Host: Dr Stephen George-Williams

Indigenous Science Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Where you might start and why.

Andrew Giles and Dr Angela Ziebell

Indigenous knowledges and perspectives have always had a lot to offer mainstream or Western science and this is now being recognised more widely. Creating a platform for Indigenous knowledges to be seen and shared is a key step in ensuring that universities are culturally safe environments for Indigenous students and staff, and it should be a goal of every university. We note that this journey should respect the Indigenous values around Place and Country and so will vary greatly depending on where it is being implemented.

This year Monash Science introduced a second-year interdisciplinary Science unit called Indigenous Science: Science through the eyes of Australia’s first peoples. We will begin by addressing ways to approach educating people as to what Indigenous perspectives are and what Indigenous perspectives can add to the discourse in Science in the Australian context. We will outline how we constructed our new unit and why, including our experience teaching the unit. Lastly, we will reflect on what we are considering doing differently in hindsight.