Exploring and sharing Australian Indigenous narratives

Previously, I completed a library project which focused on preserving the knowledge available within the Central Gippsland Indigenous community. This thesis extends this work following input from a range of Indigenous people who offered historical and other culturally related knowledge. Early Australian colonisation condemned much of this knowledge via relevant literature and also from general society. Twelve different Australian Indigenous people from central Gippsland and Queensland provided audio narratives that helped investigate the associated learning potential. Examples include historical events, artistry and various community activities. Community Based Participatory Research was selected as a way of asking for help rather than demanding information. In this way, I acknowledge some of the difficulties experienced by Australian Indigenous people when interacting with mainstream activities. Digital audio recordings have been used to preserve narratives whilst recognising and respecting oral history methods. Unstructured qualitative interviews by participants have provided a broad range of information. The data analysis explores various stages of the data collection process. The conclusion describes research benefits, limits and future work as well as also individually recognising each person as part of the participant community. The major focus of the project is the resultant learning which was assessed as a result of the narrative analysis and also the general research process.