The minor in Indigenous Australian Studies enables students with an interest in Indigenous Australian studies to take a set of interrelated courses in different disciplines without the normal prerequisite required in each course. The major is interdisciplinary, in which it is possible to combine courses from anthropology, archaeology, art, art history, history, linguistics, music, and gender sexuality and culture for a broadly based understanding of Indigenous Australian societies and cultures, both past and present. Taken together the courses provide a comprehensive insight into Indigenous Australian studies, including Aboriginal origins, their occupation and adaption to the continent, their traditional and contemporary, social cultural, artistic, musical and linguistic practices, the impact of European colonisation, the history of the interrelationship between Aboriginal people and other Australians, the place of Indigenous people in Australian society today, and issues of representation.

Learning outcomes

• An understanding of why Aboriginal societies and cultures have been so important in the history of European social theory
• A knowledge of the diversity of Indigenous societies and cultures prior to colonisation
• An ability to locate developments in Indigenous Visual Art in the broader contexts of political, social and International Visual culture
• An ability to assess much of the public discourse around Aboriginal culture
• An understanding of the public debates and reporting of issues in Indigenous affairs in Australia and an ability to deconstruct them
• A knowledge of the place and significance of language in Indigenous cultures
• An understandings of how attitudes to Aboriginal history have changed over time, in response both to a changing political climate and the impact of Indigenous perspectives on historical writing.