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Towards Reconciliation: Teaching Gender and Music in the Context of Indigenous Australian Women's Performance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Elizabeth Mackinlay*
Affiliation:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
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Extract

This paper addresses issues related to the conflicting paradigms of Western systems of knowledge and Indigenous systems of knowledge within the context of teaching about gender and music in Indigenous Australian women's performance practice. I will first describe the subject which I am currently teaching at the University of Queensland. I will then discuss the theoretical concerns related to teaching about gender and music in terms of the differences between Western and Indigenous ways of knowing about these concepts. I will then examine the conflicts which arise in the context of teaching Indigenous studies within a non-Indigenous framework. Finally, conclusions will be drawn in regard to the reconciling the differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of knowing and the implications for teaching this type of curriculum on an international scale.

Type
Section C: Tertiary Education
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

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