At the 2019 APSA conference, a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous academics and research students met to establish the APSA First Peoples’ Politics Forum.
Discussion was undertaken about the purpose of the proposed forum, its membership, and its name. It was agreed that the Forum would include non-Indigenous members (and so not be a Caucus), but that there would be nothing preventing Indigenous members of APSA to caucus separately on specific matters that affect Indigenous members uniquely. A lengthy discussion was undertaken about the aims of the Forum, and to determine priorities for 2020. These are provided below, as well as a list of initial forum members.
AIMS
- To sustain APSA commitment to centering Indigenous researchers and research within Australian political studies;
- To contribute to national political conversations and debates by offering scholarly-informed public statements on issues of significance to Indigenous peoples;
- To develop emerging Indigenous political studies scholars through mentoring that particularly focuses on how to understand, navigate and gain access to academic publishing and career tracks;
- To contribute to the APSA teaching and learning group by increasing the prominence of Indigenous researchers and research in political studies curriculum and content;
- To amplify the presence, priorities and contribution of Indigenous APSA membership who will also caucus separately from the Forum when necessary about matters specific to their experiences of the discipline as Indigenous researchers.
In 2020:
- Provide a number of free conference registrations to facilitate community access to APSA 2020 conference at Macquarie University;
- Work with the APSA 2020 Conference LOC to program the Indigenous politics stream at the annual conference;
- To facilitate and support Indigenous PhD candidate participation in the APSA 2020 PhD Workshop day, and explore an Indigenous researcher focused development session;
- To initiate a collaborative T&L audit, by requesting APSA members share Australian politics and Indigenous politics curriculums and reading lists, with a view to creating and building over time a shared set of curriculum resources for the teaching of political studies in Australia.
Ongoing:
- To circulate relevant calls for paper for disciplinary conferences and workshops, for journal special issues and edited collections to Indigenous researchers; to match new and early career Indigenous researchers with established academic mentors to support the production of academic publications in response to specific opportunities;
- To encourage Indigenous members to apply for academic positions in political science programs, and match potential applicants with established academic mentors to support applications.