ABSTRACT
We have recently become more sensitive to the understanding that knowledge does not exist in objective, decontextualized forms, but is intimately linked to specific contexts, people and issues. This understanding is particularly relevant for indigenous people whose systems of knowledge have been subordinated by the forces of colonization that have worked to subvert their social and cultural life. In this chapter we talk to issues related to the generation and reformulation of indigenous knowledge in university contexts. We show how recent developments in postgraduate programs at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies at Curtin University in West Australia provide a context to ensure the primacy of Aboriginal systems of knowledge. We commence with the historical context of Aboriginal education and show how the structures and processes of university education and research have been reconstructed so that Aboriginal systems of knowledge are central to empowering processes of education and research. In this context traditional systems of education that use indigenous people as subjects and objects of inquiry have been transformed into approaches to inquiry that are for, by and with Aboriginal people.
