This description is derived from notes taken during class, the university’s recording of the lecture and my memories of the session.

Today’s lecture is concerned with Aboriginal policy making. In the beginning, the lecturer (L1) apologises for her weak her voice caused by a cold and expresses her hope that she will nonetheless be able to hold the lecture. In the first part of the lecture, she mostly reads out the notes on the lecture slides, making small changes in sentence structures and adding short explanations and clarifications. After finishing her explanations, she frequently asks “ok?”. In order to explain the term ‘policy’, L1 does not only give official definitions but also includes people’s common perception, using phrases like “You know, sometimes we believe that…”.

L1 then introduces the representation of Aboriginal people in art as a helpful source to understand the impact of policies. She shows several examples, describes them, points out aspects she sees as particularly interesting, draws conclusions and asks the students to be critical. Afterwards L1 switches to the present, more precisely to names of electorates and routes still existing today. She talks in detail about an incident of oppression surrounding the mapping-out of Western Australia. {Click here for analysis}This is a good example to see how a hero discourse can stand against legal evidence of discrimination, she says. It also shows that many claims to change names often have a very profound reason behind them. L1 also adds an example from the local area of the university. She then asks if the students have ever watched the film The Tracker, using it as a starting point to talk about images of Aboriginal people in chains.

To show how colonial and Aboriginal histories are intertwined, L1 talks about marriage rules in the past, showing the hierarchy the British brought with them. She reads out a politician’s speech on a play, which was based on a real relationship between a British man and an Aboriginal woman, to address the aspect of people with mixed heritage and then gives more examples. Afterwards, she plays a song by an Aboriginal singer talking about Christian rules to underline that one should not generalise. She then presents the view of three people from public life on Aboriginal policies by quoting them directly.

To conclude the lecture, L1 gives an overview of steps to be taken to achieve a more just policy making, again quoting a number of people and playing another song. In the end, she gives the students guidelines for researching a policy, stressing the importance of always going back to the original source by comparing interpretation to a game of Chinese whispers. Before whishing everyone a good week, L1 cheers because her voice lasted for the entire lecture.

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