VOL 86 ISSUE 1 JAN–MAR 2015
STEM the gap: Science belongs to us mob too INDIGENOUS SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVISM Theresa Petray
GETTING INDIGENOUS KIDS INTO SCIENCE Colin Scholes
INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE IP Brad Simpson
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CONTENTS
AQ VOL 86 ISSUE 1 JAN-MAR 2015
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Recognise and Represent
STEM the gap:
Biography:
Getting Indigenous Kids into Science
Science Belongs to Us Mob too
David Unaipon
DR COLIN A. SCHOLES
ASSOC PROF ROWENA BALL
DR JEANINE LEANE
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The Road to Recognition
Close the Gap
MARK YETTICA-PAULSON
The Indigenous Affairs Budget
Casestudy: Investing in Indigenous Australia
GEOFF SCOTT
The Issue of Traditional Knowledge IP
IMAGE CREDITS: Please see article placements
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DR BRADLEY SIMPSON
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Australia Survival Day
Taking back voice
References
DR TOM CALMA AO
Indigenous Social Media Activism DR THERESA PETRAY
COVER IMAGE: © Art Graphic Design
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AUSTRALIAN QUARTERLY
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AQ
A WORD
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Australian Quarterly
sk most Australians what the defining struggle of our nation has been and they might point to the fires of war that forged the ANZAC spirit, or to overcoming our cultural-cringe to take our place on the world political stage.
EDITOR: Grant Mills
Very little would probably be said about the struggle that has been ongoing since the very first moments of colonisation – our inability to find an equilibrium with the proud Indigenous race we found upon these shores.
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Camille Thomson
I would argue that the battle of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for recognition and equality defines each of us on some level. You cannot grow up in Australia and be independent of the situation. Australia, and by extension, Australians, are a product of our history; the good and the bad.
PRINTING: Union Offset
As such, the struggle of our Indigenous peoples is as much our fight as it is theirs. We need to stop treating them like ‘the other’ and start understanding that their successes are our successes, what brings them closer to equality makes us all more equal. For this special edition of AQ we’ve brought together representatives from the Recognise Campaign, Reconciliation Australia, the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, as well as individual scientists to continue the debate. It is curious to note that the Northern Territory Intervention has now been in place for almost 8 years, an initiative that many people believe has avoided rigorous scrutiny and has failed to produce positive results. And with the federal government cutting funding to programs such as The Deadly Awards, which would have celebrated its 20th year in 2014, and WA Premier Colin Barnett intent on closing 150 remote Indigenous communities, it is obvious that the struggle is far from over. Yet even so, there is a mood sweeping the country in the lead up to the Recognise referendum, a mood of solidarity lead by passionate people from all walks of life. Will constitutional equality engender social equality? In reality, the referendum will only be one piece of a much larger puzzle but it will put Indigenous issues back on the front line of debate. And that can only be a good thing.
Grant Mills
Editor
NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS AQ welcomes submissions of articles and manuscripts on contemporary economic, political, social and philosophical issues, especially where scientific insights have a bearing and where the issues impact on Australian and global public life. All contributions are unpaid. Manuscripts should be original and have not been submitted or published elsewhere, although in negotiation with the Editor, revised prior publications or presentations may be included. Submissions may be subject to peer review. Word length is between 1000 and 3000 words. Longer and shorter lengths may be considered. Articles should be written and argued clearly so they can be easily read by an informed, but non-specialist, readership. A short biographical note of up to 50 words should accompany the work. The Editor welcomes accompanying images. Authors of published articles are required to assign copyright to the Australian Institute of Policy and Science, including signing of a License to Publish which includes acceptance of online archiving and access through JSTOR (from 2010) or other online publication as negotiated by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science. In return, authors have a non exclusive license to publish the paper elsewhere at a future date. The inclusion of references and endnotes is the option of the author. Our preference is for these to be available from the author on request. Otherwise, references, endnotes and abbreviations should be used sparingly and kept to a minimum. Articles appearing in AQ are indexed ABC POL SCI: A Bibliography of Contents: Political Science and Government. The International Political Science Abstracts publishes abstracts of political science articles appearing in AQ. Copyright is owned by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science. Persons wishing to reproduce an article, or part thereof, must obtain the Institute’s permission. Contributions should be emailed to: The Editor at info@aips.net.au
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DESIGN AND PRODUCTION: Art Graphic Design, Canberra
SUBSCRIPTIONS: www.aips.net.au/aq-magazine/ subscribe ENQUIRIES TO: Camille Thomson, General Manager, AIPS, PO Box M145, Missenden Road NSW 2050 Australia Phone: +61 2 9351 0819 Fax: +61 2 9351 0758 Email: info@aips.net.au Website: www.aips.net.au/ aq-magazine/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/ AQAustralianQuarterly ISSN 1443-3605 AQ (Australian Quarterly) is published by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science. This project is supported by the Commonwealth Government through a grant-in-aid administered by the Department of Finance and Deregulation. ACN 000 025 507 The AIPS is an independent body which promotes discussion and understanding of political, social and scientific issues in Australia. It is not connected with any political party or sectional group. Opinions expressed in AQ are those of the authors. DIRECTORS OF THE AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF POLICY AND SCIENCE: Richard G McLean (Chair) Leon R Beswick Andrew Goodsall Maria Kavallaris Janelle Kyd Ross McKinnon Peter M McMahon Peter D Rathjen Lance Twomey Robert Wells
Recognise and Represent
Getting Indigenous Kids into Science Indigenous Australians are vastly underrepresented in Australia’s scientific and research community. This is a significant issue from both an Indigenous perspective, as well as for the development of Australian science. Scientific, technology and engineering professions are well recognised for their ability to provide rewarding careers, have positive impact on the broader society, and as a stepping stone in raising people to higher social-economic levels. Hence, the low engagement of Indigenous Australians in these professions limits their ability to access a pathway that can assist in overcoming their current disadvantage within the broader Australian society. ARTICLE BY: DR COLIN A. SCHOLES
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urthermore, many scientific and research fields in Australia would benefit from Indigenous engagement and knowledge. For example, many health and social research fields are focused around Indigenous issues, and would be vastly more effective with stronger input from Indigenous researchers. As well, traditional knowledge has the potential to assist in medical advancements and improved understanding and management of Australia’s unique environments. The poor representation is clearly demonstrated in the 2006 Australian census data: only 2% of the Indigenous population registered a science, technology or engineering profession, and a mere 0.19%
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The Road to Recognition
Across the nation, momentum is growing for a referendum to recognise Australia’s first peoples and to remove racial discrimination from our country’s rule book. In recent months, RECOGNISE campaigner Mark Yettica-Paulson has been among those on the road to recognition, speaking with everyday Australians in regional towns and cities about a coming moment that will lift us all up together. ARTICLE BY: MARK YETTICA-PAULSON
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n regional Queensland, a young Aboriginal man by the name of Lane Brookes has come to welcome the Journey to Recognition on its long trek across the nation. By the time the relay arrives in his town, tag teams of recognition campaigners have already travelled more than 25,000 kilometres across Australia. They’ve walked, cycled, paddled, surfed, kayaked and driven along coastlines and through cities, across deserts and the
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IMAGE: © Mathew Lynn
THE ROAD TO RECOGNITION
dusty heart of the continent. They’ve spent countless nights away from their own homes and families as they nurture this groundswell for change. Brookes is Roma’s Citizen of the Year for 2014. He knows the value of recognition first hand. His many voluntary contributions to the local community have been recognised in his citizenship award. Yet he and his ancestors remain unrecognised in the Constitution of Australia, despite the towering achievement of the first peoples of our country in sustaining the oldest unbroken thread of human civilization anywhere on the planet. The young Mandandanji and Kangoulu man offers a beautiful welcome to country, and is the first to sign up to the Recognise movement at the Roma event.
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On Instagram, he posts a picture of himself with the battered red suitcase that carries messages from a movement. Handwritten notes from everyday Australians urging our nation onwards towards recognition. “Time to recognise the first Australians”, he posts, with the hashtag #blackndeadly. Brookes is just one of the many voices of Australia calling on us to step forward together into the next chapter of our shared history. In the twilight months of 2014, the journey wove its way through regional Queensland, hearing the aspirations of community people for a moment of national reconciliation and healing, unmatched since the 1967 referendum to count Aboriginal people as citizens in our own land – the land of our ancestors. Now, in our time, we seek not just to be counted
– but to be recognised for who we are: the first Australians. We also seek to remove the last traces of racial discrimination from our nation’s most important document. In the first months of 2015, the mighty Journey to Recognition will press on into regional New South Wales. Meanwhile, the Parliament will press on with its part of this historic task: to find the form of words to be put to a referendum vote. A form of words that honours the aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians for meaningful recognition and one that can secure wide support from across the Australian community. Some might wonder why something like this hasn’t this already been achieved, with a proposition so just. The lessons of history show us that referenda in this country are
I dedicate this article, and pay my respects, to the Indigenous elders, past and present, of the Australian continent and islands who have developed, protected and propagated their knowledges over thousands of years.
IMAGE: Insert
Assoc Prof Rowena Ball
STEM the gap:
Science belongs to us mob too
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enefits include access to scientific and technological knowledge and opportunities for all to contribute to the scientific enterprise. I
would add to these recognition of the scientific heritage of Indigenous peoples. Yet in Australia, Indigenous people are under-represented in science
Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) states that everyone has the right to freely share in scientific advancement and its benefits, and Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) recognizes the right of everyone to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications. ARTICLE BY: ASSOC PROF ROWENA BALL
education and research and in STEM (Science Technology Mathematics and Engineering) related careers, to an extent that could amount to a violation of human rights under Articles 27 and 15. In this article I deconstruct some of the myths and attitudes that may contribute to the perpetuation of this situation, and outline a way forward.
IMAGE: Š Graham Crumb
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ARTICLE HEADING
Not for us mob? The following five statements, which I have quoted in essence, I have heard in one form or another around the traps for years: 1. “Science and maths and engineering — that’s all whitefeller business, that’s not ours, nothing to do with our culture and traditions.” 2. “Aboriginal people are not good at maths and science and all that.” 3. “Science and engineering are purely Western constructs.” 4. “Science education alienates Indigenous students from their traditional culture.” 5. “Science is opposed to traditional ways of knowledge, disrespectful of Indigenous rights and sovereignty, and thus irrelevant and damaging in the education of our children.” These are challenging and highly charged assertions. My deconstruction of them as myths leads to some, perhaps just as challenging, ways forward. A crucially important finding is that Indigenous scientific and engineering heritage is ignored and neglected, surely a significant contributor to the lag in STEM literacy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander school students compared with their non-Indigenous peers.1 But first I will digress, to look briefly at a mighty institution in the USA: the US Office
IMAGE: © Marcus Thompson-Flickr
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of Naval Research (ONR). We shall examine the modus operandi of ONR, and find in it a simple philosophy that can well guide Indigenous engagement with STEM. According to its mission, the ONR “coordinates, executes, and promotes the science and technology programs of the United States Navy and Marine Corps”. One might reasonably suppose that ONR funds research on ship engineering, and sea warfare, and perhaps oceanography. But what is this I am seeing in the literature? ONR funds research into dengue fever2, and astrophysics3, and neurophysiology4, and many other fields seemingly unrelated to US naval activities — too many to cite here! These papers typically have a line in the acknowledgements section, such as “The authors gratefully acknowledge the Office of Naval Research for their support.” Evidently it is the attitude or policy of ONR that all fields of scientific research align with its strategic interests. Everything is the US Navy’s business. And, from its point of view, why not? One never knows when a spinoff from a fundamental astrophysics problem might prove useful to naval defence. I call this the ONR empowerment factor, because it cannot be denied that the US Navy is a very powerful force as a result of this policy! All fields of research align with the
strategic interests of Indigenous communities, too. Vital and ongoing engagement with all fields of STEM research is a crucial element in the empowerment and advancement of Indigenous Australia. The ONR empowerment factor is a metaphor for universal scientific engagement. While we are in the US, let us take a closer look at the entire US scientific research juggernaut. Exactly who is creating this American science, the greatest quantity of scientific output in the world? Some revealing data are collected in ref.5 — • In 1980 18% of STEM PhDs in the USA were awarded to non-US citizens, this increased to 47% in 2006. • In 1985 46% of the STEM postdocs working in academe in the USA were foreign- born, in 2006 60% were foreignborn. In 1985 there were 7500 foreign STEM post- docs working in the USA, in 2005 there were 20,000. • Of the articles in the high-impact journal Science that come from US universities or research institutes only, 44% of first authors are neither European nor Anglo. 59% of postdoc authors are foreign-born. Isn’t that interesting? US scientific outputs are created increasingly and mainly by non-white foreigners. STEM research is starting to look pretty much not-whitefeller business. Myths #1 and #3 are busted already, but let us bust them some more.
Vital and ongoing engagement with all fields of STEM research is a crucial element in the empowerment and advancement of Indigenous Australia