Tone It Down a Bit!: Euphemism as a Colonial Device in Australian Indigenous Studies

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Notes

Indigenous studies at the University of Wollongong gives emphases to both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and histories. Our student cohort in Indigenous studies at first-year level consists of approximately 5% of Indigenous students although this number is growing. The remainder are non-Indigenous students from the locale, from a range of ethic and cultural backgrounds, ages, and class backgrounds. We are also hosts to sessional cohorts of international students primarily from the United States. In most of our classes the balance of female to male students would be in the ratio of 10:4.

I am aware I am conflating notions of guilt and shame and that these have particular disciplinary connotations in psychology. It is my observation that what manifests as guilt or shame in students in Indigenous studies are an effect of neoliberal discourses that construct the nation state according to particular discourses of nationalist sentiment that don't allow for critique. I note also that guilt and shame cross over to varying degrees and can be understood in collective contexts (e.g., where collective shame is warranted and can in some instances have a productive pedagogical function) or experienced as individual responses that can be immobilizing and counterproductive to critical engagement.

The concept of “critical allies” is used to refer to non-Indigenous people engaging with Indigenous people and struggles from a standpoint of alliance that both recognizes, and seeks to disrupt, colonial power relations. Questions regarding what it means to be a critical ally are central to my current research.