Page 364 - Cultural Studies of Science Education
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29  Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Border Theory and Justice  339

            by sporadic fighting or treaties, and in the worst instances, the systematic genocide or
            “clearing”  of  indigenous  populations  from  the  most  desirable  settlement  sites
            around Australia’s Southern and eastern seaboards. Protectorates were gradually
            established  to  “civilise”  and  “Christianise,”  which  in  truth  left  most  indigenous
            people officially classified as “native flora and fauna.” From 1869 to 1969, Aboriginal
            children, particularly “half-caste” children, were removed from their mothers and
            communities and placed in the care of the state with the ultimate hope of “breeding
            out” black blood lines. The effects for these children, known as the “stolen genera-
            tions,” continue into the present (Read 1981). In 1969, Aborigines finally won the
            right to be counted in the census of the Australia (human, as opposed to animal
            and plant!) population, which roughly coincided with their obtention of an unquali-
            fied right to vote. And in 1992, the High Court of Australia reversed the doctrine
            of terra nullius (meaning land belonging to no-one) and recognised “native title,”
            giving  rights  to  Aboriginal  peoples  as  the  traditional  land  owners  of  Australia
            (Connor 2005).
              Despite these recent attempts at recognition, Borrows (2005 p. 2) argues that “(i)
            ndigenous peoples, by and large, are not sharing the benefits of colonisation.” The
            2005–2007 Australian Bureau of Statistics figures suggests that while Aborigines
            constitute only 2.6% of Australia’s total population, an indigenous person is 11
            times more likely to be in prison, and twice as likely to be a victim of violent crime.
            Only 39% of Indigenous Australians remain in school until Year 12, compared to
            75% of non-indigenous people. A mere 4% of Indigenous Australians hold a bach-
            elor’s degree or higher. In response, the Australian government has formulated the
            National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy (AEP) to increase
            educational participation with mixed success. Chronic unemployment, alcoholism
            and substance abuse are all systemic in some communities, and overall, life expec-
            tancy of the average Aboriginal male is around 12 years less than the rest of the
            community’s. A bleak picture indeed! The landmark formal apology made by
            the Australian Parliament to all Indigenous Peoples on February 13, 2008 saw the
            Prime Minister Kevin Rudd express the hope of “embrac(ing) the possibility of new
            solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.” In view of previous
            administrations’ refusal to apologise for past wrongs against Aborigines, it signalled
            for many, the opportunity for a real start towards reconciliation at last.
              This  chapter  draws  together  the  three  strands  outlined  here  of  borders  and
            boundaries, TEK and story lines from Australian Aborigines. Specifically, it responds
            to a call to explore new solutions to enduring problems of how to accord epistemo-
            logical and other forms of justice to indigenous peoples and non-western scientific
            knowledges. We commence with a discussion of newer and more complex theori-
            sations of borders and border spaces/places drawn largely from the field of cul-
            tural  studies.  More  complicated  ideas  about  borders  better  reflect  the  intricate
            interconnections of diversity within contemporaneity, and are hence, necessary to
            address science education’s theoretical shortcomings that have seen borders typi-
            cally represented until now as unproblematic lines between cultures and knowledge
            that need to be crossed. Some of this thinking has been commenced elsewhere (see
            Carter in press) but much remains to be done. We move on to apply these ideas
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