Springer book series

Questioning Indigenous-Settler Relations: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Editors: Professor Sarah Maddison and  Associate Professor Sana Nakata

Part of the book series: Indigenous-Settler Relations in Australia and the World (ISRAW, volume 1)

Questioning Indigenous-Settler Relations: Interdisciplinary Perspectives examines contemporary Indigenous affairs through questions of relationality, via a wide range of interdisciplinary perspectives. Relationality functions as a key analytical framework with which to explore the what, who, when, where, and why of Indigenous-settler relations; who steps into these relations and how; what are the different temporal and historical moments in which these relations take place and to what effect; where do these relations exist around the world and what are the variations they take on in different places; and why are these relations important for the examination of social and political life in the 21st century?

Its unique approach represents a deliberate move away from both settler-colonial studies, which examines historical and present impacts of settler states on Indigenous peoples, and from postcolonial and decolonial scholarship, which predominantly focuses on how Indigenous peoples speak back to the settler state. It explores the issues that inform, shape, and give social, legal, and political life to relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, both in Australia and globally.

Aboriginal Sports Coaches, Community, and Culture

Authors: Dr Demelza Marlin, Associate Professor Nicholas Apoifis and  Associate Professor Andrew Bennie

Part of the book series: Indigenous-Settler Relations in Australia and the World (ISRAW, volume 2)

Aboriginal Sports Coaches, Community, and Culture is the first to celebrate the stories of this group of Aboriginal mentors and leaders and present them in a form that is accessible to both academic and general audiences. In this book, Aboriginal sport coaches from all over Australia share stories about their involvement in sport and community, offering insight into the diverse experiences of Aboriginal people in settler colonial Australia.

This collection amplifies the public voice of Aboriginal coaches who are transforming the social, cultural, and political lives of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. These stories have been overlooked in public discussion about sport and indigeneity. Frank and often funny, these intimate narratives provide insight into the unique experiences and attitudes of this group of coaches. This book deepens our understanding of the shared and contested history of Aboriginal peoples’ engagement with sport in Australia.

Boarding and Australia's First Peoples: Understanding How Residential Schooling Shapes Lives

Author: Dr Marnie O'Bryan

Part of the book series: Indigenous-Settler Relations in Australia and the World (ISRAW, volume 3)

Boarding and Australia's First Peoples: Understanding How Residential Schooling Shapes Lives takes us inside the complex lived experience of being a First Nations student in predominantly non-Indigenous schools in Australia. Built around the first-hand narratives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander alumni from across the nation, scholarly analysis is layered with personal accounts and reflections. The result is a wide ranging and longitudinal exploration of the enduring impact of years spent boarding which challenges narrow and exclusively empirical measures currently used to define ‘success’ in education.

Used as instruments of repression and assimilation, boarding, or residential, schools have played a long and contentious role throughout the settler-colonial world. In Canada and North America, the full scale of human tragedy associated with residential schools is still being exposed. By contrast, in contemporary Australia, boarding schools are characterised as beacons of opportunity and hope; places of empowerment and, in the best, of cultural restitution.

In this work, young people interviewed over a span of seven years reflect, in real time, on the intended and unintended consequences boarding has had in their own lives. They relate expected and dramatically unexpected outcomes. They speak to the long-term benefits of education, and to the intergenerational reach of education policy.

This book assists practitioners and policy makers to critically review the structures, policies, and cultural assumptions embedded in the institutions in which they work, to the benefit of First Nations students and their families. It encourages new and collaborative approaches Indigenous education programs.