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Nauiyu’s Cultural Colonisation: Truth-Telling with Dadirri

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Truth-telling and the Ancient University

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Abstract

This chapter explores the unique, decolonised truth-telling model framed on Dadirri, an Indigenous research methodology specific to the Daly River region. Since colonisation, research has too often been conducted through the lens of Western prejudice, resulting in the infringement on deeply held values and traditions, the theft of Aboriginal knowledge and beliefs, with many research outcomes creating more harm than good. This chapter reveals a deliberate, decolonial shift away from previous research by capturing the stories and strengthening the voice of Aboriginal people through a truth-telling model that was developed by community to respond to a community need. Research determined by Aboriginal Australians not only takes the inquiry to the heart of the Aboriginal experience of colonisation, but it also has the potential to positively address the colonial past, the impacts on the present, and where the community members want their lives to go in the future. The Indigenous research methodology of Dadirri, a concept of the Ngan’gikurunggurr people of the Daly River region in the Northern Territory, is presented. Thus, this chapter provides the reader with a decolonised research methodology, the first of its kind to utilise an Indigenous research methodology both, on the Country and with the people to whom it belongs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Charles Darwin University, Casuarina, NT, Australia

    Gavin John Morris

  2. Green River Aboriginal Corporation, Daly River, NT, Australia

    Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann

  3. We Al-li Pty Ltd, Goolmangar, NSW, Australia

    Judith Atkinson

  4. Charles Darwin University, Casuarina, NT, Australia

    Emma L. Schuberg

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  1. Gavin John Morris
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  2. Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann
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  3. Judith Atkinson
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  4. Emma L. Schuberg
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Correspondence to Gavin John Morris .

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Morris, G.J., Ungunmerr-Baumann, MR., Atkinson, J., Schuberg, E.L. (2023). Nauiyu’s Cultural Colonisation: Truth-Telling with Dadirri. In: Truth-telling and the Ancient University. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-6159-7_3

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