This unit continues the inquiry with "our" ways of conceptualising the "Indigenous domain". This approach is represented in three themes or pathways within the course.
Ways to Think Difference considers current understandings and constructions of "Otherness".
We evaluate this contemporary body of thinking, especially "post-modern" theories, for its usefulness in helping us understand the nature of "difference" (with particular reference to the nature of "Indigenous").
We also look at possible directions for current theory and speculate on possibilities for the way forward.
A second "pathway", Re-making 'New People', 'New Places' is concerned with the multiple cultural forms of "Indigenous" and the ways that Indigenous peoples represent the fluid nature of their identities.
We explore the ways that Indigenous cultures offer 'us' views, not only of alternative perspectives of the world, but alternative perspectives of 'ourselves'. It is a rare and occasionally shocking thing to be confronted with visions of how 'others' see 'us'. It is equally confronting when 'we' realise how 'like us''others' sometimes choose to be.
The third pathway -- Indigenous Governances- examines evolving forms of Indigenous created "sovereignties", drawing on national, regional (eg south-west Pacific, the Americas, Circumpolar) and the global case studies. We ask "in what particular directions might they flow"? and "how can 'we' evaluate their outcomes"?
