S06-E02: Bringing First Nations knowledge systems into a Euro-centric tertiary educational system

Charles, it's great to be here.

You've long argued that Indigenous knowledge systems represent a foundational intellectual architecture, as I mentioned.

Let's just put that in perspective.

Let's understand what are Indigenous knowledge systems and then how do they fit into the current tertiary education systems.

Well, Charles, my first differentiator is the time when I give keynotes.

I ask people to look at their watch and give every minute on their watch a thousand years.

And blackfellas have been here the full hour.

But the foundations of Western knowledge, Plato, Socrates, have been here one minute, three seconds ago.

So we put that in perspective here.

That is a good way of sort of introducing people to the concept of how vast our knowledge systems are.

But the fact that there are multiple nations across this continent, so one Indigenous knowledge system is not enough that it's knowledgess and reflecting the diversity of Aboriginal nationhood.

And of course, I write about this thing called hegemonic drift, that how much we get up and we promote Indigenous knowledge, we get dragged back to the Western knowledge because it was such a colonising force in our life.

And the moment we walked into a classroom sitting, we entered into an industrial classroom that was bound on colonising us.

So we get dragged back.

So what I hope people get to a mature state where we balance knowledge systems, Western and Indigenous, and find the space to walk between.

But in understanding Western knowledge and the psychological condition, gardeners' intelligence is one way where I look at it.

If you look at Western knowledge, it's focusing on logic and reason, numbers and literacy as the foundational knowledges.

And it puts away environmental knowledge, puts away spiritual knowledge, cultural knowledge.

So Indigenous knowledge is far more holistic.

And I also love the methodology that underpins Indigenous knowledge, that the teacher becomes the learner and the learner becomes the teacher.

It takes away that power... dimension into the classroom and to me i challenge non-indigenous colleagues if they want to build up their quilt marks which is the assessment on them as academics move to a more relational way of education move into indigenous philosophy of education and those grades will lift

Charles, it's great to be here.

You've long argued that Indigenous knowledge systems represent a foundational intellectual architecture, as I mentioned.

Let's just put that in perspective.

Let's understand what are Indigenous knowledge systems and then how do they fit into the current tertiary education systems.

Well, Charles, my first differentiator is the time when I give keynotes.

I ask people to look at their watch and give every minute on their watch a thousand years.

And blackfellas have been here the full hour.

But the foundations of Western knowledge, Plato, Socrates, have been here one minute, three seconds ago.

So we put that in perspective here.

That is a good way of sort of introducing people to the concept of how vast our knowledge systems are.

But the fact that there are multiple nations across this continent, so one Indigenous knowledge system is not enough that it's knowledgess and reflecting the diversity of Aboriginal nationhood.

And of course, I write about this thing called hegemonic drift, that how much we get up and we promote Indigenous knowledge, we get dragged back to the Western knowledge because it was such a colonising force in our life.

And the moment we walked into a classroom sitting, we entered into an industrial classroom that was bound on colonising us.

So we get dragged back.

So what I hope people get to a mature state where we balance knowledge systems, Western and Indigenous, and find the space to walk between.

But in understanding Western knowledge and the psychological condition, gardeners' intelligence is one way where I look at it.

If you look at Western knowledge, it's focusing on logic and reason, numbers and literacy as the foundational knowledges.

And it puts away environmental knowledge, puts away spiritual knowledge, cultural knowledge.

So Indigenous knowledge is far more holistic.

And I also love the methodology that underpins Indigenous knowledge, that the teacher becomes the learner and the learner becomes the teacher.

It takes away that power... dimension into the classroom and to me i challenge non-indigenous colleagues if they want to build up their quilt marks which is the assessment on them as academics move to a more relational way of education move into indigenous philosophy of education and those grades will lift