Australian Indigenous Studies: Current Events
Australian Indigenous Studies recently hosted the afternoon workshop Fractured Worlds: Trauma and Rage in Indigenous Communities. The workshop developed out of discussions with Dr Jeremy Moss, Director of the Social Justice Initiative, and took as its starting point Germaine Greer’s 2008 Melbourne University Press essay on rage.
The workshop began with the Welcome to Country after which Aunty Delmae Barton, a visiting Kalkadoon elder, sang a powerful healing song. The first paper, delivered by Philip Morrissey and Johanna Simmons, drew on representations of Aboriginal masculinity in novels and films by Aboriginal men. The paper followed concepts from Brian McCoy’s Holding Men and developed the role of Aboriginal women in supporting male integrality. Professor Nick Haslam, School of Behavioural Science, identified the limitations of Greer’s use of the term rage as an explanation for the behaviour of Aboriginal men and suggested alternative pathways in conceptualising and addressing social trauma in Australian Indigenous communities. Finally, Professor Boni Robertson, who had prepared a scholarly paper, decided to provide a human face to the discussion of rage and trauma in Indigenous communities and recounted selected stories and experiences relevant to this theme.
Australian Indigenous Studies is now developing a major conference is planned for 2010 and an interdisciplinary research collective is being established.
Aunty Delmae Barton, Professor Boni Robertson and Debra Stoter.