Course Title: The Lurujarri Dreaming Trail
Part A: Course Overview
Course Title: The Lurujarri Dreaming Trail
Credit Points: 12.00
Important Information:
Please note that this course may have compulsory in-person attendance requirements for some teaching activities.
To participate in any RMIT course in-person activities or assessment, you will need to comply with RMIT vaccination requirements which are applicable during the duration of the course. This RMIT requirement includes being vaccinated against COVID-19 or holding a valid medical exemption.
Please read this RMIT Enrolment Procedure as it has important information regarding COVID vaccination and your study at RMIT: https://policies.rmit.edu.au/document/view.php?id=209.
Please read the Student website for additional requirements of in-person attendance: https://www.rmit.edu.au/covid/coming-to-campus
Please check your Canvas course shell closer to when the course starts to see if this course requires mandatory in-person attendance. The delivery method of the course might have to change quickly in response to changes in the local state/national directive regarding in-person course attendance.
Please note that there are additional costs for this course which are not covered by HECS. These include return flight to Broome, a lump sum paid to the Goolarabooloo community who host the Trail (this covers all costs on Trail) and accommodation in Broome before/after Trail.
Terms
Course Code |
Campus |
Career |
School |
Learning Mode |
Teaching Period(s) |
ARCH1153 |
City Campus |
Undergraduate |
315H Architecture & Design |
Face-to-Face |
Sem 1 2006, Sem 1 2008, Sem 1 2010, Sem 1 2011, Sem 1 2012, Sem 1 2013 |
ARCH1153 |
City Campus |
Undergraduate |
320H Architecture & Urban Design |
Face-to-Face |
Sem 1 2014, Sem 1 2015, Sem 1 2016, Sem 1 2018, Sem 1 2019, Sem 1 2020, Sem 1 2023, Sem 1 2024 |
Flexible Terms
Course Code |
Campus |
Career |
School |
Learning Mode |
Teaching Period(s) |
ARCH1153 |
City Campus |
Undergraduate |
320H Architecture & Urban Design |
Face-to-Face |
UGRDFlex17 (ZZZZ) |
Course Coordinator: Jock Gilbert
Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 1856
Course Coordinator Email: jock.gilbert@rmit.edu.au
Course Coordinator Location: 100.08.02
Course Coordinator Availability: Via email
Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities
None
Course Description
In this course you will have the opportunity to learn about, listen to, discuss and engage with indigenous people about their knowledge and relationship to land. You will spend 9 days with the Goolarbooloo people of Broome W.A. walking the Lurujarri dreaming trail. Lurujarri, meaning coastal dunes, is the Aboriginal name that generally describes the stretch of country from Broome, W.A. to Minarriny, about 90 kms to the north of Broome. The trail follows part of a traditional Aboriginal song cycle that originated from the Dreamtime. The background and significance of the trail is outlined by Frans Hoogland as follows:-
We have to learn to see again, learn to walk, to feel all these things again. This is why the Lurujarri trail is so important. The Lurujarri trail will get us to listen, to start walking slowly, and to teach people...people are introduced to the song cycle through direct experience of walking, of being with it, trying to understand the living quality of the country. That have to be experienced. Its very hard to grasp that out of reading books or through people talking (Sinatra and Murphy Listen to the People : Listen to the Land 1999, Melbourne University Press).
The course does not aim to provide you with an overview of Aboriginal culture and knowledge about land and land management but rather it aims to introduce you to a different way of knowing ’country’ from the perspective of the Goolarbaloo people of Broome. Insights gained will assist you towards an appreciation of different ways of knowing land and an understanding of some of the issues involved in working collaboratively with Aboriginal people. As Marcia Langton observes:-
Aboriginal and western systems of knowledge are parallel, co-existing, but different, ways of knowing. Scientific descriptions of nature and precepts of the natural world cannot subsume traditional ways of knowledge. Collaborative projects are not merely annexing traditional systems of knowledge, but rather, interacting with them, and thus the outcomes are neither absolutely the result of scientific thought nor that of Aboriginal thought. Rather each is a source of understanding the very difficult issues that are posed by the natural world on this continent (Marcia Langton Burning Questions ; emerging environmental issues for indigenous peoples in northern Australia 1998 Centre for Indigenous Natural and Cultural Resource Management, NT)
Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development
In this course you you will develop the following capabilities:
- Ways to consider, articulate and reflect on different knowledge systems
- Techniques to consider the relationship between cultural vantage, your body and the landscape through different knowledge systems
- Approaches which communicate the contingencies and complexities of inter-cultural knowledge exchange
Upon successful completion of this course you will be able to:
- Demonstrate an appropriate level of insight into indigenous knowledge about land and land management,
having walked the Lurujarri dreaming trail and engaged with the course material - Critically examine some of the historical assumptions which shape arguments about the role of Aboriginal
people and their environmental knowledge - Identify and articulate key threats and challenges currently facing indigenous people in remote regions of
Australia in maintaining their custodial relationship with land - Have some appreciation of the way in which other land uses (including tourism, recreation, residential development) conflict with indigenous land management practices
- Critically engage with western and non-western ideas about place; and to have considered ways in which these land use conflicts can be addressed in a way which is sympathetic to both the ’environment’ and the
different users of the land.
Overview of Learning Activities
A series of preparatory workshops prior to departure explore a set of broad assumptions and representations of Aboriginal people and their relationship to land. A series of informal and formal learning activities will occur across the 9-day Trail. This will be followed by one further workshop at RMIT. A series of key readings frame the learning activities prior to the trail and students will develop a self-directed focus for their major assignment in response to the readings, preparatory activities and their experience on Trail.
Overview of Learning Resources
RMIT will provide you with resources and tools for learning in this course through our online systems.
The University Library has extensive resources for Landscape Architecture students including a collection of reference books and journals.
The Library has produced a subject guide that includes quality online and print resources for your studies; http://rmit.libguides.com/landscape-arch
There are services and resources available to support your learning through the University Library. The Library provides guides on academic referencing and subject specialist help as well as a range of study support services. For further information, please visit the Library page on the RMIT University website and the RMIT student website.
Suggested Reading
The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies May 2000 Guidelines for Ethical Research in Indigenous Studies
Benterrak, Krim, M and Roe, P 1996 ’Strategic Nomadology : Introduction’ in Reading the Country Fremantle Arts Centre Press, W.A.
Cronin, W (ed) 1995 Uncommon Ground : rethinking the Human Place in Nature Introduction W.W. Norton, USA
Deutschlander, S. and Miller, L.J 2003 ‘Politicising aboriginal cultural Tourism: the discourse of primitivism in the tourist encounter The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology Volume 40 Issue 1, Toronto
Healy, Chris 1999 ‘White Feet and Black Trails : Travelling Cultures at the Lurujarri Train’ Postcolonial Studies Volume 2, Issue 1 The Institute of Postcolonial Studies.
Langton, Marcia 1998 ’Science Fictions’ Chapter 3 in Burning questions : emerging environmental issues for indigenous peoples in northern Australia Australian Centre for Indigeneous Natural and Cultural Resource Management, Northern Territory University
Mulligan, Martin 2003 ‘Feet to the Ground in Storied Landscapes’ in Adams and Mulligan 2003 Decolonising Nature: Strategies for Conservation in a Post-Colonial Era Earthscan
Rose, D.B. 2002 ‘Love and Reconciliation in the Forest: A Study in Decolonisation’ Hawke Institute Working Paper Series No. 19 South Australia
Anne Ross and Kathleen Pickering 2002 The politics of reintegrating Australian Aboriginal and American Indian Indigenous knowledge into resource management : the dynamics of resource appropriation and cultural revival)
http://www.link.asn.au/papers/indigenous/chronological.html
Sinatra, J. and Murphy, P. 1999 ’Black and White, a trail to understanding’ in Listen to the People, Listen to the Land Melbourne University Press, Carlton
Suchet, Sandie 2002 “Totally Wild’? Colonising Discourses, indigenous knowledges and managing wildlife’ pp 141-157 in Australian Geographer Volume 33, No 2 2002
Overview of Assessment
You will be assessed on how well you meet the course’s learning outcomes and on your engagement with the course content.
The assessment for this course will comprises a set of cumulative preparatory tasks undertaken prior to going on Trail, a set of methods to allow you to register your experience while on Trail. While the experience of the trail is central to this course, you will be required to critically reflect on the experience in relation to broader discourses around land, walking and different knowledge systems.
Assesmsent Tasks
Assessment Task 1: Knowledge constellations, 30% CLO 2
Assessment Task 2: Articulating Knowledges, 50%, CLOs 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5
Assessment Task 3: Participating and contributing to collective knowledges, 20% CLOs 4 & 5
Feedback will be given on all assessment tasks.
If you have a long term medical condition and/or disability it may be possible to negotiate to vary aspects of the learning or assessment methods. You can contact the program coordinator or Equitable Learning Services if you would like to find out more.
Your course assessment conforms to RMIT assessment principles, regulations, policies, procedures and instructions.