2022 AIATSIS Summit

Topics under this sub-theme include the centrality of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, cultures and histories to understanding this country, including:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures in Australia’s national identity and story.
• The place of traditional owners in Indigenous policy and law.
• Privileging Indigenous knowledge in Australian research and cultural institutions.
• Indigenous ideas and approaches to education, science and technological innovations – both new and old.
• Conceptions of tangible and intangible heritage and its protection.
• Contemporary artistic practice and expressions of identity and place. 

This sub-theme also includes celebrating Indigenous identity in its complexity, and understanding relationships to mob and place – including responsibilities of membership/citizenship; inclusion, diaspora and resident communities; those connecting back to their heritage and stolen generations.

Topics under this sub-theme include connections to country and community and the dynamics of interaction with others and among groups, including:

• Caring for country, getting back on country 
• Regional development, cross-jurisdictional and whole-of-country planning 
• Models of Indigenous representation and authority
• Treaty-making and diplomacy in agreements and settlements 
• Toward self-government and autonomy 
• Indigenous leadership success and future challenges across disciplines and sectors
• Building relationships of trust between Indigenous peoples and research, cultural and other institutions.

This sub-theme also encompasses presentations that seek to share local experiences and successes across regions – including international and comparative examples; presenting research results across a range of topics and disciplines; models for recording and sharing knowledge and data.

Topics under this sub-theme focus on the future we are creating and what we need to do to get there, including:

• Reforming social structures and changing societal values. 
• Re-examining systems and influences from an Indigenous perspective.
• Indigenous research priorities to meet national and global challenges.
• Decolonising institutions, archives and disciplines.
• Imagining, designing and activating Indigenous structures, systems and ways of doing.
• Models of sustainable development and managing and adapting to ecological change.
• What a post-treaty/self-determined relationship with Australia looks like in practice – locally, and across sectors and institutions.

This sub-theme also provides an opportunity to reflect on the 30 years since the recognition of native title and where we could be in 30 years’ time.