This research focuses on deepening our understanding about Indigenous women’s participation in contemporary Australian society by exploring their experiences in employment, careers, education and leadership. Since the purpose of this study is to explore how university education Indigenous women understand and make sense of it of their career journeys, the epistemological framework of the research is constructionism using an interpretivist approach. The particular interprevetivist perspective used is symbolic interactionism, but the research has also been guided philosophically by the Indigenous worldview and emerging Indigenous research methodologies which assert the right of Indigenous people to research in their own way. The methodology adopted is a case study approach in keeping with the aim of the study. Data was collected by in-depth interviews to build the women’s stories, focus groups, and researcher’s journal. Throughout the study, there was a strong emphasis on observing ethical guidelines for research on and with Indigenous people. The research design aimed to honour cultural dimensions such as Indigenous knowledge, ways of knowing and culturally appropriate data gathering techniques. The study found that Indigenous women are deeply committed to their personal and professional growth. However there are enormous barriers, both personal and institutional, to their success. Vestiges of colonialism such as racism, sexism, socio-economic and educational disadvantage remain entrenched in contemporary Australian society. Despite these obstacles, Indigenous women through their strength, resilience and determination, strive to make better lives for themselves, their families and communities. Their stories are significant in that they offer important insights into how Indigenous women can be supported on their career journeys.

This thesis recognises the great significance of 'walkabout' as a major trading tradition whereby the Dreaming paths and songlines formed major ceremonial routes along which goods and knowledge flowed. These became the trade routes that criss-crossed Australia and transported religion and cultural values. The thesis also highlights the valuable contribution Aboriginal people made in assisting the European explorers, surveyors, and stockmen to open the country for colonisation, and it explores the interface between Aboriginal possession of the Australian continent and European colonisation and appropriation. Instead of positing a radical disjunction between cultural competencies 'before' and 'after', the thesis considers how European colonisation of Australia (as with other colonial settings) appropriated Aboriginal competence in terms of the landscape: by tapping into culinary and medicinal knowledge, water and resource knowledge, hunting, food collecting and path-finding. As a consequence of this assistance, Aboriginal Dreaming tracks and trading paths also became the routes and roads of colonisers. This dissertation seeks to reinstate Aboriginal people into the historical landscape of Australia. From its beginnings as a footnote in Australian history, Aboriginal society, culture, and history has moved into the preamble, but it is now time to inscribe Aboriginal people firmly in the body of Australian history.

For most people parenting is a crucial experience. We enter the world via our parents; we learn what it is to be a child, a human being in that particular time-space-people context. We carry our parents' legacy from conception to death. The questions central to this research concern the concept and praxis of parenting. Why is parenting so important for human being? What do terms such as loving, caring, nurturing, mean? What does it mean to be a 'family', a 'mother', a 'father'? What of power in families? How do parenting relationships differ from other forms of relationship? How does parenting 'fit' in society? The task I set myself was the comprehension of parenting. I wanted to grasp as much as I could about the definitions, ideas, practices which people use in their everyday lives, and I wanted to understand these in society. The work is a theoretical one. The phenomenological method underpins the total process; the introduction, the field research, the analysis of data, the writing. Phenomenology, as I understand it, is concerned essentially with uncovering meaning. I wanted to learn the meaning of parenting praxis in society in order to develop a theory of parenting which could be used as a catalyst, and provoke questions which I believe are critical for human being. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first is the preparation or journey into the research. Time is spent on defining such basic terms as 'body', 'self', 'perception', in building an ontological and methodological framework sufficient for my needs. Portraits of the six families with whom I lived are presented in triptych form in the middle part of the thesis. I wanted, needed, to immerse myself in people's lives, not simply to visit and ask questions which they may/may not have been able or willing to answer, but I wanted to become part of their lives, albeit for a short time. Then I could hear, see, taste, feel .. what it is like to be in their family. People are revealed warts and all, and parenting shown to be complex, ambiguous, tedious, awesome In the third part of the thesis focus is on parentingin-society. C. Wright Mills' questions anchor the discussion of the history of parenting, and on parenting in Australian society. The concept and praxis of parenting is un-covered, and shown to be an ongoing social construction. I argue that the particular construction, this ordering of power, this definition and conceptualisation of parenting, is brought about by a systematic orchestration, an ordering of people's lives which inhibits full realisation of human being. The liberal democratic ideology fuels this construction, and contradictions inherent in parenting praxis are denied, deflected, dismissed by reference to this ideology.

This thesis addresses a gap in research regarding South Australian china painting. Although china painting has been practised in Australia for the last 120 years and is held in major Australian collections, it has been little researched and then in a minor role associated with ceramics and studio potters, or as women’s art/craft. The china painters too, have been little researched. My research identifies the three ‘highs’ of the changing fortunes of china painting, and how the practice survived in between. I argue that it was first taught in the city’s School of Design, Painting and Technical Art in 1894 as a skill for possible industrial employment, due to the initiative of School Principal, Harry Pelling Gill. However china painting classes were discontinued by 1897 due to an economic depression and the fact that the anticipated industry did not eventuate. In 1906 china painting classes were reinstituted in the (re-named) Adelaide School of Art and teacher Laurence Howie was pivotal in that revival. China painting classes ceased during the First World War while Howie served overseas in the Australian Forces, but resumed in 1923 after his return and appointment as Principal of the (renamed) School of Arts and Crafts. The resulting change in the fortunes of china painting was the outcome of the School’s appropriate training in art and design, and I argue this enabled emerging professional female artists to confidently exhibit china painting alongside their fine art. I will devote a chapter to the important role of the South Australian Society of Arts in facilitating this important public exposure of china painting. The Second World War marked a decline in popularity of china painting. Chapter 5 traces its survival till it burst into popularity again in 1965. Further chapters describe china painting’s following meteoric rise in fortune and the role played by the South Australian teachers of the art/craft, few of whom had received formal art training. I argue that china painting became a conservative social craft, but nonetheless a serious hobby, pursued by married, middle-class women who strongly believed their work was art, not craft. I will point out how they were visited and influenced by entrepreneurial American teachers, politically active in the art/craft debate in the United States of America. Chapter 8 will chart the steps taken by Australian teachers in the 1980s to break from the American influence and regain an Australian identity in teachers’ organisations and iconography. I will describe the debates that ensued following experimental work exhibited by avant-garde Australian teachers to resolve the art/craft debate regarding china painting in Australia, and the difficulties of maintaining china painting momentum as the majority of practitioners became elderly women. This thesis identifies education of the practitioners as a key factor throughout South Australian china painting history as a way of better understanding the place of china painting within the decorative arts. China painting is currently in decline; nevertheless, as I will point out in my conclusion, there are several future pathways it could take. Only within recent decades have curators and writers shown an increased interest in women’s decorative arts, including china painting. It is timely to undertake research before existing documentation of china painting is lost. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1374281 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of History and Politics, 2009

This thesis addresses a gap in research regarding South Australian china painting. Although china painting has been practised in Australia for the last 120 years and is held in major Australian collections, it has been little researched and then in a minor role associated with ceramics and studio potters, or as women’s art/craft. The china painters too, have been little researched. My research identifies the three ‘highs’ of the changing fortunes of china painting, and how the practice survived in between. I argue that it was first taught in the city’s School of Design, Painting and Technical Art in 1894 as a skill for possible industrial employment, due to the initiative of School Principal, Harry Pelling Gill. However china painting classes were discontinued by 1897 due to an economic depression and the fact that the anticipated industry did not eventuate. In 1906 china painting classes were reinstituted in the (re-named) Adelaide School of Art and teacher Laurence Howie was pivotal in that revival. China painting classes ceased during the First World War while Howie served overseas in the Australian Forces, but resumed in 1923 after his return and appointment as Principal of the (renamed) School of Arts and Crafts. The resulting change in the fortunes of china painting was the outcome of the School’s appropriate training in art and design, and I argue this enabled emerging professional female artists to confidently exhibit china painting alongside their fine art. I will devote a chapter to the important role of the South Australian Society of Arts in facilitating this important public exposure of china painting. The Second World War marked a decline in popularity of china painting. Chapter 5 traces its survival till it burst into popularity again in 1965. Further chapters describe china painting’s following meteoric rise in fortune and the role played by the South Australian teachers of the art/craft, few of whom had received formal art training. I argue that china painting became a conservative social craft, but nonetheless a serious hobby, pursued by married, middle-class women who strongly believed their work was art, not craft. I will point out how they were visited and influenced by entrepreneurial American teachers, politically active in the art/craft debate in the United States of America. Chapter 8 will chart the steps taken by Australian teachers in the 1980s to break from the American influence and regain an Australian identity in teachers’ organisations and iconography. I will describe the debates that ensued following experimental work exhibited by avant-garde Australian teachers to resolve the art/craft debate regarding china painting in Australia, and the difficulties of maintaining china painting momentum as the majority of practitioners became elderly women. This thesis identifies education of the practitioners as a key factor throughout South Australian china painting history as a way of better understanding the place of china painting within the decorative arts. China painting is currently in decline; nevertheless, as I will point out in my conclusion, there are several future pathways it could take. Only within recent decades have curators and writers shown an increased interest in women’s decorative arts, including china painting. It is timely to undertake research before existing documentation of china painting is lost. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1374281 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of History and Politics, 2009