Sharing of Indigenous Knowledges
What you will learn
Gain contemporary skills and knowledge for your job now.
Respectfully engaging with Indigenous knowledges and creative arts practices requires culturally safe and aware ways of thinking about knowledge, responsibilities and ownerships.
This micro-credential centres Indigenous approaches to learning and creating to provide the skills and knowledge to decolonise your thinking and engage in respectful and reciprocal knowledge sharing.
It’s valuable for anyone seeking to deepen their cultural understanding of Indigenous creative practices and connection to place, and to responsibly and respectfully engage with Indigenous knowledges.
Gain a historical overview of Indigenous creative practice
This micro-credential presents a historical overview of Indigenous creative practice in Australia, including contemporary cultural and creative practices. You'll learn to describe and reflect on the context of place in Indigenous cultures and creative practices, across this diverse history.
Decolonise your thinking and responsibly share Indigenous knowledges
Learn culturally aware and safe approaches to decolonising thinking about knowledge, 'know how', responsibilities, ownerships and interconnected relationships with Indigenous communities. You'll explore reciprocal and responsible knowledge sharing, the diverse approaches within a fluid field of knowledge, and appropriation. You'll also be introduced to the concept of 'know how' for finding archival information for, and with, Indigenous communities.
Engage with Indigenous technologies and creative practices
Drawing on your new understanding of reciprocal and responsible knowledge sharing, you'll engage in the practice of making a fishing net. This hands-on activity will allow you to practice following cultural protocols and respectfully using materials, techniques and traditional Indigenous technologies from Country.
Who you will learn from
Learn from skilled academics and professional experts who will share invaluable knowledge you can use in your job.
Tiriki Onus
Yorta Yorta man, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous) and Head of Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development
Tiriki is a successful visual artist, curator, performance artist, opera singer and lecturer in Indigenous Arts and Culture at the Victorian College of the Arts. At the Wilin Centre, he fosters innovation in research, development, advocacy and presentation of Indigenous arts and cultural practice. In 2015 he was the inaugural Hutchinson Indigenous Fellow, and is Associate Dean, Indigenous in the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music and co-Director of the Research Unit for Indigenous Arts and Cultures.
Dr Megan McPherson
Senior Lecturer in Art and Intercultural Research
Megan is a settler artist, intercultural researcher and educator, and has taught at university level since 1996. Her focus is in printmaking, textiles and installations, and publishes in the areas of identity, social media use, Indigenous knowledges and pedagogies, and learning and teaching experiences in the creative arts. Megan is based at the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Art and Cultural Development, and the Research Unit for Indigenous Arts and Cultures in the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music.
More from this series
Take multiple courses to deepen your knowledge, or ask us about stacking toward a full degree.
The Wilin Online Cultural Literacies series
The Wilin Online Cultural Literacies series centres Indigenous approaches to learning and creating. Each micro-credential in the series features an act of material making designed to spark conversation, develop cultural literacies and foster respectful engagement with Indigenous knowledges.
Explore more from the Wilin Online Cultural Literacies series:
- Acknowledgement of Country (Micro-credential)
- Indigenous Cultural and Creative IP (Micro-credential)
- Indigenous Community Research (Micro-credential)
Course details
Want to know more about micro-credentials? See our Frequently Asked Questions
This course is valuable for anyone seeking to deepen their cultural awareness and engage respectfully with Indigenous cultures and communities.
It's particularly beneficial for teachers and education professionals, arts workers and practitioners, community and cultural development workers, and corporate, business or government leaders.
There are no eligibility requirements.
By the end of this course, you'll be able to:
- Reflect on diverse Indigenous creative and cultural practices and relationship to place
- Follow cultural protocols and identify materials and traditional Indigenous technologies from Country
- Respectfully and responsibly apply principles of cultural safety and respond to shared knowledges.
This course runs over six weeks.
Your total time commitment is 42 hours, which includes approximately:
- 9 hours guided learning
- 20 hours independent study
- 13 hours assessment activities.
Assessment:
- Making practice: a digital portfolio in two parts that presents both a creative outcome and reflective text and video presentations. The making practice uses fishing net as the primary material (100%).
Sharing of Indigenous Knowledges can be taken as a stand-alone micro-credential or you can complement it with any other course in the Wilin Online Cultural Literacies series.
The series includes:
- Acknowledgement of Country
- Sharing of Indigenous Knowledges
- Indigenous Cultural and Creative IP
- Indigenous Community Research.