This collection presents essential texts across Critical Indigenous Studies, prioritising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scholars alongside international Indigenous voices. The readings demonstrate how Indigenous perspectives fundamentally transform every discipline they engage, from reimagining research methodologies to challenging legal frameworks, from critiquing economic systems to creating new forms of digital sovereignty.
The collection refuses to position Indigenous knowledge as additive to existing curricula. These texts collectively savage the disciplines they address, exposing how Western knowledge production serves colonial interests whilst offering sophisticated alternatives grounded in Indigenous epistemologies.
Sovereignty and self-determination
Indigenous sovereignty operates as ongoing reality rather than historical claim. These works establish sovereignty across ontological, epistemological and political registers, demonstrating how legal and political systems deny Indigenous nationhood whilst Indigenous peoples continue resistance.
Moreton-Robinson (2007): Sovereign Subjects
Aileen Moreton-Robinson’s foundational collection departed from historical othering by centring Indigenous perspectives on sovereignty as lived reality rather than theory. The Goenpul scholar examines how self-determination, representation, cultural maintenance and land rights interconnect with ongoing colonialism. Chapter 6, “Writing off Indigenous sovereignty”, analyses sovereignty as lived experience of dispossession, demonstrating how Western legal frameworks systematically deny Indigenous nationhood. The work provides analytical tools for understanding Indigenous resistance strategies that operate outside settler state frameworks.
Nakata (2007): Disciplining the Savages, Savaging the Disciplines
Martin Nakata’s examination of how Western knowledge systems define and control Indigenous peoples introduces his crucial concept of the cultural interface, the contested space where Indigenous and Western knowledges meet. The Torres Strait Islander scholar deconstructs mainstream academic disciplines and exposes their complicity in colonisation. Chapter 10, “The Cultural Interface”, articulates Indigenous standpoint theory as methodology for challenging Western knowledge production. This work proves foundational for understanding how disciplines themselves perpetuate colonial violence.
Pearson (2000): The Light on the Hill
Noel Pearson’s Ben Chifley Memorial Lecture demonstrates binary-transcending thinking about welfare dependency and economic participation. The Guugu Yimidhirr scholar’s influential voice offers plurality in understanding contemporary policy debates and the complexities of maintaining cultural identity within capitalist frameworks. Pearson challenges simple tradition versus modernity oppositions, providing sophisticated analysis of welfare systems, economic participation and self-determination within colonial contexts. The work illustrates diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander political thought.
Indigenous knowledge systems
These works establish Indigenous knowledge systems as sophisticated epistemologies distinct from Western ways of knowing. They challenge singular notions of truth whilst demonstrating how Indigenous epistemologies offer valid approaches to understanding the world.
Smith (2012): Decolonizing Methodologies
Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s discipline-defining critique transformed Critical Indigenous Studies internationally. The Māori scholar demonstrates how research functions as tool of colonisation through knowledge extraction, cultural appropriation and representational violence justifying dispossession. Chapter 1, “Imperialism, History, Writing and Theory”, exposes Eurocentric biases in knowledge production whilst establishing Indigenous epistemologies as legitimate systems. Smith articulates how decolonising research requires methodologies grounded in Indigenous values and accountable to Indigenous communities rather than extractive academic imperialism.
Yunkaporta (2019): Sand Talk
Tyson Yunkaporta explores Aboriginal knowledge systems applied to global challenges. The Apalech Clan scholar demonstrates traditional techniques through yarning with critical thinkers, showing Indigenous approaches to complex thinking and sustainability. Chapter 1, “The Porcupine, the Paleo-mind and the Grand Design”, challenges linear Western thought patterns, illustrating how Indigenous knowledge systems offer alternative approaches to understanding relationships, ecology, governance and social organisation relevant to contemporary crises.
Nakata (2002): Indigenous Knowledge and the Cultural Interface
Nakata’s theoretical framework for understanding how Indigenous and Western knowledge systems interact proves essential for comprehending knowledge production at epistemological intersections. The article demonstrates knowledge as culturally situated rather than universal, teaching navigation of multiple knowledge systems whilst recognising power dynamics in knowledge validation and transmission. This framework illuminates the potential violence occurring at the interstices of different ways of knowing.
Land, Country and connection to place
Indigenous relationships to land constitute fundamental relationships rather than property relations. These works challenge Western concepts of ownership and environmental approaches whilst demonstrating land relationships as determinants of health and sophisticated philosophical systems.
Moreton-Robinson (2015): The White Possessive
Moreton-Robinson’s groundbreaking work introduces “patriarchal white sovereignty” as analytical tool for examining how nations construct themselves as white possessions despite objective reality. Chapter 1, “I Still Call Australia Home”, provides analytical frameworks for understanding whiteness as political project that displaces Indigenous sovereignties through legal and social processes. The work fundamentally challenges understandings of race, sovereignty and land ownership in settler colonial contexts, critiquing how national identity and legal frameworks disavow Indigenous sovereignty.
Simpson (2017): As We Have Always Done
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s articulation of Indigenous resurgence theory centres grounded normativity and everyday resistance as pathways to decolonisation. The Canadian Anishinaabe scholar challenges state-centred reconciliation narratives by asserting Indigenous freedom through land-based practices and knowledge systems. Chapter 1, “Nishnaabeg Brilliance as Radical Resurgence Theory”, examines how Indigenous resurgence operates through embodied practices rather than political recognition, understanding resistance as creative regeneration. Simpson critiques liberal multicultural frameworks, recognising Indigenous sovereignty as rooted in relationships with land and community.
Pascoe (2018): Dark Emu
Bruce Pascoe’s truth-telling work challenges fundamental misconceptions about pre-colonial Aboriginal societies. The Bunurong/Palawa/Yuin author uses colonial explorers’ journals to demonstrate sophisticated agricultural and land management systems. Chapter 8, “Accepting History and Creating the Future”, connects historical challenges to contemporary land rights and environmental management. Pascoe demonstrates how the “hunter-gatherer” label served colonial dispossession, exposing colonial narratives and historical erasure.
Indigenous approaches to science
These works challenge Western scientific paradigms by demonstrating Indigenous approaches to knowledge production that offer sophisticated alternatives to positivist methodologies, challenging singular notions of truth.
Kimmerer (2013): Braiding Sweetgrass
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s synthesis weaves Indigenous plant knowledge with Western botanical science. The Potawatomi botanist demonstrates how Indigenous ways of knowing complement and often surpass scientific understanding of ecological relationships. Chapter 6, “Learning the Grammar of Animacy”, exposes limitations of Western scientific objectivity whilst demonstrating how Indigenous reciprocal relationships with nature produce sophisticated ecological knowledge. Kimmerer positions Western science as one way of knowing among many rather than sole valid knowledge system.
Whyte (2017): Indigenous Climate Change Studies
Kyle Powys Whyte examines how Indigenous knowledge systems understand climate change through relational understanding that Western science only begins to recognise. The Potawatomi scholar positions Indigenous peoples as climate knowledge holders rather than victims. Whyte demonstrates how Indigenous temporalities and relationships provide sophisticated frameworks for understanding anthropogenic climate change, critiquing Western scientific approaches that separate humans from nature whilst recognising Indigenous science as future-oriented rather than merely traditional.
Rigney (1999): Internationalization of an Indigenous Anticolonial Cultural Critique
Lester-Irabinna Rigney establishes Indigenist research as distinct from research on Indigenous peoples. The Ngarrindjeri scholar provides basis for Indigenous-controlled research serving Indigenous interests whilst maintaining rigour. Rigney distinguishes between research on Indigenous peoples versus research by and for Indigenous peoples, demonstrating how Indigenist principles of resistance, political integrity and privileging Indigenous voices transform scientific practice.
Communication and methodology
Indigenous communication practices constitute sophisticated methodologies challenging Western approaches to research, knowledge sharing and community engagement.
Orange (2019): There There
Tommy Orange’s novel provides insight into how fiction functions as Indigenous methodology. The Cheyenne and Arapaho author uses multi-vocal narrative structure to communicate urban Indigenous experiences. Chapter 1, “Tony Loneman”, demonstrates storytelling as critical theory and cultural resurgence. Orange shows fiction as legitimate knowledge production, using narrative techniques to convey complex theoretical concepts about identity, belonging and survivance that academic prose struggles to capture.
Wright (2023): Carpentaria
Alexis Wright’s Miles Franklin Award-winning novel demonstrates Indigenous storytelling as epic communication practice. The Waanyi author weaves Dreaming narratives and lived struggles to create Indigenous magical realism communicating power and importance of relationships with Country. Chapter 11, “The mine”, employs non-linear narrative structures reflecting Indigenous temporalities. Wright demonstrates storytelling as sophisticated methodology for communicating relationships between land, law, lore and community that challenge Western communication paradigms.
Carlson & Frazer (2021): Indigenous Digital Life
Bronwyn Carlson’s comprehensive examination of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ digital lives offers cutting-edge scholarship on Indigenous digital communication. The chapter “Futures: Indigenous Futurisms” examines how Indigenous peoples use digital platforms to resist stereotypes, build community and assert sovereignty. Carlson challenges assumptions about technology and tradition, demonstrating Indigenous peoples as active shapers of digital spaces rather than passive consumers.
Politics of Indigeneity
Indigenous identity intersects with or is forced into relationship with politics. These works demonstrate how Indigenous peoples navigate and resist colonial political systems whilst embodying sovereignty.
Moreton-Robinson (2000/2020): Talkin’ Up to the White Woman
One of the first PhDs completed by an Aboriginal scholar fundamentally challenged white Australian feminism and established critical race and whiteness studies in Australia. The 20th anniversary edition’s immediate success demonstrates continued relevance. Chapter “Tiddas Speakin’ Strong” addresses Indigenous women’s self-presentation within white Australian feminism, developing intersectional analysis of how Indigenous women’s experiences differ from mainstream feminist discourse. Moreton-Robinson analyses power structures and privilege within feminist movements.
Huggins (1998/2022): Sister Girl
Jackie Huggins’ collection combines personal narrative with political analysis, making complex political concepts accessible through lived experience and storytelling approaches. The Bidjara and Birri-Gubba Juru historian’s chapter “Are All the Women White?” engages with personal narratives as political texts, understanding intersections of identity, history and political activism in Indigenous contexts.
Watego (2021): Another Day in the Colony
Chelsea Watego’s fierce analysis of ongoing colonialism in Australia refuses reconciliation narratives in favour of sovereignty. The Munanjahli and South Sea Islander scholar represents key disestablishment Indigenous political thought. Chapter “on racial violence, victims and victors” demonstrates contemporary Indigenous political thought’s diversity, critically analysing reconciliation discourse whilst understanding the ongoing savage nature of colonialism. Watego rejects liberal inclusion approaches.
Capitalism and colonisation
Capitalism and colonisation operate as fundamentally interconnected systems. These works demonstrate how economic structures perpetuate Indigenous dispossession whilst examining Indigenous responses.
Coulthard (2014): Red Skin, White Masks
Glen Sean Coulthard examines how colonial capitalism operates through recognition politics. The Canadian Yellowknives Dene scholar demonstrates how economic inclusion without structural change perpetuates dispossession. Chapter 2, “For the Land”, analyses how capitalism uses recognition politics to maintain colonial relations, demonstrating how land-based practices offer alternatives to capitalist social relations. Coulthard provides tools for critiquing reconciliation as economic assimilation.
Langton (2013): The Quiet Revolution
Marcia Langton’s Boyer Lectures examine how capitalism and resource extraction industries impact Indigenous communities whilst exploring economic strategies for Indigenous advancement within capitalist frameworks. The Yiman and Bidjara scholar analyses economic development models, understanding tensions between Indigenous self-determination and capitalist market participation. Langton explores the resource curse affecting Indigenous communities.
Watson (2015): Aboriginal Peoples, Colonialism and International Law
Irene Watson analyses how international law and capitalism coalesce to dispossess Indigenous peoples. The Tanganekald and Meintangk scholar introduces “raw law” as Indigenous legal orders existing outside colonial capitalist frameworks. Chapter 7, “Indigenous ways: A future”, demonstrates how legal structures enable capitalist extraction from Indigenous lands whilst Indigenous law operates independently. Watson exposes violence in translating Indigenous relationships to Country into property relations.
Indigenous intersectionality
Indigenous peoples experience multiple intersecting oppressions whilst maintaining resistance strategies challenging both colonial and patriarchal systems.
Bennett & Green (2022): Our Voices: Aboriginal Social Work
This collection presents Indigenous social work perspectives addressing intersections of class, disability and cultural identity. Chapter 13, “Aboriginal People, Disability and the National Disability Insurance Scheme”, examines how poverty, disability and social marginalisation interact with colonial dispossession. Bennett and Green demonstrate how Western support systems perpetuate oppression whilst introducing Indigenous holistic approaches to community wellbeing.
O’Sullivan (2021): The Colonial Project of Gender
Sandy O’Sullivan examines how colonialism imposed binary gender systems on Indigenous peoples, erasing diverse gender expressions and identities. The Wiradjuri transgender/non-binary scholar demonstrates gender as colonial imposition, developing intersectional analysis including sexuality and gender diversity. O’Sullivan challenges normative assumptions about gender and identity from Indigenous perspectives.
Driskill et al. (2011): Queer Indigenous Studies
This collection brings together Indigenous Two-Spirit, queer and trans scholars examining how colonialism disrupted Indigenous gender and sexual diversity. Chapter 3, “A Queer Caste”, demonstrates how heteronormativity functions as colonial tool. The work provides sophisticated understanding of Indigenous gender and sexual diversity as forms of cultural continuity and sovereignty, analysing intersections of homophobia, transphobia, racism and colonialism.
Indigenous research methodologies
Indigenous approaches to research centre community needs, challenge extractive practices and demonstrate sophisticated alternatives to Western research paradigms.
Wilson (2008): Research is Ceremony
Shawn Wilson presents research as sacred act grounded in relational accountability. The Opaskwayak Cree scholar introduces ceremony as methodological framework fundamentally transforming how research is conceptualised and conducted. Chapter “The Elements of an Indigenous Research Paradigm” explores research through Indigenous ontology where knowledge is relational rather than individual property. Wilson demonstrates how ceremony, dreams and intuition function as legitimate research methods whilst establishing accountability to all relations as core research ethic.
Bang, Marin & Medin (2018): If Indigenous Peoples Stand with the Sciences, Will Scientists Stand with Us?
Megan Bang and colleagues examine asymmetrical relationships between Indigenous peoples and Western science. The Ojibwe scholar challenges scientists to move beyond extractive research toward genuine partnership respecting Indigenous sovereignty and knowledge systems. The article demonstrates Western science as extractive tool denying Indigenous peoples’ scientific contributions. Bang articulates what ethical scientific collaboration requires, including recognising Indigenous peoples as knowledge authorities and supporting Indigenous sovereignty beyond research contexts.
Tuck & Yang (2012): Decolonisation is Not a Metaphor
Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang challenge superficial applications of decolonisation in research. The Unangax̂ scholar and colleague demand material return of land and life rather than metaphorical decolonising gestures. This paradigm-challenging article critically examines decolonising research that fails to address Indigenous sovereignty. Tuck and Yang demonstrate incommensurability between Indigenous and settler futures whilst recognising research’s potential complicity in settler moves to innocence.
Decolonising practices
These works provide connections through Indigenous perspectives, moving beyond inclusion toward Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.
Mignolo (2009): Epistemic Disobedience
Walter Mignolo introduces epistemic disobedience as necessary for decolonial thinking. The decolonial theorist argues that delinking from Western epistemology proves essential for imagining and building decolonial futures. Mignolo demonstrates the geopolitics of knowledge privileging Western thought, showing how epistemic disobedience opens possibilities for pluriversal rather than universal knowledge systems. The work articulates border thinking emerging from colonial difference.
Simonds & Christopher (2013): Adapting Western Research Methods to Indigenous Ways of Knowing
Valarie Simonds and Suzanne Christopher provide practical methodological guidance demonstrating how Western research methods can align with Indigenous values and protocols. The Indigenous health researchers offer concrete examples from community-based participatory research in health contexts. The work develops strategies for conducting culturally responsive research, showing how decolonising practice requires ongoing negotiation between knowledge systems rather than wholesale rejection.
TallBear (2013): Native American DNA
Kim TallBear examines how genetic science reinforces colonial definitions of Indigenous identity. The American Dakota scholar demonstrates how decolonising science requires fundamental rethinking of scientific objectivity and Indigenous sovereignty. Chapter “Racial Science, Blood, and DNA” analyses how supposedly neutral scientific practices perpetuate colonial logics. TallBear shows how Indigenous peoples resist and reshape scientific narratives whilst recognising need for Indigenous governance over research affecting Indigenous peoples.
Beyond the list
This collection strategically balances Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scholars with international Indigenous voices, demonstrating both specificity of place-based knowledge and global nature of Indigenous resistance to colonialism. The progression moves from sovereignty and self-determination through Indigenous knowledge systems, examining intersections of colonialism with capitalism, gender, sexuality and other systems of oppression.
Including fiction and creative works alongside theoretical texts demonstrates that Indigenous knowledge production occurs through multiple valid forms, from academic monographs to novels, from yarning to digital media. These texts collectively demonstrate how Indigenous perspectives fundamentally transform every discipline they engage, savaging established frameworks whilst offering transformative possibilities for addressing global crises.
Decolonisation proves not metaphorical but material, requiring epistemic disobedience and centring Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. These readings provide analytical tools for recognising colonial power structures whilst demonstrating Indigenous strategies of resistance, resurgence and regeneration. Indigenous knowledges offer more than critique. They offer transformative possibilities grounded in sophisticated epistemologies that preceded and exceed Western knowledge systems.