australians. What is especially good
about
ABTS1000
is that it does not
need any prerequisites. It introduces
students to the complex history
of Australia as well as the equally
complex present Australia. It does this
through both highly educated teachers
and guest lecturers, who are either
Aboriginal or closely linked with the
Aboriginal society.”
OTHERCOURSES
The table below lists other popular courses
in this area available to Study Abroad and
Incoming Exchange students. A full list of
courses can be found on UQ’s Courses and
Programs website at
NOTES
– Course information is correct as at April 2014 and may change in 2015. Please refer to
for current information.
– While all listed courses are available to Study Abroad and Incoming Exchange students, some will require faculty/school approval as relevant previous study may be required.
Study Abroad and Incoming Exchange
UQ Guide 2015
21
