Ethnic Studies

This course examines the underlying concepts in indigenous education and the theories that inform current research practice. Particular emphasis is given to theories of ethnicity, culture, indigeneity and colonization and their application to the New Zealand context.

This course examines indigenous musical instruments in Australia. Case studies introduce the cultural and spiritual significance of particular instruments, trace their creation (from sourcing of materials, to design, to methods of crafting), and demonstrate their uses in music and dance.

This course examines the world of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literature, film, music, and art. Through an exploration of iconic works by Indigenous creatives, students will develop a critical understanding of how these mediums express and reflect lived experiences. 

This course examines the complex historical realities of cultural autonomy, strategic negotiation, adaptation and everyday resistance in a particular time and place. 

The course focuses on the main theories and debates in the postcolonial study of the intersections between racial formations, gender and sexuality, and cultural practices. Develop an understanding of race as a specific object of inquiry within postcolonial theory. There is an emphasis on introducing and sharpening key conceptual tools for analyzing the intersections between race and the social vectors of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, class, and culture. The course examines postcolonial global realities, paying close attention to postcolonial configurations of social and political relations and the ways in which various expressive forms have recorded and engaged with these postcolonial realities. Questions of power and global asymmetry, social inclusion and exclusion, and cultural representation and appropriation are addressed in our analyses of authors and cultural products that contest, transgress, and rearticulate national boundaries and social identities.

This course examines the socio-cultural and political impact of New Zealand films foregrounding Māori, both in front of and especially, behind the camera. It looks primarily at how Māori filmmakers have used cinema as a means to reassert cultural identity and tino rangatiratanga, from its activist beginnings during the Māori Cultural Renaissance in the 1980s, to the present.

This course is a practical and theoretical introduction to performing cultures of the Pacific with emphasis on Polynesian cultures. Basic music and dance skills are taught in practical instruction. Consideration of commonalities and differences among Pacific cultures. Academic discussion of styles, instruments, performer categories and the place of the performing arts in Pacific cultures.

This course examines the ways that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people draw on a range of personal, social and cultural resources to compensate for adversities brought about by colonization. It explores agency, successes and joys as well as the ways that people live with the challenges and traumas of history. 

This course examines Indigenous peoples as agents of geopolitical change. It introduces colonial/decolonial geographies to demonstrate the geopolitical implications of Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. Key themes include: territory and geopolitics; Indigenous identities, subject-formation and intersectionality; Indigenous knowledges, rights and political agency; and, Indigenous relationships with non-Indigenous peoples.

This course examines the diverse roles Aboriginal women have played in Indigenous and Settler societies and investigates historical and contemporary issues and the activism and leadership that Aboriginal women have undertaken. It covers activism and leadership, agency, and power from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous standpoints. It looks at Aboriginal women in contemporary times as well as from early colonial days and on the missions, Aboriginal women feminism and the making of a nation, Aboriginal women’s literature and roles in higher education, Indigenous women in sport, social and emotional wellbeing, as well as Aboriginal women and criminal justice.