1

This is an early draft of a book chapter. Please refer to the following reference for the

completed version:

Bodkin-Andrews, G. & Carlson, B. (2013). Higher Education and Aboriginal identity: Reviewing the burdens

from personal to epistemological racism. In R. Craven & J. Mooney (eds), Diversity in Higher

Education: Seeding success in Indigenous Australian higher education, Volume 14 (pp.29-54). Emerald

Group Publishing Limited

Changes introduced as a result of publishing processes such as copy-editing and

formatting may not be reflected in this document. For a definitive version of this work, please

refer to the published source:

The full published paper can be accessed here:

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/S1479-3644%282013%290000014002

2

RACISM, ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER IDENTITIES, AND

HIGHER EDUCATION: REVIEWING THE BURDEN OF EPISTEMOLOGICAL

AND OTHER RACISMS

Gawaian Bodkin-Andrews1,2

& Bronwyn Carlson3

1University of Western Sydney,

2National Indigenous Research and Knowledges Network,

3University of Wollongong

Abstract

Purpose

Emerging discourses focusing on the social, emotional, educational, and economic

disadvantages identified for Australia’s First Peoples (when compared to their non-

Indigenous counterparts) are becoming increasingly dissociated with an understanding of the

interplay between historical and current trends in racism. In addition, it may be argued that

the very construction of Western perspectives of Indigenous identity (as opposed to

identities) may be deeply entwined within the undertones of the interplay between

epistemological racism, and the emergence of new racism today.

Methodology

This chapter shall review a substantial portion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

educational research, with a particular emphasis on the acknowledgment of the impact of

racism on the educational outcomes (and other life outcomes) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander peoples with a focus on higher education.

Findings

This review has found that whilst there is evidence emerging towards the engagement of

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in all forms of education, there is also

considerable resistance to targeted efforts to reduce the inequities between Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander students and all Australians (especially within the university sector). It

is argued this resistance, both at the student and curriculum level, is clear evidence of pre-

existing epistemological mentalities and new racism.

Implications

The implications of this review suggest that greater effort needs to be placed in recognising

unique Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experiences and perspectives, not only at the

3

student level, but such perspectives need to be imbedded throughout the whole university

environment.

Key Words: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Higher Education, Epistemological

Racism, Identity, Student Equity.

Category: Research Paper

In the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research setting, the benefits of participation and

completion of studies within the higher education sector have been cited as one of the key

pathways to reducing the many inequities identified between Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander peoples when compared to all Australians (New South Wales Aboriginal Education

Consultative Group and New South Wales Department of Education and Training, 2004).

Whilst considerable research has sought to understand the antecedents of such inequities

(Beresford, 2012), and to a lesser extent attempt to drive a positive research agenda for

change (Craven, 2011; McRae, et al., 2000), it may be argued that the insidious nature of

racism within Australia is still a major impediment to such change (Bodkin-Andrews,

Denson, & Bansell, 2013; Rigney, 1999; Rose, 2012). Indeed, the theme of racism has been

consistently raised as a significant concern for Aboriginal youth and adults across mental

health, physical health, social, and educational domains (Jonas, 2003; Groome & Hamilton,

1995; Swan & Raphael, 1995; Zubrick et al., 2006). Unfortunately, although quality research

has recently emerged seeking to identify the most important factors that may contribute to

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student achievement and retention patterns across all

forms of education (Craven & Bodkin-Andrews, 2011), research identifying the impact of

racism on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australian students, it is argued, is much

more limited. It is the purpose of this chapter to review not only the theoretical limitations in

our understanding of racism within Australia, but to also examine emerging research

identifying the impact of racism on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In doing

so, the inequities that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were and are more likely

4

to be forced to endure both in the past and present contexts will be explored. From this

recognition of the negative imbalance of life opportunities presented to Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander peoples throughout Australia’s history, it is argued we will be able to more

fully understand the detrimental impact of all forms of racism that still exist today, and thus

create a stronger platform to address racism in the higher education sector.

Understanding Epistemological Racism

Just prior to the turn of the new millennium, Scheurich and Young (1997) published a critical

research paper identifying a long-term, resilient, and intrinsic racial bias within the very

foundations of international educational research (which Rigney (1999) stresses is also highly

prevalent within Australian educational research). This bias, they claim, should be recognized

as one of the most damaging forms of racism in existence. A racism that “for any generation

or group is the one that we do not see, that is invisible to our lens – the one we participate in

without consciously knowing or intending it” (Scheurich & Young, 1997, p. 12). Specifically,

they refer to epistemological racism, a form of racism they consider to be deeply imbedded

within educational practice, research, theory, and teaching. Epistemological racism extends

across all research perspectives, and has arisen out of an overemphasis (and sole emphasis)

on the lens of the social history and culture of the dominant race. Within Australia, Rigney

(1999) argues that this overreliance on the dominant race perspectives had effectively

excluded any participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in constructing both

research design and theory (even when such ‘research’ focuses on Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander affairs). In consideration of this silencing of diverse Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander voices within the very bedrock of Australia’s educational history (Rose, 2012),

it is not surprising that it can be argued that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander place

within Australian society has been seen as one of the “lowest rung on the ladder” (Tripcony,

2000, p. 10).

The contemporary struggles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders fighting for a stronger

recognition of their cultural voices, and the research that relates to it, cannot be adequately

understood without focusing a critical lens on historical policy and regulatory context that:

(1) governed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and (2) served to regulate who

even counts as being an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander (Carlson, 2011). Despite the

existence of hundreds of self-identifying and named autonomous groups across the continent,

the original inhabitants of Australia have always been understood and named by Europeans

5

as a singular group – ‘the Aborigines’ (Bourke, Bourke, & Edwards, 2006). This identifier is

a European word and concept that has no foundations within any of the many languages of

Australia’s First Peoples. The identification of ‘the Aborigine’ was historically constructed in

European thought and imagination as the primitive native and understood in terms of distance

from the ‘civilized’ European male who stood at the top of a global human racial and cultural

hierarchy (therefore a classic example of epistemological racism that still permeates today).

This hierarchy was predicated on the concept of European cultural progress as the indicator

of superior intelligence - and as measured via the meanings constructed through

Enlightenment knowledge (Gascoigne, 1994). This strand of European intellectual thought

theorized a hierarchy of the progress of different human cultures in direct relation to

biological and racial determinants. In this schema, ‘full-blood’ Aboriginal people of Australia

were “seen as archaic survivors from the dawn of man’s existence” (Attwood and Markus

1997, p. 1). ‘Full-blood’ Aboriginal people were assumed to be a ‘dying race’ with “the

wandering savage...doomed to extinction by the progress of that type of humanity with which

it was impossible to assimilate him” (Turner, 1904 cited in Attwood and Markus 1997, p. 1).

The position of ‘part-Aboriginal’ people with an a mixture of European blood was a source

for official concern however, especially with the growth of this population in the ‘contact

zones’ during and following frontier expansion, violence, and dispossession (Bleakley, 1961).

The presence of European blood indicated a genetic inheritance that embodied the capacity to

progress culturally.

While there were differences between the States’ practices, governments generally mobilized

racial thinking to differentiate and manage Aboriginal people and to determine who came

within the bounds of legislation designed for 'protection' or ‘segregation’ and who could be

exempted from such regulation. To this end, Aboriginal individuals were defined by the

various States according to the quantum of Aboriginal and/or European blood and

‘preponderance of blood’ tests became the framework for determining who was Aboriginal

(McCorquodale, 1997). The application of this thinking continued to be an administrative

convenience for governments across Australia long after racial theorizing was discredited in

the intellectual domain (Tonkinson, 1990, Gardiner-Garden, 2003), and today Aboriginality

is a central marker for the progress of Australian’s educational standards and sense of social

justice.

6

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers, non-Aboriginal researchers, policy makers,

and community workers in Australia have long acknowledged the need to pursue social

justice, through the identification of effective strategies to promote positive outcomes in

education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (e.g., Craven & Marsh, 2008;

NSW AECG & NSW DET, 2004). Yet, important to identifying such strategies, one must

understand the dynamic interplay of historical and current mechanisms underpinning the

inequities Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students may be subjected to. Indeed, it

should not be denied that upon European colonization, the very cultural essence of many

Aboriginal nations came under threat, and the extent of this threat was none the more

apparent in the loss of both life and cultural practices. For example, it was estimated that in

1778, there were over one million Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders spread across nearly

300 language groups (McConvell & Theiberger, 2001). Within a century though, and largely

due to introduced diseases, loss of land and its natural resources, violence and massacres of

Aboriginal peoples, the population dropped to 60,000 people (Ranzijn, McConnochie, &

Nolan, 2009). It is estimated that less than 20 Aboriginal Australian languages are spoken by

enough people to ensure their preservation for the next generations (McConvell &

Theiberger, 2001).

Aboriginal ‘Education’?

The history of educational policies, programs, and attitudes targeting Aboriginal peoples has

been for the most part extremely negative in its orientation and results, to the extent that this

“history has left a tragic legacy to the educational outcomes and opportunities of Aboriginal

young people. Generations of racist-inspired policies produced intergenerational

underachievement and alienation” (Beresford, 2012, p. 119). Indeed, what is obvious from a

glance at the historical (and in some cases current) educational trends are that the aims and

quality of education has differed drastically for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. The

embedded connotation of these differing standards was directly related to the negative

attitudes of the non-Aboriginal providers of ‘education’, and also the early political, social,

and scientific attitudes directed at Aboriginal cultures as a whole (Beresford, 2012). For

example, Nakata (2007), in examining the foundations for early Torres Strait Islander

education highlights that such education was developed on highly biased ‘knowledge’

collected by scientists and missionaries to understand the ‘savage mind’ which was thought

to be positioned as very low on the evolutionary scale. As a result Education was focused on

Western morals, Christianization, and a conscious effort to ‘civilize’ Aboriginal people away

7

from their ‘savage’ ways. Thus the initial approach towards the ‘education’ of Aboriginal

Australian peoples was heavily influenced by the perceived need to obliterate traditional

cultural values (Wilson-Miller, 2011; Nakata 2007; McConnochie, 1982). Although it may be

argued that such an approach is no longer accepted today, the continual resistance towards

teachings of traditional cultural values, learnings, and identities has echoed through what has

been identified as the differing eras of Aboriginal education within Australia; namely the

missionary/colonial, protectionist/assimilative, and integrative/inclusive periods (Beresford,

2012; Parbury, 2011; McConnochie, 1982).

The Colonial/Missionary Era. Under the colonial/missionary era, Aboriginal Australians who

survived the initial waves of colonization, invasion, and frontier violence were forced onto

missions and reserves where they were removed from the very foundation of their social,

religious, and ceremonial lives - their ties to their traditional lands (Bodkin & Robertson,

2008; Fogarty, 2012; Kerins, 2012). Aboriginal children were trained for a European life

which saw their values and cultures deemed irrelevant and uncivilized. Such training though

only sought to prepare Aboriginal children for the lowest type of labor within the increasingly

oppressive white hegemony (Wilson-Miller, 2011), thus creating a typecast for Aboriginal

Australians that saw them as subservient to the imposed Caucasian domination.

Naturally, missionary ‘education’ met with resistance from Aboriginal communities, families,

and children, which arguably contributed to the first wave of missionary closures around

1850 and possibly to the wave of ‘professional’ and wider European opinion that asserted that

any attempt to ‘civilize’ Aboriginal peoples from their ‘savage’ ways would be fruitless

(McConnochie, 1982; Parbury, 2011). As a result, a protectionist/segregation era of ill-

equipped reserves took the leading role in attempting to control the lives of Aboriginal

Australians.

The Protectionist/Segregation Era. Education for Aboriginal families during the protectionist

period (ranging from the 1860s to the 1940s) continued its derogatory nature by being little

more than an education of the most basic of menial and domestic duties, but also in

considering the geographic and social isolation of many of the reserves, this era served to

limit any opportunity Aboriginal peoples may have had to control their lives within the

European context (McConnochie, 1982; Price, 2012a). In addition to the low educational

standards, practices that are now well known to result in the devastating and long history of

8

the Stolen Generations (see the Brining Them Home report, HREOC, 1997; Williams-

Mozely, 2012) began to be more forcibly implemented. That is lighter skinned Aboriginal

children were forcibly removed from their families and placed in orphanages until such a

time that they were deemed suitable to be placed in the antagonistic ‘white’ society

(McConnochie, 1982). Parry (1997) argued that the early reasoning behind removal of

Aboriginal children was aimed at the continuation of cultural genocide where the removal of

Aboriginal children from the influence of their families and communities limited the

pathways to pass on Aboriginal cultural values and traditions were seriously hindered. In

addition, Elders of the Aboriginal communities were still held within isolated and segregated

reserves where it was though they would simply pass away and the need for such reserves

would cease to exist (Parbury, 2011; Parry, 1997).

The negative effects and confusion enforced on Aboriginal Australian identities from

missionary and segregationist eras should not be ignored. This has been well captured by

historian Peter Read in a well-cited assemblage. Its last sentences also hint at the ongoing

legacy for younger generations in the later political era of Aboriginal self-determination:

In 1935 a fair-skinned Australian of part-indigenous descent was ejected from a

hotel for being an Aboriginal. He returned to his home on the mission station to find

himself refused entry because he was not an Aboriginal. He tried to remove his

children but was told he could not because they were Aboriginal. He walked to the

next town where he was arrested for being an Aboriginal vagrant and placed on the

local reserve. During World War II he tried to enlist but was told he could not

because he was Aboriginal. He went interstate and joined up as a non-Aboriginal

person. After the war he could not acquire a passport without permission because he

was Aboriginal. He received exemption from the Aborigines Protection Act - and

was told that he could no longer visit his relations on the reserve because he was not

an Aboriginal. He was denied permission to enter the Returned Servicemen's Club

because he was [Aboriginal]. In the 1980s his daughter went to university on an

Aboriginal study grant. On the first day a student demanded to know, ‘What gives

you the right to call yourself Aboriginal?’ (1998, p. 169)

According to Read (1998), the regulation of Aboriginal identity rationalized and continually

intensified a “practice of [Aboriginal] extinction by legislation” (1998, p. 170) or “of

redefining the other out of existence” (1998, p. 173). Further, Read contends that the

contradictions in definitions based on blood quantum which accumulated across the range of

legislation in the historical eras up till the mid-1960s, were not the result of legislative or

9

bureaucratic bungling or incompetent implementation, as the absurdity could suggest, but an

intentional program designed:

to puzzle, divide, and ultimately cause to vanish, the indigenous people who

continued to pose a problem by their unwillingness to disappear. These seemingly

mutually excluding definitions, at first sight idiotic, were no accident. Likewise, the

divisions in the minds of Aboriginal people as to what exactly they were supposed to

be was [sic] no coincidence. (1998, p. 170)

Assimilation Era. With increased international attention being focused upon Australia’s

national and foreign affairs, the third era of Aboriginal education began roughly in the 1940’s

where Aboriginal (and migrant) children were to become just like other Australians (Ranzijn,

et al., 2009). The assimilation era saw a significant shift from segregation policies, but the

cultural deficit mentality was still dominant, especially within the educational setting. That is,

although Aboriginal children were given access to mainstream schooling and taught literacy

and numeracy skills previously denied to them, considerable resistance among Aboriginal

Australian students and communities could be observed. As identified by Ranzijn, et al.

(2009), such resistance emerged from the implicit assumption that Aboriginal students would

abandon their values, attitudes, and beliefs to become more like other Australians, but also

that other Australians would accept the increased presence of Aboriginal Australians without

racism that was still rampant within Australia (Beresford, 2012).

The overarching theme of policies across reserves, missionary, segregation, and

assimilation/absorption were designed with the intent to erase the existence and/or visibility

of Aboriginal and part-Aboriginal people and associated cultural practices. However,

assimilation proved a difficult and unachievable policy goal. Even though an unrecorded

number of ‘part-Aboriginal’ people in a range of circumstances were effectively assimilated

into the general Australian population over generations, many who chose or were coerced in

that direction found little acceptance in the White community. Most continued to be

ambiguously and ambivalently situated as not Aboriginal but not White either (Anderson

1994). It may be argued that in the continuing face of hostility, or at the very least

condescending policies of cultural deprivation and genocide, policy seeking to improve the

lived experiences of Aboriginal Australians (both outside and within education) need to

attempt to embrace the surviving values and cultures of Australia’s First Peoples.

10

Towards The Present: The Integration and Inclusion of Aboriginal Cultures

Towards the end of the 1960’s, an increasing awareness of the failure of assimilation policies

within education became apparent, and the policy of assimilation was gradually replaced with

a more integrative direction in education (Beresford, 2012; Ranzijn et al., 2009). Although

similar to the assimilative approach of seeking a greater representation of Aboriginal students

in the education system, policies implementing the integration ideal sought not to overtly

override and demean the importance of Aboriginal cultures, but rather to begin to include and

emphasize Aboriginal communities, and their cultures and values as an essential part of wider

Australian society.

There is a general consensus that the era of cultural integration and inclusion realized

considerable improvements in nearly all levels of education for Aboriginal students (DEST,

2005; Harrison & Greenfield, 2011; Price, 2012b; Sarra, 2011). Indeed, a major consultative

review of Aboriginal education in New South Wales (NSW) (NSW Aboriginal Education

Consultative Group Incorporated and the NSW Department of Education and Training [NSW

AECG & DEC], 2004), capturing the voices of Aboriginal communities, organizations,

teachers, and educational leaders, found that although the inequities between Aboriginal and

non-Aboriginal students still continue, evidence emerged for strong ‘pockets’ of educational

and community commitment towards righting the inequities suffered by Aboriginal students.

Most importantly, and largely based on a synergy of the positive and negative findings that

did emerge, a total of 71 recommendations were put forth, and these recommendations could

be split into nine general areas of concern. These included:

1. Strengthening policy, planning and implementation;

2. Extending quality teaching and learning;

3. Fortifying identities of Aboriginal students;

4. Engaging Aboriginal students;

5. Applying Aboriginal cultural knowledge;

6. Collaborating in partnerships;

7. Building community capacity;

8. Challenging racism; and

9. Advancing leadership and accountability

Central to these recommendations is the recognition of the values and lessons emanating

from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, which is notably the most critical aspect

to the more recent integrative or inclusive educational practices and policies (Craven &

11

Bodkin-Andrews, 2011). Arguably, one of the most successful set of culturally inclusive

initiatives, is that of the What Works Program (see McRae et al., 2000; Ainsworth & McRae,

2009), which is a collection of case studies that show the positive effects of culture-based

strategies on Aboriginal students’ schooling engagement and achievement. Overall, these

case studies sought to directly tackle pedagogical practices including: cultural inclusion,

school engagement and participation, community partnerships, self-confidence, feedback

strategies, development of achievement skills, discrimination and racism, and peer and

teacher relationships (MacRae et al., 2000). In reviewing the overall trends associated with

these projects, McRae et al. (2000) suggest that it is imperative that Aboriginal students

themselves must be given respect, their culture be both respected and included in the

education system, that Aboriginal students have the benefit of quality teaching practices, and

that the students themselves regularly attend school to experience these strategies. From this,

they argue that:

A platform for marked and significant improvement in outcomes is beginning to

emerge. The structural and cultural impediments are not as strong as they once were.

The time for making improvement really is now (McRae et al., 2000, p. 180).

Such improvements though must be respectful of the diversity and strength of the Aboriginal

cultural values, and should never be, as McRae (2006) argued, some simple condescending

caricature of what is Aboriginality (e.g., over-use of misrepresented dot-paintings).

Aboriginal cultures and values incorporate traditional teachings and cultural laws, traditional

and contemporary artistic expressions, and recognition of what has influenced, and

influences, Aboriginal ways of thinking, living, and learning both historically and

contemporary. It can be argued that the diversity of the Aboriginal identity is becoming

increasingly critical to understand what is Australia (Carlson, 2011; Nakata, 2012; Sarra,

2011), and this is evident in what Aboriginal knowledge is offering not only all of Australia’s

children, but academic and scientific professionals. Indeed, the knowledge of practices and

traditions of Aboriginal Australians is becoming increasingly recognized by the education

and scientific communities, whether it is through the sharing of unique and environmentally

sustainable land and water management strategies, the medicinal properties of native plants,

thousands of years of knowledge on climate change, and the effectiveness of traditional ways

of teaching and learning (Bodkin & Robertson, 2008; Fogarty, 2012; Kierns, 2012; Sarra,

2011; Yibarbuk et al., 2001). Although many Aboriginal languages and teachings have

become lost since European colonization, there is an abundance of knowledge that is both

12

available and accessible. For example, in writing of D’harawal knowledge, Frances Bodkin

argued that:

We were not the savages that the early settlers and many other non-Aboriginal people

since would have you believe. We were intelligent, observing people, who had a

complex system of protecting knowledge from being lost... The process of

transmitting our knowledge to ensure its survival was one which the First Boat people

could not understand. Our knowledge was disseminated throughout Our People

(Bodkin & Robertson, 2006, p. 7).

With inclusive teaching strategies becoming increasingly apparent within Australia’s

education system, it is hoped, and that this will have a positive impact on the engagement of

Aboriginal students to the education system. As a multicultural country the future of

Aboriginal students are tied to the future of all Australians and their acceptance of the

importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. As argued by Burridge (1999),

it is not until an adequate understanding of past and present Aboriginal inequities exists, that

the true process of healing such inequities may begin. Similarly, Wessels and Bretherton

(2000, p. 101), in considering the psychological processes behind this process of

reconciliation, argued that:

In the Australian context, reconciliation entails uncovering and coming to terms with

the past, sharing power and correcting injustices, reconstructing collective self-esteem

and moving beyond internalised images of inferiority, restoring respect for cultures

that the colonial powers had sought to eradicate, and building channels for cooperation

and positive development.

It may be argued that one of the greatest barriers to overcoming the inequities suffered by

Aboriginal Australians is the combined assault of ignorance and racism still existing in

Australia today, and the continued attacks on the personal and shared identities of Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Higher Education

The advances made over the last 50 years in enhancing the number of Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islanders commencing and completing university studies cannot denied. In 1972 there

were less than 100 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students enrolled in higher education

schemes, with these numbers increasing from around 1000 in 1982, to around 3000 in 1989

(Department of Education Science and Training [DEST], 2002). From 1989 until 2001,

13

national figures saw a doubling of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student

representation within the higher education system, yet some have argued the commencement

of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students over the last two decades has stagnated and

even begun to drop (Bodkin-Andrews, Craven, & Marsh, 2004; Penchenkina, Kowal, &

Paradies, 2011). Such a possibility is especially discouraging when considering that

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students consist of less than 1% of all higher education

students, which is well short of the 2.5% benchmark of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

peoples within the Australian population as a whole (Asmar, Page, Radloff, 2011).

Whilst recent evidence collected by Asmar et al. (2011) suggests that Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islanders may be no less engaged in their university studies than their non-Aboriginal

counterparts, an analysis of 526 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (when

compared to 485 matched sample non-Aboriginal students) revealed a number of notable

differences. Namely, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students were more likely to

differ on a number of background variables, such as they were likely to be female, older,

come from remote areas, and to be studying part-time (many via ‘block’ intensive programs).

Examining patterns of engagement more closely, Asmar and colleagues found through open-

ended responses that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students were receptive to learning

that integrated work related skills, quality teaching (e.g., prompt feedback, engaging lecturing

skills, class discussions), and strengthening productive links Aboriginal and Torres Strait

students may have with their local communities. Another key feature to emerge from the

findings was that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students largely felt supported by their

universities with regard to their studies, with a key strength of such support being found

within specialized Indigenous learning centers within universities. In addition, a direct link

was found between such support centers as a protective factor against intending to depart

university before completing their studies. This led Asmar et al. to conclude that “The issue

of support, therefore, is far from peripheral to the optimising of Indigenous student

engagement… We therefore have reasons to believe it is within Indigenous centres that most

Indigenous support happens. Indeed, this is exactly what such centres are set up – and funded

– to provide” (p. 9). With varying levels of support (e.g., tutoring, scholarships, having

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, outreach programs) for Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander students also promoted within the recent major review of higher education

(Behrendt, Larkin, Griew, & Kelly, 2012), it is critical that the unique position and

perspectives of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait students be both respected and protected.

14

Resistance to Change: The new racism.

Within Australia, considerable resistance has emerged with regard to Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander support initiatives across varying sectors, including the university environment

(Johns, 2011). Augoustinos, Tuffin, and Every (2005) highlight that such resistance has

emerged within a discourse of opposing affirmative action aimed at reducing the inequities

endured by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students when compared to all Australian

students. In analyzing detailed discussions on the issue of race and disadvantage within

Australia, Augoustinos et al. found that the participants justified their opposition to

affirmative action as it violated the principles of equality, and effective contributed to the

disadvantages suffered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students by negatively

influencing their ability to ‘grow’ (e.g., promoting reduced effort). Instead, the participants

focused on the need to emphasize individual merit regardless of a person’s background, even

though some may have to ‘try harder’. Although the disadvantaged status of Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islanders was in part acknowledged, the participants’ understanding of such

disadvantaged was vague, and normalized in that it was shared by other minority groups and

even white students. In summarizing these findings, Augoustinos et al. (2005) highlight this

as an example of the emergence of modern or new racism.

While determining the true psychological motivations for opposition

to affirmative action is fraught with difficulty (as we have

demonstrated, majority group members deny that their opposition is

motivated by racism) what is clear, is that by justifying existing

inequalities, opposition to affirmative action has racist consequences:

it protects and maintains white privilege and leaves minority group

disadvantage intact (p. 337).

The emergence of modern racism directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

has been documented over the last two decades. For example, Pedersen and Walker (1997)

measured both blatant, old-fashioned racist attitudes (e.g., endorsement of segregation and

agreement with strong negative stereotypes such as being lazy or untrustworthy) and more

subtle, modern, or new racist attitudes (e.g., opposition to affirmative action programs and

denial of the existence of racism). Racist attitudes encompassing the new racist mentality

were significantly more prevalent than blatant racist attitudes (57.9% of participants scored

15

above the midpoint for new racism, yet only 21.2% did so for blatant racism), and may be

increasing in prevalence within Australia (Pedersen, Dudgeon, Watt, & Griffiths, 2006;

Pedersen, Griffiths, Contos, Bishop, & Walker 2000).

Returning to Epistemological Racism

As outlined earlier, epistemological racism is driven by the inability to move from the

majority group lens of generational individual opportunity and success to one of minority

groups who generational life opportunities may be far more limited. From this, it can be

clearly seen that there is considerable overlap between the long standing nature of

epistemological racism and the rise of new racism within Australia. In effect, both

epistemological racism and new racism deny the continuing legacy of the negative effects of

racism on the livelihoods of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders students today. Whilst

new racists may be concerned about the unfair advantage Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islanders students may be receiving (Augoustinos et al., 2005), they fail to recognize that

varying forms of racism are still a significant inhibitor for Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islanders students (Brennan, 1998; Schwab, 2012; Rose, 2012). This is especially apparent in

literature identifying the specter of racism being raised in research examining the educational

aspirations and expectations of Indigenous Australians, yet not specifically targeting racism

as a construct (Brennan, 1998; Craven & Tucker, 2003; Howard, 2002; Lester, 2000, Parente,

Craven, & Munns, 2003; Purdie et al., 2000; Schwab, 2012).

In an extensive report of the future employment aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait

students, Lester (2000) found, through focus group discussions with Indigenous community

members, that the single largest obstacle identified as inhibiting career expectations for

Indigenous students was that of racism existing both within the workforce and the schooling

system. These fears are also reflected in-group discussions with prominent Aboriginal

Education Consultative Group members (Craven & Tucker, 2003), who highlighted

difficulties in peer relationships for Indigenous students, largely stemming from racist

attitudes directed towards them. In addition to this, more subtle indications of covert racism

were alluded to in the unfair expectations and misconceptions with which Indigenous

students are forced to deal. This is not to say these fears are only held by community

members and Aboriginal representatives, but also by the students themselves. In a qualitative

study aimed at identifying Indigenous high school students’ future aspirations and perceived

16

barriers to these aspirations, of the 83 Aboriginal students interviewed, Parente et al. (2003)

reported that all the Aboriginal students identified racism as a major barrier to achieving their

life goals. Another qualitative analysis of 52 Aboriginal Australians by Howard (2002)

highlights the extreme impact experiences and expectations of discrimination may have, as

overt discrimination was cited as a key reason as to why Aboriginal students actually left

school. Combined, these studies highlight the continual need to not only acknowledge the

existence of racism within Australia, but to also more fully understand how racism may

impact on the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (Mellor, 2003; 2004).

Measuring the Impact of Racism

The new millennium has seen the emergence of a strong line of research repeatedly

identifying the negative impact of racism across a diversity of outcomes for Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander peoples. One of the largest studies to date on the social and emotional

health and wellbeing of Aboriginal children and youth can be found in the Western

Australian study of Zubrick et al. (2005). Within this study, Zubrick et al. found that

increased perceptions of racism were significantly associated with increased levels of health

risk behaviors such as alcohol consumption, cigarette and marijuana use, in addition to

significantly increasing the likelihood of reporting clinically significant emotional or

behavioral difficulties and suicidal thoughts (see Priest, Paradies, Stewart, & Luke, 2011 for

similar results within Victoria). In an extension of this project, De Maio et al. (2005) also

found evidence for the cross-generational effects of racism, and its negative impact upon

Aboriginal children and youth. That is De Maio et al. (2005) found that Aboriginal children,

brought up by carers’ who were forcibly removed from their homes as children (see the

Stolen Generations report for more information – HREOC, 1997), were significantly more

likely to be at high risk of clinically significant emotional or behavioral difficulties. Evidence

for the cross-generational impact of racism was also identified in the work of Priest, Paradies,

Stevens, and Bailie (2010) who also found that Aboriginal carers’ who experienced racism

were significantly more likely to report illness in their children (aged 7 years or less),

independent of varying background variables (i.e., the child’s sex, age, time spent in day care,

and time spent breast-feeding). This led the researchers to conclude that it is critical that the

impact of racism be more fully understood, especially for both the direct and indirect effects

on younger generations. Indeed, considering that research by Larson, Gillies, Howard, and

Coffin (2007) found that Aboriginal Australian adults who experience racism are nearly four

17

times more likely to have reported lowered levels of general physical health and 9.2 times

more likely to report lowered levels of mental health (see Paradies & Cunningham, 2009 for

similar results), it should not be seen as surprising that the life stressor of racism may

negatively impact upon parenting relationships and opportunities with children. Care should

be taken though to not limit our understanding of the impact of racism to physical and mental

health outcomes, but also educational outcomes.

Racism and Education: the direct evidence

As previously mentioned, the potential impact of racism on the aspirations, engagement, and

performance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students within education has been

repeatedly noted (Brennan, 1998; Lester, 2000; Schwab, 2012), yet directed research is more

scarce. A recent set of studies by Bodkin-Andrews and colleagues though have more acutely

identified the negative impact of racism of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students

within the secondary education system. For example, Bodkin-Andrews, Seaton, Nelson,

Craven, and Yeung (2010) found that perceptions of racism were negatively related to the

achievement levels of Aboriginal students in standardized spelling and mathematics tests.

More specifically, it was estimated that the impact of increased perceptions of racism put

Aboriginal students’ at upwards of a 5% to 8% disadvantage when examining variance

explained estimates. Such results were not limited to achievement tests, as Bodkin-Andrews,

O’Rourke, Grant, Denson, and Craven (2010) found that perceptions of racism were also

negatively related to teacher grades across English, Math, and Science (also suggesting a 5-

9% disadvantage). In addition, mimicking the results of Howard (2002), increased

perceptions of racism was associated with increased patterns of academic disengagement, and

that this detrimental association was the strongest identified within the study. Importantly,

these results were also independent of the effects of the Aboriginal students’ gender, home

educational resources (e.g., access to a computer at home), and also ratings of themselves as a

student when compared to other students (which numerous authors have argued to be one of

the most critical factors in predicting student success – Craven & Marsh, 2008; Hattie, 2009).

It should be recognized that that not all the results of the Bodkin-Andrews, O’Rourke

et al. (2010) study were negative, as a measure of perceived cultural respect (labeled

‘multiculturation’) was also analyzed. This variable was argued to be closely aligned to

inclusive teaching practices, which should ultimately see a greater level of respect being

taught with regard to Indigenous perspectives within the schooling system, which in turn may

see Indigenous students link the importance of their culture and cultural identity to the

18

importance of engaging in the education system (Ainsworth & MacRae, 2009; Harrison &

Greenfield, 2011; Nakata, 2012). The predictive power of this perceived cultural respect

supported this position, as independent of gender, home-educational research, self-ratings,

and racial discrimination, this variable was associated with higher levels of valuing the

importance of school, and lowered levels of absenteeism. In interpreting the substantive

nature of these associations, Bodkin-Andrews, O’Rourke, et al. (2010) argued that this was

substantive evidence suggesting that the more likely Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

students perceived that their culture and identity was respected, the more likely they would

value education.

A recent paper by Wainwright, Gridley, and Sampson (2012) highlights that the potential to

respect the identities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students may not be as strong as

it could be within the university system. Despite the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

higher education review highlighting the value of including the diverse perspectives of

Australia’s First Peoples into the curriculum of university courses (Brehrendt et al., 2012),

Wainwright et al. found that the experiences of Aboriginal psychology students saw their

universities wanting in this area. Specifically, whilst the students were appreciative of

Aboriginal support centers, and similar supportive practices, the very courses within

psychology were seen as being solely Eurocentric in orientation, and the classroom

environment being hostile to any attempt to consider Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

perspectives. What is clear from such research is that the very cultures and identities of

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students may still be threatened within the university

system. This is despite evidence suggesting that sustaining and supporting the identities of

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples may minimize the impact of racism over their

life outcomes (Bodkin-Andrews, Denson, Finger, & Craven, 2013; Mellor, 2004; Sarra,

2011).

The ongoing battle for Aboriginal identity

The diverse identities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, although continually

marginalized and maligned throughout Australia’s history, may promote more positive

educational outcomes if current trends and findings within Australian education system

continue (Ainsworth, & McRae, 2009 Harrison, & Greenfield, 2011; Yunkaporta & McGinty,

2009). It must be remembered though that as long-term objects of social policy, Aboriginal

19

and Torres Strait Islander peoples were ultimately meant to disappear into the general

Australian population, eventually becoming subsumed and invisible within the White lower

working class. For a range of reasons, not the least of which was White racism and exclusion,

this did not occur. In the aftermath of colonial policy the issue of Aboriginal identity is

contentious and complex. In contemporary Australia this is still the case. Carlson (2011)

captures the constructions and productions of Aboriginal identity within the inter-connected

webs of material and discursive practices shaped over time in colonial, government,

legislative, administrative, and scholarly domains. These practices have positioned and

repositioned us since dispossession in relation to all other Australians and most significantly

in relation to each other. By tracing the production of ‘who and what Aboriginal people are’

over time, Carlson’s research was able to reveal that our own possibilities for remaining and

‘being’ ourselves have been tightly circumscribed by ‘other’ discourses about us.

The space for the expression of more meaningful personal identities that reflect the more

fluid and complex experiences of identity production are closed off to many by the political

imperatives of resisting the apparatuses of the nation-state and persisting with an Aboriginal

identity defined within essentially cultural paradigms (Carlson 2011). However, the struggles

over ‘who is’ and ‘what counts’ is an ongoing process that increasingly involves contestation

within Aboriginal communities (see for example the AECG 2011 report on Aboriginal

identity) and public condemnation by non-Aboriginal voices.

The ‘Bolt saga’ is an example of the racism that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

continue to endure, racism directly emanating and perpetuated by the mainstream media. A

Racial Discrimination case was brought by nine prominent ‘fair-skinned’ Indigenous people

against the journalist Andrew Bolt for comments in four of his columns, including one article

entitled White is the New Black. Bolt was objecting to successful ‘light-skinned’ Aboriginal

people ‘choosing’ to be Aboriginal when they could have chosen any one of a number of

non-Aboriginal heritages. At the heart of his allegations was his logic that such ‘choices’

were either motivated by, or at least conveniently embraced, because of an ensuing public or

professional elevation that would not otherwise have been accorded and private rewards that

would not otherwise have been achieved on talent alone. The following excerpt from one of

his articles demonstrates more than his logic. It demonstrates an ignorance of the effects of

colonial history as Bolt pursues his ongoing quest to compile a growing list of allegedly

fraudulent beneficiaries. This is part of only one of several articles in which he exposes and

accuses successful fair-skinned Aboriginal individuals:

20

Meet, say, acclaimed St Kilda artist Bindi Cole who was raised by her English-Jewish

mother yet calls herself “Aboriginal but white”. She rarely saw her part-Aboriginal

father, and could in truth join any one of several ethnic groups, but chose Aboriginal,

insisting on a racial identity you could not guess from her features. She also chose,

incidentally, the one identity open to her that has political and career clout.

And how popular a choice that now is. Ask Annette Sax another artist and - as the

very correct The Age newspaper described her - a “white Koori”.

Her father was Swiss, and her mother only part-Aboriginal. Racially, if these things

mattered, she is more Caucasian than anything else. Culturally, she’s more European.

In looks, she’s Swiss. But she, too, has chosen to call herself Aboriginal, which

happily means she could be shortlisted for this year’s Victorian Indigenous Art

Award.

Such characterization of Aboriginal Australians who are seen to be motivated to rort the

national resources for their own purposes has its roots in an ignorance of the ‘inside’

Aboriginal experience of dispossession, colonization, and shifting policies. Instead, ongoing

misrepresentations of Aboriginal people and experience which has failed to understand the

many, varied Aboriginal responses required to survive in such circumstances prevail in

popular but misinformed understandings of those who ‘choose’ to identify primarily as

Indigenous. The inference persists that to be a bona fide ‘real Aborigine’ an individual must

be disadvantaged, black, and/or remotely located.

Public contests, such as these, point to what Gardiner-Garden (2003, p. 8) describes as “the

issue of the adequacy of the system for determining Aboriginality”, particularly given the

increasing rate at which urban Indigenous identification has been growing. He suggests the

struggle emerges from the quest to define an “all-purpose-serving identity”, arguing that

“[w]hoever would attempt to define ethnicity confronts the reality that an individual’s ethnic

identity is always to some degree fluid, multiple, differing in degrees, and constructed”

(2002-03, p. 16). The recent public debates over Aboriginal identity engaged with by

Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal commentators evidence the continuing struggle over

questions of ‘who is’ and ‘what counts’ as the evidence of Indigenous identity, and also the

continued existence of epistemological and new racism.

Conclusion

Although considerable advances towards a more equitable future in education for Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Islander students are being made, that considerable inequities still exist

today, especially within the university sector, suggest that significant inroads still must be

21

made. Although the history of the Westernised education system was irrefutably negative in

its orientation, advances in culturally integrative and inclusive educational practices may

have begun to reverse the opposing nature Aboriginal identities have held with the Australian

university educational system. Regardless, and despite the efforts of Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander advocates and representatives within Australia, recognition must be given to

unique stressors Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students may be forced to endure. This

includes not only attempts to eradicate the ignorance surrounding who are Australia’s

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but also a respect for the true (and continual)

history of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia, and an

acknowledgement that racism still exists, and must be continually addressed (that is

correcting the attitudes and behaviors of the perpetrators, and attempting to lessen the

negative impact for those targeted with racism). Indeed, the ongoing legacy of racism must be

continually fought, for the words of Brennan (1998, p. 167) are still too relevant today:

There is no easy solution to the problem of racism in schools and the wider

community. The feeling and attitudes that some members of the community

hold indicate that Australia has a long way to go before becoming a

postmodern, multicultural nation.

22

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