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7.10.2 Discourses recognising Indigenous knowledges as valuable.
An activity Unit 7: Aboriginal life before European contact from Living history (Gurry,
1987) begins with a summary of a primary source document by Richard Gould, an
anthropologist who lived among a desert Indigenous tribe, Yiwara, detailing the day to day
food supply requirements of the group. This extract is included in the textbook, justified to
demonstrate to students the diversity of Indigenous groups (there are other examples from
evidence from students to also consider) and cultures. This is stated overtly by the
accompanying questions and activity (see, Source 7.49). Encouraging students to think
deeply, rather than gaining only a surface knowledge and understanding of Indigenous
Australian cultures is evident by the questions requiring students to identify “...similarities
and differences...between the desert Aborigines and the New South Wales group” (Gurry,
1987, p. 106). Furthermore, encouraging students to embrace a change in their own ideas is
evident in the activities that follow the questions.
Source 7.49. Questions and activities on Indigenous cultures in Living history
(Gurry, 1987, p. 106).
Indigenous knowledges are specifically represented in this extract as relating to food
collection (being one example of many different types of Indigenous knowledges covered in
this unit, such as that relating to customs, shelter and seasons). Although the textbook does
not specifically or overtly state that the perspective is one of respect for Indigenous cultures,
it is evident in a number of ways. For example, Indigenous knowledges are represented solely
on their own merit and not mitigated through another culture or explained through the
cultural context of any contemporary (and usually unstated) dominant culture. Furthermore,
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