Projects

Aboriginal Studies

INDEX

This is a journal of my studies at the Eora Centre,Sydney, an initiative of the Aboriginal community that later became part of TAFE (Technical And Further Education). I began this journal in 2006 when I needed to care for my father in London and wanted to continue my studies online. Writing the journal helped me organise thoughts and feelings that came up as I studied. It also made me easy to find! During this time a distant cousin contacted me via this website and we shared stories about our stolen generation grandparents. Since then we've met in person and we recognise ourselves as family with common ancestry in Victoria's Grampians district. I continue this journal in the hope that more connections will be made between our people and our country.

Cultural Aspects Historical Issues Race Relations Contemporary Issues

What are the facts?

What is my role in the event I am learning about?

How does this information affected my outlook on Aboriginal culture and spirituality?

What feelings and senses do the study notes and other texts I read evoke?

What is the political and social climate of this time I'm living in?

What was the political and social climate of past times I learn about?

What was my family doing during those events that affected Aboriginal people in the past?

What am I doing during the events that affect Aboriginal people in the present?

Biame, the creator spirit, left the earth after its creation to reside as a dark shape in the Milky Way. The emu is inextricably linked with the wide grasslands of Australia, the landscape managed by the Aboriginals. The fate of the emu, people and grain are locked in step because, for Aboriginal people, the economy and the spirit are inseparable. Europeans stare at the stars but Aboriginal people also see the spaces in between where the spirit resides.

Bruce Pascoe, (2014) Front page, Dark Emu, Magabala Books Aboriginal Corporation, Broome, Western Australia