Your journey in truth telling and social justice
Develop cross-cultural sensitivity and intercultural communication skills, which are highly regarded career competencies.
Exploring Indigenous Knowledges
This Aboriginal-led study area offers students from all disciplines an immersive understanding of the value that Indigenous knowledge, history and experience bring to the world, taught through Aboriginal ways of knowing, being, and doing.
A multi-discipline approach
You will take a multi-discipline approach covering social, health and physical sciences as well as education.
Real-world experience
Learn from Country via field trips to culturally significant sites and take part in workshops led by local Noongar community leaders.
Why study Indigenous Knowledges at Murdoch?
As a multi-disciplinary School, students will be introduced to Indigenous Knowledges from a broad lens that extends beyond social sciences, including health and physical sciences and education.
The course will provide students with both complementary and alternative worldviews to Western-based disciplinary knowledge. Your studies will cover topics including Indigenous history, contemporary culture and approaches to social and emotional wellbeing, as well as the intersection between Western and Indigenous sciences, and how students can tackle diverse opinions within community on issues such as juvenile justice and Blak Lives Matter.
You’ll experience field-trips to culturally significant sites and take part in workshops led by local Noongar community representatives and organisations.
You’ll also have the opportunity to learn from leading Indigenous academics and develop cross-cultural sensitivity and intercultural communication skills, which are highly regarded career competencies. Your understanding of Indigenous Knowledges will give you the chance to make a positive contribution within Indigenous communities including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Add Indigenous Knowledges to your degree
There are two ways that you can study Indigenous Knowledges at Murdoch University.
Complete as a Minor
The minor in Indigenous Knowledges and Practices is strongly recommended for students wishing to pursue a career working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities. You'll graduate career-ready with skills to equip you to engage meaningfully in work with Indigenous (i.e. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) communities, as well as the ability to apply Indigenous Knowledges within your chosen field of practice.
Upon completion of the Minor, students will:
- Contribute to positive social change within their future fields of practice
- Understand and articulate how contextual factors contribute to contemporary circumstances
- Recognise that Indigenous Knowledge exists, know how to find it and how to apply it within their practice
- Be critical thinkers who are able to engage with public discourse around Indigenous affairs in a thoughtful and informed manner
- Engage in constructive intercultural communication.
Complete as a general elective
Students can choose any of the units from the minor to add to their general electives.
Combining your studies with Indigenous Knowledges allows you to learn from ancient and contemporary wisdom to tackle some of today’s biggest issues such as climate change and social injustice.