Sustainability Concepts in Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Cultures

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Throsby ◽  
Ekaterina Petetskaya
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
International Policy ◽  
Indigenous Cultures ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Torres Strait

Abstract:The concepts of sustainability, and of the more specific notion of sustainable development, have become entrenched in national and international policy making over the last half century. However, little attention has been paid to sustainability as it relates to indigenous communities. This article discusses sustainability concepts as understood in indigenous and non-indigenous societies, drawing a number of illustrations from the experiences and practices of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia. We point out that the two approaches to sustainability share many common concerns, although significant differences are evident. While the paradigm of sustainability can be seen as a universal concept that can be applied irrespective of social, political, or cultural context, it is argued that a fully realized model of sustainability for application in non-indigenous societies will only be possible if it acknowledges the importance of culture and incorporates the insights that have been accumulated over generations in indigenous knowledge systems.

Swimming not drowning – resilience as a key determinant of success for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pre-tertiary students

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 159-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Hall ◽  
Catherine Maughan ◽  
Michaela Wilkes ◽  
Tony Thorpe ◽  
Joanne Forrest ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Academic Skills ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Transformative Experience ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Learning Contexts ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Narrative Methodology ◽  
Torres Strait

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how one tertiary enabling programme designed for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students uses a specifically designed pedagogy which goes beyond a focus on discrete academic skills to help students develop the resilience and knowledge about learning they need to be successful in tertiary learning contexts. Design/methodology/approach – A narrative methodology is used to explore how graduates analysed and evaluated their experience of the course. Findings – The stories show that for these students, resilience is a dynamic and multifaceted construct. Strength, confidence and resilience for these students come from seeing and valuing the strength and resilience that already exists in Indigenous people and Indigenous knowledge systems and using this as a basis for developing their own resilience. Originality/value – This focus on resilience can provide a transformative experience for students who have largely been marginalised from the mainstream educational system, assisting them to build the crucial “cultural capital” required to be successful in their tertiary studies, while reinforcing the strength and knowledge they already bring with them. Through this process students are offered a way of navigating the higher education landscape on their own terms.

scholarly journals ‘At the grass roots level it’s about sitting down and talking’: exploring quality improvement through case studies with high-improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary healthcare services

BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. e027568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Larkins ◽  
Karen Carlisle ◽  
Nalita Turner ◽  
Judy Taylor ◽  
Kerry Copley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Community Engagement ◽  
Primary Healthcare ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Community Context ◽  
Health Improvement ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Torres Strait

ObjectivesImproving the quality of primary care is an important strategy to improve health outcomes. However, responses to continuous quality improvement (CQI) initiatives are variable, likely due in part to a mismatch between interventions and context. This project aimed to understand the successful implementation of CQI initiatives in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health services in Australia through exploring the strategies used by ‘high-improving’ Indigenous primary healthcare (PHC) services.Design, settings and participantsThis strengths-based participatory observational study used a multiple case study method with six Indigenous PHC services in northern Australia that had improved their performance in CQI audits. Interviews with healthcare providers, service users and managers (n=134), documentary review and non-participant observation were used to explore implementation of CQI and the enablers of quality improvement in these contexts.ResultsServices approached the implementation of CQI differently according to their contexts. Common themes previously reported included CQI systems, teamwork, collaboration, a stable workforce and community engagement. Novel themes included embeddedness in the local historical and cultural contexts, two-way learning about CQI and the community ‘driving’ health improvement. These novel themes were implicit in the descriptions of stakeholders about why the services were improving. Embeddedness in the local historical and cultural context resulted in ‘two-way’ learning between communities and health system personnel.ConclusionsPractical interventions to strengthen responses to CQI in Indigenous PHC services require recruitment and support of an appropriate and well prepared workforce, training in leadership and joint decision-making, regional CQI collaboratives and workable mechanisms for genuine community engagement. A ‘toolkit’ of strategies for service support might address each of these components, although strategies need to be implemented through a two-way learning process and adapted to the historical and cultural community context. Such approaches have the potential to assist health service personnel strengthen the PHC provided to Indigenous communities.

scholarly journals What Can Traditional Indigenous Knowledge Teach Us About Changing Our Approach to Human Activity and Environmental Stewardship in Order to Reduce the Severity of Climate Change?

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
John G Hansen ◽  
Rose Antsanen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Environmental Stewardship ◽  
Fundamental Assumption ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Many Indigenous communities living on traditional lands have not contributed significantly to harmful climate change. Yet, they are the most likely to be impacted by climate change. This article discusses environmental stewardship in relation to Indigenous experiences and worldviews. Indigenous knowledge teaches us about environmental stewardship. It speaks of reducing the severity of climate change and of continued sustainable development. The methodology that directs this research is premised on the notion that the wisdom of the Elders holds much significance for addressing the harmful impacts of climate change in the present day. This article's fundamental assumption is that Indigenous knowledge offers practical and theoretical recommendations to current approaches to human activity and environmental issues. We share findings from interviews with Cree Elders who discussed their worldviews and knowledge systems. Findings revealed that Indigenous knowledge offers a philosophy and practice that serve to reduce the severity of climate change.

Learning From Place

2020 ◽  
pp. 264-286
Author(s):  
Kevin O'Connor ◽  
Gladys Sterenberg ◽  
Norman Vaughan
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Shared Understanding ◽  
Community Partners ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Teacher Education Pedagogy

This chapter investigates how teacher candidates' experiences in STEAM field studies with community partners can inform work in teacher education within an integrated practicum based on curriculum of place. The overall goal of the inquiry is to better understand and articulate the particular ways in which people value place-based knowledge. Through relationships with Indigenous communities, the team of educators has a deeply held conviction that sustained deliberations on the connections between Indigenous knowledge systems and place-based thinking can provide significant opportunities for reframing education. Learning from place emphasizes a relationship with the land, something deeply respected in Indigenous communities and something absent from much of place-based education. The research explores this tension as we come to a deeper and shared understanding of co-responsibility within Treaty 7 relationships. The project seeks to close this gap by considering varying perspectives of place as it informs STEAM teacher education pedagogy.

Survival of the Fittest Protection of Indigenous Knowledge

2022 ◽  
pp. 294-316
Author(s):  
Stewart Lee Kugara ◽  
Tsetselelani Decide Mdhluli ◽  
Pfarelo Eva Matshidze
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Benefit Sharing ◽  
Qualitative Design ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Legal Methodology ◽  
Survival Of The Fittest

This chapter reflects on numerous protections that are available for indigenous knowledge from those who misappropriate it for personal aggrandizement without regard of the holders of the knowledge. The chapter is underpinned on the Afrocentricity and Sankofa theories. A socio-legal methodology was adopted to ground the work to enable students studying indigenous knowledge systems to have a foundation and be able to follow the interdisciplinarity in the writing. As such, a doctrinal approach and qualitative design were engaged to buttress the philosophical reasoning and capture the rich and unrecorded knowledge of inorganic intellectuals. The chapter's standpoint is that the protection of indigenous knowledge requires African-tailored legislation that resonates with indigenous communities' beliefs and are pragmatic yet innovative to bring benefit sharing. In pursuing this, a normative legal framework that could be utilised in the protection of indigenous knowledge is explored.

A Global and Intergenerational Storm

2019 ◽  
pp. 13-38
Author(s):  
Kristina Diprose ◽  
Gill Valentine ◽  
Robert M. Vanderbeck ◽  
Chen Liu ◽  
Katie Mcquaid
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
International Policy ◽  
Original Contribution ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Human Sense

This chapter situates the INTERSECTION programme of research within wider international debates regarding the relationship between consumption and climate change. It explores how this relationship is addressed in arguments for environmental justice and sustainable development, and how it is reflected in international policy-making. This discussion highlights how climate change is typically cast as both an international and intergenerational injustice, or the convergence of a ‘global storm’ and an ‘intergenerational storm’. This chapter also situates the original contribution of the book within recent social science scholarship that explores how people live with a changing climate, advocating a ‘human sense’ of climate and social change, and outlines the main themes of the subsequent empirical chapters.

scholarly journals Editorial

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. iii-iv
Keyword(s):  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Indigenous Education ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Australian Journal ◽  
Research Groups ◽  
Research Journal ◽  
Torres Strait

The challenge for any research journal today is how to continue to make the work we publish relevant, contemporary and innovative for the research groups, educational organisations, and Indigenous communities locally and globally that we serve. At the same time, we recognise it is important for us to continue our work in The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education within the critical pedagogical agenda in which it began; that is, the empowerment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through education, combined with a concern to critique and challenge the national and international colonial contexts in which Indigenous education is positioned today.

scholarly journals Indigenous knowledge, an unexploited source for Sustainable Development: An Opportunity for Africapitalism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrietta Onwuegbuzie ◽  
Adun okpe ◽  
Eseroghene Orighoyegha
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Emerging Markets ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Management Philosophy ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Socio Economic Development

<p>Sustainable development in developing countries, particularly in Africa, has been of interest among scholars, practitioners and policymakers for decades. There is increased acknowledgment of Indigenous knowledge as an underexploited, yet invaluable source of sustainable development in emerging markets. This paper thus examines the constructs of Africapitalism management philosophy and indigenous knowledge. We examine diverse ways through which Africapitalism can embed indigenous knowledge systems as a key growth driver for sustainable socio-economic development. Finally, we discuss the implications for researchers and policy makers.</p>

scholarly journals Educative Power and the Respectful Curricular Inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music

2021 ◽  
pp. 71-86
Author(s):  
Michael Webb ◽  
Clint Bracknell
Keyword(s):  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Indigenous Cultures ◽  
Indigenous Music ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
Musical Renaissance ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Way

AbstractThis chapter argues for the full, respectful curricular inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music in order to promote a more balanced and equitable social and cultural vision of the nation-state in Australian schools. It challenges views that claim Indigenous cultures have been irretrievably lost or are doomed to extinction, as well as the fixation on musical authenticity. We propose that the gradual broadening of Indigenous musical expressions over time and the musical renaissance of the new millennium have created an unprecedented opportunity for current music educators to experience the educative power of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music. This means that culturally nonexposed music teachers can employ familiar musical-technical approaches to the music even as they begin to more fully investigate the music’s cultural-contextual meanings. The chapter considers issues that impinge on the music’s educative power, especially those relating to its definition, its intended audiences, and pedagogies. It aims to help clear the way for the classroom to become an environment in which students can sense the depth and vitality of contemporary Australian Indigenous music.

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