White women writing: two teachers as orang puteh in complex borderlands

Abstract

Framed as portraiture, this narrative inquiry helps in understanding a potentially contested arena. As two women reflecting on our multiple positionings as teacher educators, we share situated memories as explanations for recommendations about working in cultural borderlands. Sited in Australia, but inviting conversation with others in similar circumstances wherever they may be, the stories embrace a tangled web of intentions, empathy, privilege, advocacy and opportunity. Having sought previously to foreground both Indigenous and academic voices in a form of border crossing, we now also consider our own voices as orang puteh (white people) and interrogate our own privileged research positioning. In this alternative presentation, findings relate to woven threads of Respect, Partnership, Advocacy and Identity.

Keywords:

• Indigenous collaboration
• self-study
• narrative inquiry

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the traditional custodians of the people on whose lands these stories have been lived and told, and the elders past and present, and all people who have been part of the Professional Pathways work, including those who may have passed on. Thanks are due to Professor Pat Diamond for his feedback on an earlier version of this paper and the Reviewer/s for their thoughtful input. An early version of this paper was originally developed for presentation at a Centre for Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood conference, Melbourne.

Notes

1. The use of the terms ‘Indigenous’ and ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander’ are indicative groupings to assist the reader; these terms may or may not be accepted or used by all people involved in the research or interpreted in the same ways by all readers.

2. The use of the term ‘early childhood’ reflects the internationally recognized definition of work with children from birth through to the age of 8, with, in this case, a focus on prior to school settings.