AJL58084 Indigenous Australia

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2025

The course is not taught in Spring 2025

Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 6 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Martina Horáková, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Martina Horáková, Ph.D.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Supplier department: Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 10 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
This course explores various issues that Indigenous peoples in Australia have grappled with since colonial times. They include complex socio-historical and cultural encounters with settler populations, the history of (mis)representations in public and artistic discourses, the struggle for equality and recognition, the contemporary position of Aboriginal communities in Australia, land claims, urbanization, and cultural production. To analyze some of the most contested debates, examples from literature, film, historiography, journalism and social documents will be used to illustrate the complexity of representations of Indigenous Australians. Students will be required to read assigned texts and watch the films, give presentations, participate in class discussions, write regular response papers during the course and a final essay, incorporating critical analyses and theoretical vocabulary into their work.
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course, students should be able to: gain deeper knowledge of the position of Indigenous peoples in Australia; appreciate the diversity of various Indigenous groups and communities; have a better understanding of the history of Aboriginal-settler relationships; be able to interpret various kind of textual/visual representations of Indigenous peoples in literature and film.
Syllabus
  • Week 1: Introduction to the course policie and assignments
  • Week 2: First Encounters
  • SBS documentary First Australians, episode 1: “They Have Come to Stay”; Bennelong. “Letter to Mr Philips, Lord Sydney’s Steward.” Macquarie Pen Anthology of Aboriginal Literature. Eds. Anita Heiss, Peter Minter. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2008. 9.; Van Toorn, Penny. “Bennelong's Letter.” Writing Never Arrives Naked: Early Aboriginal Cultures of Writing in Australia. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 2006. 53-70.
  • Week 3: Representation, Authenticity, Collaboration
  • Ten Canoes (2006), dir. Rolf de Heer; Langton, Marcia. “Section Two: The Politics of Aboriginal Representation.” Well, I Heard It on the Radio and I Saw It on the Television... Sydney: Australian Film Commission, 1993. 23-44.; Huijser, Henk, and Brooke Collins-Gearing. “Representing Indigenous Stories in the Cinema: Between Collaboration and Appropriation.” The International Journal of Diversity 7.3 (2007).; Quine, Janine. “Changing Perspectives of Aboriginal Spirituality: A Film Review of Ten Canoes and Samson and Delilah.” Media, Film, Music, Religion. Web. 20 Feb. 2017 “Cross-Cultural Collaboration and Representation in ‘Indigenous’ Film: An analysis of collaborative outcomes in Ten Canoes.” Media, Film, Music, Religion. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.
  • Week 4: Singing the Country
  • Kim Scott, True Country (1993); Pascal, Richard. “Singing Our Place Little Bit New: Aboriginal Narrativity and Nation Building in Kim Scott’s True Country.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 46:1 (2004): 3-11.; Fielder, John. “Country and Connections: An Overview of the Writing of Kim Scott.” Altitude 6 (2005): 1-12.
  • Week 5: Land Ownership and Indigenous Claims
  • One Night the Moon (2001), dir. Rachel Perkins; Moreton-Robinson, Aileen M. “I Still Call Australia Home: Indigenous Belonging and Place in a White Postcolonising Society.” Uprootings/Regroundings: Questions of Home and Migration. Ed. Sarah Ahmed et al.. Oxford, UK: Berg Publishing: 2003. 23-40.; Gelder Ken, and Jane Jacobs. Uncanny Australia: Sacredness and Identity in a Postcolonial Nation. Carlton South, VIC: Melbourne UP, 1998. pp. xi-42 Probyn, Fiona. “This Land is Mine/This Land is Me”: Reconciling Harmonies in One Night the Moon.” Senses of Cinema 19 (2002). Web. http://sensesofcinema.com/2002/australian-cinema-and-culture/this_land/#1
  • Week 6: Indigenous Womanhood and Sisterhood
  • Radiance (1998), dir. Rachel Perkins; Rita and Jackie Huggins, Auntie Rita (1994)
  • Week 7: reading week
  • Week 8: Assimilation Policies, Value of Cultural Difference
  • Visit to the Roma museum; Assignment: write a two page report, linking the context of Aboriginal and Roma histories and representations
  • Week 9: Indigenous Aesthetics: Art, Dance, Drama
  • Wesley Enoch, Black Medea (2000); Bangarra Dance Theatre; Daniel Boyd’s paintings
  • Week 10: Indigenous Humour, Gender and Race
  • Vivienne Cleven, Bitin’ Back (2001); Ravenscroft, Alison. “‘Curled Up Like a Skinny Black Question Mark’: the Irreducibility of Gender and Race in Vivienne Cleven’s Bitin’ Back.” Australian Feminist Studies 18. 41 (2003): 187-197.; Pascal, Richard. Review of Bitin’ Back. Aboriginal History 26 (2002): 262-265.
  • Week 11: closing the course, proposals for final essays
Literature
  • Bourke, Colin, et al., eds. Aboriginal Australia. St. Lucia: U of Queensland P, 2nd ed. 1998.
  • Australian Humanities Review (www.australianhumanitiesreview.org)
  • First Australians – SBS television documentary, http://www.sbs.com.au/firstaustralians/
Teaching methods
mini-lectures, class and group discussions, text/film analyses, student presentations; Course requirements and assessment: Students are expected to attend all the seminars (with the exception of illness or family emergency) as well as the screening sessions. Students are to read the primary and secondary texts and/or watch films before class (unless indicated otherwise) and participate actively in the class discussions. Assessment includes preparing team presentations in the first half of the course, writing a short mid-term test (in week 7), writing regular response papers in the second half of the course, and submitting a final essay (min. 6 pages double-spaced, full bibliography, 12p. Times New Roman, MLA style).
Assessment methods
Assesment: class discussions, presentations, response papers, final essay. Class participation and forum contribution 20% 5x Response papers 30% Final research paper 50%
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.
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