Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2003. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2005. / Includes bibliography.

This thesis is located within the social and political context of Indigenous education within Australia. Indigenous people continue to experience unacceptable levels of disadvantage and social marginalisation. The struggle for indigenous students individually and collectively lies in being able to determine a direction which is productive and non-assimilationist – which offers possibilities of social and economic transformation, equal opportunities and cultural integrity and self-determination. The challenge for teachers within the constraints of the academy is to develop strategies that are genuinely transformative, empowering and contribute to decolonisation and positive social change. This thesis explores how the construction of two theoretical propositions – the Indigenous Community Management and Development (ICMD) practitioner and the Indigenous/non-Indigenous Interface – are decolonising and transformative strategies. It investigates how these theoretical constructs and associated discourses are incorporated into the Centre’s policy processes, curriculum and pedagogy to influence and interact with the everyday lives of students in their work and communities and the wider social institutions. It charts how a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff interact with these propositions and different ideas and discourses interrupting, re-visioning, reformulating and integrating these to form the basis for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous futures in Australia. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis. / Bibliographical references: leaves 280-294.

Thesis (M.P.H.)--University of Queensland, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.P.H.)--University of Queensland, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Queensland, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

This project utilises creative practice as research, and involves writing and discussing four sample episodes of a proposed six-part dramatic, black-comedy1 television mini-series titled The New Lows. Combined, the creative project and accompanying exegesis seeks to illuminate and interrogate some of the inherent concerns, pitfalls and politics encountered in writing original Asian-Australian characters for television. Moreover, this thesis seeks to develop and deliberate on characters that would expand, shift and extend concepts of stereotyping and authenticity as they are used in creative writing for television. The protagonists of The New Lows are the contemporary and dysfunctional Asian-Australian Lo family: the Hong Kong immigrants John and Dorothy, and their Australian-born children Wendy, Simon and Tommy. Collectively, they struggle to manage the family business: a decaying suburban Chinese restaurant called Sunny Days, which is stumbling towards imminent commercial death. At the same time, each of the characters must negotiate their own personal catastrophes, which they hide from fellow family members out of shame and fear. Although there is a narrative arc to the series, I have also endeavoured to write each episode as a selfcontained story. Written alongside the creative works is an exegetical component. Through the paradigm of Asian-Australian studies, the exegesis examines the writing process and narrative content of The New Lows, alongside previous representations of Asians on Australian and international television and screen. Concepts discussed include stereotype, ethnicity, otherness, hybridity and authenticity. However, the exegesis also seeks to question the dominant cultural paradigms through which these issues are predominantly discussed. These investigations are particularly relevant, since The New Lows draws upon a suite of characters commonly considered to be stereotypical in Asian-Australian representations.

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