Human Research Ethics Online Training

From the outset, it should be said that Indigenous Australians are not 'a unitary people, or a nation with a unitary culture or way of life: "Australian Aboriginal" is an umbrella term covering very deep and wide differences.' [1] 

This means that Australian Indigenous people live in many different ways in many different places. More than 70%, for example, live in urban contexts, but the ways in which different groups and individuals live in cities varies according to where the people concerned originally came from, their relationships with each other, their relationships with the wider Australian society, and how they relate to the city as 'home'. 

For example, some Indigenous people living in the city live as suburban neighbours, participating in everyday life in ways which are indistinguishable from any other Australian citizen. Others, on the other hand, live as fringe dwellers, alienated and marginalised from the benefits and responsibilities of other Australians. Still others participate in most aspects of Australian social life, but also engage in a diverse range of specifically Indigenous cultural practices including ceremonies, creating Indigenous art works, and performing dances and songs which represent their Aboriginal identity.

What kinds of problems result from thinking of Indigenous Australians as one homogeneous group? 

Some examples:

• Indigenous identities are reduced into a category that is easy for non-Indigenous people to understand, but which reduces the richness and diversity of Indigenous cultures.
• Due to a history of thinking which 'primitivisms' Indigenous peoples, many Indigenous Australians struggle with asserting their identities as 'authentic.' For example, if people who have seen Baz Lurhmann's movie Australia imagine Indigenous people to just be magical, mud-smeared medicine men who communicate telepathically and wear loin cloths, then Indigenous Australians who live in the city and have a regular nine-to-five job may be seen as 'inauthentic.' But of course, there are countless ways to be authentically Indigenous!

The history of believing Indigenous Australians to be radically different to (and more primitive than) Eurpoeans began in the nineteenth century. Researchers working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities should be aware of the damaging legacy of research of previous generations to help avoid future mistakes and to understand the anxieties and reservations of some of the communities.

Reference: Jeffery Sissons, First peoples: Indigenous cultures and their futures. London. Reaktion Books.

[1] Jeffery Sissons, First peoples: Indigenous cultures and their futures. London. Reaktion Books

Urban Aboriginal Australians dancing in Sydney. Copyright 2003 Kristina Everett, all rights reserved.