Abstract
The Indigenous worldviews on social, emotional, cultural and ecological interconnectedness of life are embedded within their deep understanding of relationality. In this paper, the authors raise and discuss the primary question – in what ways can the non-Indigenous academics from western, Anglo-Eurocentric societies reposition themselves for an effective curricular engagement with Indigenous knowledges and perspectives? Together with this question, the authors explore a supporting question as to how such an engagement could strengthen a critical understanding of nature-human relationship in academic knowledge for professional practice. Their standpoint is that the critical understanding of the relationality of life embedded within the Indigenous knowledges reciprocate with the natural world, and this relationality can be applied to a range of knowledge and practice areas in higher education. Examples include outdoor education, psychology, social work and education disciplinary areas. Learning from Indigenous nature-centric ways of knowing, being and doing re-orients and clarifies the non-Indigenous academic curricular engagement for decolonizing Anglo-Eurocentric higher education in postcolonial countries such as Australia. This person-environment orientation may strengthen our appreciation of nature-human relationship to embed in curricular knowledge and professional practice frameworks. This may further support reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous academic collaborations.
Keywords: Indigenous knowledges, non-Indigenous, academic knowledge practice, nature-human relationship