In the introduction to Fire Front: First Nations Power and Poetry Today, one of several anthologies dedicated to First Nations poets published in 2020, Alison Whittaker describes the gathering momentum of First Nations poetry as a ‘sovereign renaissance’ (p. x). This paper outlines the rationale for – and tells the story of – the collaborative development of a general first-year poetry subject whose pedagogical foundations lie in an Aboriginal epistemological framework, and that privileges the work of First Nations poets. The subject, designed on Dharawal Country and informed by the University of Wollongong’s Jindaola program, is based on a grounded Aboriginal framework of Country, Kinship, Culture, Journey and Connectedness. These five principles shape the students’ journey through the subject as they are prompted, through readings, lectures and writing exercises, to consider their own relationship with place, language, family, community and culture. Teaching poetry guided
Much of the literature indicates the importance and the need for the improvement of embedding Indigenous knowledge into the tertiary curriculum. However, not much empirical evidence is available to identify how Indigenous knowledges can be embedded in a sustained and respectful way within the Australian tertiary education sector. This article examines how traditional Aboriginal knowledge holders and staff at a Business Faculty in Australia developed a partnership to embed Aboriginal knowledges and ways of thinking into the university business curricula. As part of our institutional educational development grants program, Jindaola, we used yarning as a way to understand and connect with each other and use an ethnographic case study approach to present our journey. We illustrate how we partnered with local Aboriginal knowledge holders to (1) deliver cultural training to staff members as a means of developing and building Aboriginal cultural awareness before embedding Aboriginal knowledge