Associate Professor James Lance Taylor.Lauded author and US political commentator Associate Professor James Lance Taylor will headline a noteworthy list of foremost speakers and thinkers at next month’s National Indigenous Studies Conference in Canberra from 26-28 March 2014. Associate Professor Taylor - author of the much celebrated book Black Nationalism in the United States: from Malcolm X to Barack Obama – will deliver a keynote address titled Taking Intercommunalism Seriously: Black Power, Indigeneity, and Peoples' Struggles for Recognition and Anti-Racist democracy. As an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Politics at the University of San Francisco, Associate Professor Taylor teaches in the areas of religion and politics, race and ethnic politics, law and public policy and African American politics.Other keynote speakers include Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Pro-Vice Chancellor Maori at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, Professor Martin Nakata, Director of Nura Gili at the University of New South Wales, and Professor Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Director of the National Indigenous Research and Knowledges Network.Conference delegates will be welcomed at the official launch of the Australia Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Studies’ 50th Anniversary celebrations featuring the Lorrkkon Ceremony - a reenactment of an ancient and sacred Aboriginal Bone Ceremony that has never before been performed publically or outside of Kakadu.This ceremony was originally performed as part of the final funerary rites for Bunitj elder Big Bill Neidjie – otherwise known as ‘The Kakadu Man’. With over 200 speakers across 130 presentations, the biennial National Indigenous Studies Conference theme is Breaking Barriers in Indigenous Research and Thinking: 50 Years On. Other international presenters include Dr. Alok K Das (Jazan University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Rafael Nonato, Livia Camargo-Tavares and Bruna Franchetto (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro or University of Brazil), Patrick Loyer (Alberta Teachers' Association in Canada) and Sandy Lamalle (University of Montreal in Canada), and Geoffrey I. Nwaka (Abia State University, Uturu, Nigeria).Local speakers and presenters will include Dr Gordon Briscoe, Denis Foley, Professor Marcia Langton, Eunice Yu, Dr Josephine Flood, Paul Memmott, Dr Tom Calma, Professor Steven Larkin, Dr Jon Altman, Dr Deb Duthie and Dr Odette Best. The diverse list of presenters brings together multi-disciplinary expertise from across the Indigenous studies sector, including researchers, policy makers, community members, academics, representative organisations, consultants, traditional owners and service providers. Areas to be covered over the three days include language revival and education, histories, art, health care services, musicology, Indigenous perspectives of research, Indigenous knowledges, rights and reconciliation, educational reform, international Indigenous languages, tourism and popular culture, urban Indigenous histories, language, stories and song, and cultural institutions and events.Registrations for the conference close Wednesday 5 March. Contact the conference team by email 50yearson@aiatsis.gov.auVisit the 2014 National Indigenous Studies Conference website.Download media releaseMedia enquiriesP: 02 6246 1605
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