Introduction: Thinking Places: Indigenous Humanities and Education

Abstract

This special edition of The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education is guest edited by Marie Battiste (University of Saskatchewan, Canada) and Cathryn McConaghy (University of New England, Australia). The edition invited contributors to consider the development of Indigenous humanities within the field of education. Specifically, contributors were asked: How can we think within, through and about place to develop intellectual and imaginative ecologies, to reconnect with knowledges that are generous, creative, just and respectful? What does it mean to think about education creatively through place and space? Papers that made links between education and place and the fields of literature, philosophy, history, languages, the arts and theology were encouraged. The result was a diverse collection of papers from many nations, including the Sami of Finland, the Maya of Guatemala, the Māori of Aotearoa, the Cree, Oneida, Míkmaq, Anishnabeg and Chickasaw First Nations people of Canada and "the land of the turtle", settler Canadians, and Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. From these diverse places, the notions of humanities and inhumanities - what makes us human and what constitutes ethical action for social justice - are explored, often in challenging ways.