Curated by Dr Julian Rawiri Kusabs, The University of Melbourne

Social Transformation and Education, Faculty of Education, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Email address: [email protected]

About the editor: Dr Julian Rawiri Kusabs is a Māori scholar, teacher, historian of education, and research fellow at the University of Melbourne on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country. His iwi affiliations include Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa, Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Maru (Hauraki), and Tainui.

The ten papers included in this Virtual Special Issue are as follows:

They are freely accessible until the 12th of October, 2024.

Introduction

For Indigenous peoples, education did not begin nor cease with the advent of European imperial contact (Hare and Pidgeon, 2011). Such communities have held their own rich social, literate, epistemic, and pedagogical traditions that persist through colonisation into the present (Shay and Wickes, 2017). Following the recognition of such precedents, this virtual issue focuses on the arrival of ‘modern’ colonial Western modes of schooling as a significant historical shift with enduring consequences (Mika and Stewart, 2018). Scholarly inquiries bear out the complexity of said changes with colonial education both undermining traditional ways of being and opening possibilities for new dynamic forms of Indigeneity (Sabzalian, 2019). To give an example from the land of my birth, mission schooling attempted to displace traditional Māori religious practices but also resulted in a distinct culture of Indigenous alphabetic literacy that thrives to the present (Caughley, 2009). Such heterogenous literacy practices have made this virtual issue possible in addition to global discourses of Indigenous struggles, aspirations, and experiences (Banivanua Mar, 2013).

However, the emphasis on Indigenous engagement should not be misunderstood as an apologia for imperial educational structures that have frequently marginalised Indigenous cultures, languages, knowledge systems, and authority over decision-making (Wane and Todd, 2018). It is vital to understand how such systems have contributed to issues of racialisation, civic exclusion, land dispossession, and economic exploitation (Moreton-Robinson, 2015). Rather, the thematic emphasis on communal participation is a call to engage with the nuanced complexities of Indigenous experiences in Western schools. The articles in this issue should serve as a reminder about how Indigenous communities have always been dynamic learners and shapers of education (Thomas, 2021). Self-determination has remained a consistent feature of Indigenous educational engagement whether it be through adoption, synthesis, or resistance (Phillips, 2015). Such stories do not merely serve historical curiosity but have informative power in relation to contemporary schooling (Rudolph, 2021). As many communities continue to strive for new educational possibilities that align with Indigenous aspirations, there are valuable lessons in the triumphs, challenges, and disappointments of our respective ancestors (Watson, 1997).

It is important to qualify that Indigenous experiences are diverse and cannot be comprehensively spoken for by one author, journal, or virtual issue (Herbert, 2012). Māori, Aboriginal, and Torres Strait Islander stories have featured most prominently in the History of Education Review’s publication record. Such a regional emphasis is perhaps unsurprising given that it is the journal of the Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society. However, I want to acknowledge the rich histories of Indigenous education outside of this scope throughout Asia, Africa, Europe, Pasifika, and the Americas (Tamale, 2020). This immense geographical span speaks to the ongoing, historical, and far-reaching impacts of Western imperialism (Kusabs, 2024). Across these vast lands, many Indigenous peoples have enacted their own unique responses to colonial education that deserve recognition (McLeod and Paisley, 2023). It is also important to acknowledge that there are many forms of Indigenous thought, identity, and expression that go beyond the Western academic framework that is privileged here (Thiong’o, 1986). In the same manner that I encourage engagement with a diverse range of perspectives, I hope that this virtual issue can, in-turn, provide insights, contrast, and understanding to longstanding discourses between the many Indigenous peoples of the world (Smith, 2012).

Themes and Article Selection

This virtual issue is divided into three themes that I have identified in the History of Education Review’s catalogue. The first theme is ‘Colonial Education for Indigenous Peoples’, evaluating the sites and systems of schooling that were enacted for Indigenous communities by missionaries, settler states, and imperial administrations (Scrimgeour, 2006). This section, and the virtual issue, begins with Rachel Standfield’s (2012) article on the Parramatta Māori seminary. This site remains historically significant for both Māori and Aboriginal trajectories of education and epitomises the interconnected webs of empire, racial ideologies, missionary work, and colonial schooling (Megarrity, 2005). Hugh Morrison’s (2013) paper also aligns with this theme, evaluating the engagement of missionary teachers with Aymara and Quechua communities in Bolivia from 1908 to 1920. The third contribution to this theme is my own article on Australasian civics textbooks from 1880 to 1920 (Kusabs, 2023). The sources in my study show that Indigenous peoples were variably incorporated or marginalised from the educational resources depending on the author’s colonial context and level of interaction with Indigenous communities (Rogers, 2017). However, all of the textbooks acted similarly to secure the legitimacy of their respective settler states and the British Empire more broadly (Cormack, 2013). The fourth article from Sharmin Khodaiji (2022) focuses on universities in colonial India from 1854 until the mid-twentieth century. She outlines how students and academics repurposed colonial systems of education towards an independent vision for a national identity (Brewis, 2013). Khodaiji’s argument signals the next theme of the virtual issue by demonstrating that Indigenous communities have frequently repurposed Western schooling for self-determined goals (Rudolph, 2021).

The second theme of the virtual issue is ‘Indigenous Responses in Education’, featuring three examples in which Indigenous communities reformed schooling. Firstly, Kamilaroi scholar Cheree Dean (2010) shares the story of how an Aboriginal community successfully challenged racially segregated schooling in Collarenebri, New South Wales in 1952. Dean fittingly incorporates yarning as both a cultural practice and a research methodology, asserting the strength of Aboriginality in education in a similar sense to the families in her article (Povey and Trudgett, 2019). The third paper by Belinda Mary MacGill, Kay Whitehead, and Lester-Irabinna Rigney (2022) describes the innovative accomplishments of Alitya (Alice) Rigney, the first Aboriginal woman to become a school principal in Australia. Throughout her career, and especially during her leadership at Kaurna Plains Aboriginal School, Alitya worked persistently to centre Indigenous culture, identity, and practices in the classroom (Rigney and Rigney, 2017). Māori whānau (families) similarly advocated for Indigenous rangatiratanga (leadership) in New Zealand’s playcentres as covered by Suzanne Manning’s (2014) article. This case study explores the complex predicament that Māori, and Indigenous peoples more broadly, have navigated in settler democracies in which they are a minority not just numerically, but also in terms of cultural primacy and political privilege (Walker, 2016).

The third and final theme of the virtual issue concerns “History Education and Indigenous Peoples”. Mati Keynes and Beth Marsden (2021) begin this section by exploring two instances where the Australian curriculum was challenged regarding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories. Engaging with theories of ontology and the role of history education in nation building, they argue that Indigenous peoples have either been excluded or erroneously positioned in the ‘past’ to legitimise a settler present and ‘futurity’ (Jones, 2014). Secondly, Nell Musgrove and Naomi Wolfe (2022) share their scholarly and pedagogical expertise from teaching Aboriginal histories at the university level. Their article evaluates the preconceptions that hinder uncomfortable but necessary engagements with Australian history amongst tertiary students and institutions (O’Dowd, 2012). In the final article of the third theme and the virtual issue, Alison Bedford (2023) compares curricula in Britain, Canada, and Australia around the central issue of colonial, imperial, and Indigenous histories. Bedford’s study demonstrates that the relationship of Indigenous peoples to history education remains contested in various schools, communities, and nation states (Healy, 2015). The ongoing debates are a reminder of how imperial history feeds constantly into the colonial present, signalling the important work that remains to be done in journals, classrooms, and universities (Collins and Allender, 2013).