School: Arts and Humanities

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    Decolonising Perspectives: Understanding Self and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People
  • Unit Code

    SAH2800
  • Year

    2026
  • Enrolment Period

    1
  • Version

    1
  • Credit Points

    15
  • Full Year Unit

    N
  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus
    Online
  • Unit Coordinator

    Dr Jennifer MOYLE OGBEIDE-IHAMA

Description

This unit invites students to critically explore their own identities, values, and worldviews to engage with the histories and cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Through a strengths-based and decolonising approach, students will examine the impacts of colonisation, the richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being, and doing, and the significance of truth-telling in Australian history. By fostering self-awareness and cultural responsiveness, the unit prepares students to work ethically and empathetically with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, supporting reconciliation and social justice in their future professions.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Critically reflect on their own identities, values, biases, and positionality within Australian society, and analyse how these influence their perceptions and interactions.
  2. Explain their understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ histories, cultures, and contemporary experiences, including the impacts of colonisation and the strengths of these communities.
  3. Communicate knowledge and perspectives on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures clearly and coherently, using appropriate protocols and frameworks.
  4. Compare and contrast different ways of knowing, being, and doing, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Western epistemologies, and apply these insights to professional and community contexts.
  5. Apply culturally responsive and ethical approaches to engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, informed by self-awareness and respect for diversity.

Unit Content

  1. Examining Identity: Who am I? Understanding self, culture, and positionality.
  2. Diversity and Inclusivity: Concepts, histories, and local and global perspectives.
  3. Identifying Values: Exploring personal and cultural values and their impact on worldview.
  4. Theories of Knowledge: Identifying how I know what it is that I know.
  5. Biases and Assumptions: Recognising and reflecting on personal biases and their effects.
  6. How do my identity, values, biases, beliefs, ethical frameworks, and personal epistemologies inform what I know, how I am, and what I do?
  7. Explore the diversity, protocols, and place-based identities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
  8. Australian History and Truth-telling: Examining national narratives and the importance of truth.
  9. Examine the historical and ongoing struggle for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ rights, and explore the ethical and relational responsibilities of individuals and institutions in upholding justice, equity, and self-determination.
  10. Examine belonging through concepts of Country, kinship, and community.
  11. Integrating self-knowledge and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives: from awareness to responsibility.
  12. Final reflections and presentation.

Assessment

GS2 GRADING SCHEMA 2 Used for Undifferentiated Pass/Fail units inc. practical units or work-integrated learning

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescription
Portfolio ^Reflexive Identity Portfolio
Project ^Local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Engagement & Creative Response
ONLINE
TypeDescription
Portfolio ^Reflexive Identity Portfolio
Project ^Local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Engagement & Creative Response

^ Mandatory to Pass


Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Assessment

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. Informal vivas may be conducted as part of an assessment task, where staff require further information to confirm the learning outcomes have been met. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

Academic Integrity

Integrity is a core value at Edith Cowan University, and it is expected that ECU students complete their assessment tasks honestly and with acknowledgement of other people's work as well as any generative artificial intelligence tools that may have been used. This means that assessment tasks must be completed individually (unless it is an authorised group assessment task) and any sources used must be referenced.

Breaches of academic integrity can include:

Plagiarism

Copying the words, ideas or creative works of other people or generative artificial intelligence tools, without referencing in accordance with stated University requirements. Students need to seek approval from the Unit Coordinator within the first week of study if they intend to use some of their previous work in an assessment task (self-plagiarism).

Unauthorised collaboration (collusion)

Working with other students and submitting the same or substantially similar work or portions of work when an individual submission was required. This includes students knowingly providing others with copies of their own work to use in the same or similar assessment task(s).

Contract cheating

Organising a friend, a family member, another student or an external person or organisation (e.g. through an online website) to complete or substantially edit or refine part or all of an assessment task(s) on their behalf.

Cheating in an exam

Using or having access to unauthorised materials in an exam or test.

Serious outcomes may be imposed if a student is found to have committed one of these breaches, up to and including expulsion from the University for repeated or serious acts.

ECU's policies and more information about academic integrity can be found on the student academic integrity website.

All commencing ECU students are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

Assessment Extension

In some circumstances, Students may apply to their Unit Coordinator to extend the due date of their Assessment Task(s) in accordance with ECU's Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000001386.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for Special Consideration in respect of a final unit grade, where their achievement was affected by Exceptional Circumstances as set out in the Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000003318.

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