SMJ09052 Aboriginal Studies

The three subjects in this sub-major explore Australian Aboriginal culture and society, politics and history, and the legal dimensions of Indigenous rights. Drawing upon a range of disciplinary approaches (anthropology, politics, sociology and history) students explore how these traditions have produced particular knowledge about Aboriginal people and how Aboriginal ways of knowing and being, including relationships to land and water, kinship networks and society, have been interpreted as well as contested these intellectual traditions.

In the first subject, students consider Aboriginal cultural and social practices and reflect upon the mechanisms that exist to maintain and reproduce culture in a modern post-colonial nation state. In the second subject, students are introduced to the kinds of demands Aboriginal people have made of the colonial state and how the state has sought to manage and rule Aboriginal people's lives. In the third subject, students examine the legal bases for the protection of Indigenous rights, including land rights and native title.

The three subjects seek to be intellectually challenging, provide students with a depth of insight and knowledge to deal meaningfully with Aboriginal people, engage in advocacy and debates on Aboriginal issues and understand the wider international contexts in which these issues circulate. Students who complete this sub-major are equipped to make a significant contribution to the Aboriginal public policy domain and community.

Further information on this sub-major can be found at:

Completion requirements