Arlathirnda Ngurkarnda Ityirnda: Being-Knowing-Doing: De-Colonising Indigenous Tertiary Education (2011)

Arlathirnda Ngurkarnda Ityirnda: Being-knowing-doing: De-colonising Indigenous tertiary education Veronica Arbon (2008) Post Pressed, Teneriffe, QLD, Australia; ISBN: 9781921214400, 194 pages, $57.50Arlathirnda Ngurkarnda Ityirnda Being-knowing- doing is a unique insight into the experience of working in an Indigenous tertiary setting, written from the perspective of an Indigenous academic. Based on the author's PhD, Veronica Arbon writes on issues not been previously covered in Australian literature to a great extent. Indigenous tertiary education is an idea that requires a concerted effort to decolonise existing practices, attitudes and processes. This effort is outlined in the story of the Northern Territory's Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education.Batchelor Institute has long been held up as a model of 'both ways' education for Indigenous students that is meant to draw upon Indigenous ways of being, knowing and doing, while at the same time drawing on non-Indigenous academic traditions to equip students with skills for contemporary contexts. Arbon's book exposes the cracks in the everyday reality of working and studying within the Institute where she found ongoing colonising practices, racism and resistance to change.Arbon uses her Arabana identity and language to give meaning to the: 'Struggles that emerge when change is made in ... Indigenous tertiary education ...' (Arbon, 2008:11). She argues that when such a shift is accepted, the status quo is adjusted towards a more equitable understanding between Indigenous and Western forms of knowledge. This book however, reveals the resistance that can emerge when the status quo is challenged. It was initially felt that the subject would have a limited audience appeal, both in terms of content and writing style which is heavily theoretical and laden with academic jargon. However, perseverance with the text offers a genuine challenge to entrenched ways of thinking. For non-Indigenous readers, the writing can at times be uncomfortable to experience, but the messages are fi rmly directed toward non- Indigenous academics, policy makers and others who need to examine their taken-for-granted ideas, practices and behaviours that continue to colonise Indigenous people in Australian tertiary sectors. Arbon explores the responses as she perceived them, of non-Indigenous academics within an Indigenous tertiary institute, when trying to implement curriculum change, increase Indigenous employment and embed stronger Indigenous philosophical and cultural underpinnings to the core of learning and work.The book begins by telling the author's own story as an Arabana woman, with extensive experience in Indigenous tertiary education. She identifi es the issues that led to her exploration of the process of creating a genuine Indigenous university. Arbon questioned why the institute that was purported to be culturally appropriate, safe and accessible to Indigenous people had so few Indigenous graduates, why this had occurred for so long and why it had been allowed to occur. She began to examine the deeper issues of curriculum and its purpose, the defi cit of Indigenous employment in tertiary education and the ongoing hegemony and colonialism experienced by Aboriginal people working and studying within Batchelor Institute.The reader is given a unique insight into Arabana ways of being, knowing, doing throughout but more specifi cally in the chapter titled, 'They call us Arabana . …