Engaging non‐Indigenous students in Indigenous history and “un‐history”: An approach for non‐Indigenous teachers and a politics for the twenty‐first century

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to analyse non-indigenous student resistance to indigenous history and to improve non-indigenous students' engagement with indigenous history. Design/methodology: The paper, based on praxis, is a theoretical discussion of the reasons for non-indigenous student resistance to indigenous history. Findings: The paper argues that non-indigenous imaginings of national self creates indigenous history into a "un-history" (a history that could not be). The paper suggests non-indigenous teachers of indigenous history may undertake a broader perspective to prepare students for indigenous history, including fostering a critical appreciation of histiography, Australian colonial art, literature and popular culture, to enable a critical understanding of the national imagining of Australians (as non-indigenous) in order to enable engagement with indigenous history. Research limitations/implications: The paper's focus and findings do not presume relevance to indigenous educators of indigenous history, as previous research has shown non-indigenous students' reactions to an indigenous educator may differ from an to a non-indigenous educator. Originality/value: The paper moves beyond discussions about content of indigenous history to issues of resistance and engagement found amongst non-indigenous students with regard to indigenous history. The paper suggests a twenty-first century political approach where there is non-indigenous ownership of the shared history in (indigenous) Australia history, enabling indigenous history to move from the periphery to the centre of Australian colonial history. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.