Citing and referencing

Indigenous knowledge encompasses both traditional and evolving knowledges of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in many forms including cultural language, art, stories and dance and the written word.

Appropriately acknowledging this in academic writing is a part of how we show respect and recognise expertise.

When citing and referencing it is important to

• Attribute Indigenous knowledge holders and peoples
• Attribute Indigenous knowledges used by non-Indigenous authors.

There are a number of different approaches. This Indigenous Knowledges Attribution Toolkit is a good place to start.

It’s been developed by the Indigenous Archives Collective (IAC) to support students to

• Understand how to cite and reference Indigenous Knowledges
• Assess content and attribution.

A key recommendation is to include the author’s Nation, Country or Language group in your citation.

The AIASTIS collection is a good resource, as they have extensive metadata that captures this information.

More resources

• Indigenous knowledge IP Australia

  Australian Government website on IP with Indigenous knowledge
• Indigenous maps showing cultural and language boundaries

  Includes map of languages and cultural heritage boundaries in Victoria
• Map of Indigenous Australia

  Represents the language, social or nation groups of Aboriginal Australia
• Mapping Aboriginal Melbourne

  Interactive map of Melbourne revealing Indigenous significant sites and ceremonial places.