About Associate Professor Kathleen Butler
Associate Professor Kathleen Butler has been implementing culturally innovative pedagogy seeking social impact for 25 years. Her work spans disciplinary focus in sociology, anthropology and Indigenous Studies; broad leadership in Indigenisation of curriculum; and cross-disciplinary engagement with STEM. At the University of Newcastle, Kath has worked within mainstream Humanities, the Centre for Teaching and Learning, supported the Pro-Vice Chancellor Indigenous Portfolio and currently heads the Wollotuka Institute which is celebrating its fortieth anniversary this year. Her teaching ranges from large-scale core courses, small post-graduate cohorts and guest lectures in both online and face-to-face offerings.
Kath bases her scholarship of teaching and learning in place-based pedagogies which have expanded for local, regional, national and international impact and recognition. Her teaching is linked to providing meaningful practice- that extends to culturally capable students and transforming the environment in which graduates will work. This includes providing research and evaluation on success in schools in NSW Public Education; including Indigenous people in urban planning internationally, Aboriginal Community Language Planning and Aboriginal youth mental health innovations. While this cycle of teaching and community impact has been recognised with awards, fellowships and grants, the longevity of change and impact is the most valuable achievement.
Publications
Ahmat, N., Kirby, R., Clare, J., & Butler, K. (2023a). The federal government is offering every First Nations tertiary student a Commonwealth-supported place at the university of their choice. NITV News: Nula. TVNEWS.TSM202307210008. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/TVNEWS.TSM202307210008
Ahmat, N., Kirby, R., Clare, J., & Butler, K. (2023b). The federal government is offering every First Nations tertiary student a Commonwealth-supported place at the university of their choice. NITV News Update. TVNEWS.TSM202307220003. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/TVNEWS.TSM202307220003
Belling, N., & Butler, K. (2009). Woman Saved by Emergency Services After Flash Flooding: A Melbourne woman has praised emergency service workers after she was pulled from her car in flash flooding. Ten 5pm News. Tvnews.tev20094604768. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/tvnews.tev20094604768
Butler, K. (2000). Keeping the world safe from naked-chicks-in-art refrigerator magnets: the plot to control art images in the public domain through copyrights in photographic and digital reproductions. Intellectual Property Law Review, 32, 309–381. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/sniper.3682
Butler, K. (2000). Overcoming Terra Nullius: Aboriginal perspectives in schools as a site of philosophical struggle. IELAPA, 93–101. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/ielapa.200009825
Butler, K. (2012). Rabbit Proof Fence. IELAPA, 22–25. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/ielapa.201200754
Butler, K. (2016). Rethinking Sociology, Social Darwinism and Aboriginal Peoples. International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies; v.9 n.1 p.17-27; 2016, 9(1), 17–27. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/aeipt.223489
Butler, K. (2016). Rethinking sociology, social Darwinism and Aboriginal peoples. International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies, 9(1), 17–27. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.305792970535762
Butler, K. (2020). Sociology Teaching and Indigenous Issues : final report. . Aeipt.227272. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/aeipt.227272
Butler, K. J. (2009). Teaching an indigenous sociology : a response to current debate within Australian sociology. . Aeipt.178337. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/aeipt.178337
Butler, K., & Young, A. (2009). Indigenisation of curricula : intent, initiatives and implementation. Proceedings of AUQF2009 : Internal and External Quality Assurance : Tensions and Synergies : Alice Springs, Australia 1-3 July 2009. Aeipt.180248. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/aeipt.180248
Carvalho, K., Millar, L., Addison, S., & Butler, K. (2009). Cash for Clunkers delivering positive results: A scheme encouraging Americans to switch from fuel guzzling to efficient cars seems to be working. ABC News WA. Tvnews.tew20093100180. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/tvnews.tew20093100180
Feng, L., Towney, N., Stewart-Assheton, K., Weldon, Y., Kelly, R., Butler, K., Tahu, P., & Marne, W. (2023). The Voice: New South Wales is home to the largest number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of any state and territory. ABC News NSW. TVNEWS.TSM202310060115. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/TVNEWS.TSM202310060115
Henderson, I., Millar, L., Addison, S., & Butler, K. (2009). Cash injection: A scheme to chance the habits of American consumers and change what they drive from fuel guzzling to efficient cars seems to be working. ABC News Victoria. Tvnews.tev20093101825. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/tvnews.tev20093101825
Kirby, R., Ahmat, N., Clare, J., & Butler, K. (2023). The federal government is offering every First Nations territory student a Commonwealth supported place at the university of their choice. NITV News Update. TVNEWS.TSM202307230011. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/TVNEWS.TSM202307230011
Lemke, L., Millar, L., Addison, S., & Butler, K. (2009). Cash for Clunkers delivering positive results: A scheme encouraging Americans to switch from fuel guzzling to efficient cars seems to be working. ABC News NT. Tvnews.tef20093100110. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/tvnews.tef20093100110
Raines, S., Bennett, J., Butler, K., Blake, P., & McGuinness, A. (2009). Welcome Rain: Melbourne experienced its wettest Novewmber day in four yearse as thew Statew emergency service recewived hundreds of calls for help. ABC News Victoria. Tvnews.tev20094604691. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/tvnews.tev20094604691
Schacht, J., Millar, L., Addison, S., & Butler, K. (2009). Cash for Clunkers delivering positive results: A scheme encouraging Americans to switch from fuel guzzling to efficient cars seems to be working. ABC News WA. Tvnews.tes20093100408. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/tvnews.tes20093100408
Young, T., Pearse, A., & Butler, K. (2011). Indigenising Curricula: Lessons from Tourism Studies. In CAUTHE 2011: National Conference: Tourism : Creating a Brilliant Blend. University of South Australia. School of Management. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.908581925640708
Young, T., Pearse, A., & Butler, K. (2011). Indigenising curricula : lessons from tourism studies. CAUTHE 2011 National Conference : Tourism : Creating a Brilliant Blend. Aeipt.187768. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/aeipt.187768
Video Transcript
How would you like to introduce yourself?
… I’m Kath Butler and I’m the head of the Wollotuka Institute. I belong to the Bundjalung and Worimi peoples of coastal New South Wales.
What study did you do that led to your PhD?
So I started with a Bachelor of Social Science with majors in Sociology and Anthropology and also Linguistics. My dream was actually to become a linguist but circumstances happened and I was approached by the head of Sociology to work with them and to complete a Masters program with them. Once I did that I was offered an academic role and as part of that academic role it required a PhD. A PhD wasn’t really something that I had ever considered and certainly not in Sociology and Anthropology. So I think that one of the things that I found though was that Indigenous knowledges are transferable skills. So whatever discipline that you go into the foundational elements of building relationships, of being reflective and understanding your process are really critical skills that you can take to any project. So my PhD was on the pedagogy of Indigenising Sociology. So I have a really keen interest in the scholarship of teaching and learning as well as a broader interest in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures and so marrying the two of them together was the foundation of my PhD. I was really lucky to have supervisors, one who was an anthropologist and one who was in the discipline of Aboriginal Studies so it’s a true multidisciplinary work and I think that that’s probably how I think of myself as being an Indigenous scholar who really delves across and within disciplines.
How did you find the experience of undertaking your PhD as a First Nations woman?
I think that what I felt most strongly was opportunity. And the opportunities that arose for me was predominantly around, you know, what we call the service element of being in a university. So I was invited to head the university’s indigenisation of curriculum working party. And that was, you know, quite out of the scope of what I had done before to lead a whole of university process. Having said that, I think that probably slowed my progress in the PhD as well as having a couple of children. So… my friends the kookaburras there. Yeah, as well as having a couple of children. So I think that what I found was I didn’t really have the opportunity to focus predominantly on the production of the thesis. But I think that every experience that I had enriched the process and also enriched the authenticity of my voice. Because particularly, I think when you’re doing a PhD as a younger person, rather than, you know, as it used to be the capstone of a very long career, you are really interrogating the future as well as what you’ve, you know, what you’ve already achieved. So having those opportunities to grow in leadership was a really important element of giving that authentic voice.
Can you discuss your contributions to the teaching of sociology?
So, you know, there was a question which was posed by Maggie Walter and Priscilla Pyett: Where is the sociology of Indigenous issues? And that really was a call to arms, I think, for Indigenous people who were working not just in the discipline of sociology, but in its cognate disciplines. So I was really fortunate, I think, to have some mentorship, particularly from Maggie and also from Professor Aileen Moreton-Robinson around the National Indigenous Research and Knowledge Network, which was called NIRAKN. And through that, I think that I was able to draw on the intellectual leadership of some really amazing indigenous women. And so I would encourage anybody that is looking to enter the field, you know, whatever field that might be, to find those people that you admire, to reach out to them, to learn from them. And the opportunities that you’ll get from that, you know, are really amazing opportunities. And what we also then we start to develop is this genealogy of knowledge, you know, so I can see in my own work where those ladies have influenced me as a thinker. I can and I can now see when I read some other people’s work that through my work, they’ve, you know, those ideas live on. And I think that for us, as an oral culture, and as a culture that’s particularly concerned about the multi-generational transmission of knowledge, that that’s particularly strong.
What are some of the ways you have contributed to the Indigenisation of curricula in tertiary education?
So I was really lucky to be able to do that work here in my own university, to work with non-Indigenous colleagues in strategy planning and performance, and we developed a piece of work that shaped how the university would approach indigenisation. And I was then approached by the Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic to speak at the Australian University’s Quality Audit, or AUQA. And again, what was really amazing, I remember being at that conference where the majority of people were pro-Vice Chancellors, Deputy Vice Chancellors, Vice Chancellors. There I was, this young Level B Sociology Academic, and when I went to give my paper, the Vice Chancellor sat in the front row directly opposite where I was speaking, and the Deputy Vice Chancellor sat in the back row. So I’ve been incredibly lucky to have had that senior support, you know, and I think that that’s really one of the strengths of the University of Newcastle, is that whole of university commitment. So I know that I possibly have a privilege that other people, you know, might not have access to, but I think it’s about finding champions in your university, and in every university executive, there will be a champion for Indigenous Knowledges. And again, you know, and I’ll probably keep saying it, it’s seeing yourself as an ongoing learner, and probably saying yes to opportunity, you know, so things that you might not necessarily think that you have the expertise for or feel confident with, not being afraid to take that chance and to learn from other people.
Would you say University of Newcastle is a leader in the Indigenisation of curriculum?
I felt really lucky to get a National Teaching Fellowship to look at the indigenisation of curriculum and to be able to do some national travel and some workshops around the indigenisation of sociology, but to also see that as transferable. And I think that probably one of the points of difference with that particular piece of work was that we didn’t just talk to tenured academics, we also talked to casuals, because we know that our casual staff are often on the front line of that teaching, needing to try and be innovators while, you know, they experience, you know, what can sometimes be a fairly precarious workplace situation. And then I also bought in people who were in industry as well. And I think that sometimes when we look at the humanities and social sciences, we don’t think about industry and community partnerships, perhaps as much as some other disciplines do. But we have people there from the, from Enrose, which looks at, you know, violence against women. We had people from cognate disciplines like social work. So it’s really about seeing yourself not in a silo, but as part of that broader community, part of industry partnerships, and also part of the academy. And I think that one of the things which Indigenous knowledges and Indigenous practitioners do really well is we understand that everyone is, you know, and the contribution of a whole different range of stakeholders is what makes an intellectual tradition, not just the university.
What are some of the changes you have seen in the last 10 years in terms of integrating Indigenous knowledges within academia?
So I think when we look at groups like Universities Australia, which is the group of the Australian Vice Chancellors and some of the commitments that they have made around Indigenous knowledges, and here at the university we were one of only a few universities to do cultural competency framing that were used as best practice models for the sector. So not just making the strategy but also then providing people with the time and also the resources to be able to develop those models is particularly important. We know for instance that Indigenous staff often do that on top of their ordinary roles. So it’s absolutely critical that groups like Universities Australia commit to providing time and resources. So I think that that’s one thing. The other thing would be Reconciliation Action Plans. So again if you are in touch with the stakeholders in your region, you’ll find that many of them have Reconciliation Action Plans. And so those are really valuable opportunities for work integrated learning but also for research to enable them to understand what are the needs of the communities that they’re serving. And also to really strongly have that conversation that research and academia is a service. It is a service to our community. So I think that’s a really positive way to approach it. I think that we now have a lot more disciplines that are open to Indigenous knowledges. So if I looked at say around 2014 I worked for ACARA which is the National Curriculum Body for Schools. And a lot of people were saying, one of my favourite stories is a maths teacher who said I don’t think that you can have Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in maths. What we need is we need cutting edge recent maths scholarship. And I said to him, well my daughter will be very happy. And he said, why? And I said, because she won’t have to do Pythagoras. And he went, oh no, I didn’t mean Pythagoras. And I said, did you not say we can’t have ancient knowledge, it all has to be new, it all has to be cutting edge. By your own definition Pythagoras doesn’t fit that. I think that in this last 10 years we’re no longer having to make the case that Indigenous knowledges are relevant in the STEM sector. I think that there are a lot of people saying how can that happen? And that’s probably the middle part of our journey. But people are not just saying no, it shouldn’t be in there at all. I think that some of the work that we’re now doing around STEM, around including Indigenous knowledges in urban planning and those kinds of things, are really pushing what we knew was relevant, but the sector has taken time to catch up to us.
Can you talk about place-based pedagogy?
So I think that when we think about Indigenous knowledges, we really need to understand that they are place-based. And by place-based, I mean understanding, you know, our local Country, understanding our traditional owners and understanding the needs of particular communities and not attempting to homogenise a particular perspective. If I was going to think about a way that, you know, that I do something that’s place-based, so one of my people is the Bundjulung people of northern New South Wales. We have a particular type of tea tree. So if you’re familiar with tea tree oil, as many people are, that actually comes from a tree that only grows naturally in the Bundjulung region. And so we have particular knowledges, in particular women’s knowledge, around the use of that tree, because it’s also, it’s antibacterial and where its leaves fall into water, so it tends to grow around, you know, water. Where the leaves fall into the water, it actually infuses that water with health. So when we say things like country makes us healthy, it’s not a metaphor, it’s an actual practice. And if I was to think about indigenisation of curriculum, you know, I often see that if we look at the body of knowledge that is known as that water source, I think that, you know, Indigenous peoples and our knowledge, we are those leaves that will fall into the water and will infuse it with health.
What are some of your research and leadership aims for the future?
So we’ve really found that partnerships are incredibly important. So one of the key partnerships that we have at the moment is with the Institute for Regional Futures. And so a lot of those staff have experience around, say, urban sociology, but also around planning. We’ve been doing some work. We did some work for the City of Sydney. We did an international research report for the Greater Cities Commission on including Indigenous knowledges in urban planning. And so I think that there’s a really important space for us to push into, for conferences, for publications that people in the industry can use. Because I think that one of the things that we’ve really discovered with our stakeholder work is that through search engines like yours, people are searching the literature. So maybe there’s actually quite a different audience to what they traditionally was. That’s what we’ve certainly found. So, you know, having our outputs publicly available is really critical. And being able to bring community voices into places where they weren’t heard before. And also taking the university out to the community in long-term relationships, not fly in, fly out expert relationships. But seeing that different people are bringing expertise to the space and the ways in which we’re going to recognise that. That’s the new frontier, I think.
Do you have any recent projects between Wollutuka institute and community you’d like to share?
Yeah, so one of the things which we do here, myself and another staff member, sit on the Barang Regional Alliance, which is the alliance of six of the seven major Indigenous organisations on the Central Coast. And that includes groups like Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Lands Council, Eleanor Duncan Aboriginal Medical Service and a range of other groups. One of the things which Barang has really led is data sovereignty. So the Central Coast sits between Sydney and Newcastle and quite often the data that is gathered is pushed into one of those data sets and it becomes very difficult to know what’s actually happening in our place in the world. We know that the Central Coast is the fastest growing Aboriginal community in New South Wales because there is a large number of people that are moving into the area. So it’s absolutely critical that we are there being part of those discussions around how we’re going to use data, how we’re going to disaggregate the data and what that’s actually going to mean for the community. So finding out what their priorities are. One of our staff members here at the University, Jake McDonald, is working with Eleanor Duncan at the moment in his PhD work, translating the Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids model to a particular Aboriginal community setting. So we really see that we’re creating again those place-based responses. What is it that a particular community needs? And I think that that’s a really exciting move for us.
Can you tell us about the Wollutuka institute and its scope?
So the Wollutuka Institute has just celebrated its 40th anniversary this year. We started with seven students and a leaky tap. That’s been our theme for this year. So it began as a student support arm and with the support of the university and also an amazing number of Aboriginal elders, Aboriginal academics and community people, we’ve grown to have recruitment. We also look at retention and student advancement. We have an academic school, so we have our own degree program, the Bachelor of Global Indigenous Studies, which also has double degrees with Law, with Development studies, are our major partners. We have research-high degree students and we also have international partnerships as well as community partnerships. So Wollutuka seeks to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students but to also educate all students on the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues. So we also sit in some compulsory core courses in other degree programs as well. But we might draw students from environmental science, development studies, social work, criminology, you know, all of those students may choose to do our courses as well. What you may not know is that the University of Newcastle consistently has the highest number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in the country. So in the last few years, over 1500 students every year, which is quite high in the sector. So we really see our role as forming those relationships. But, you know, also we’ll have researchers who come to us and say, could you look over my ethics? Could you give me some advice on moving into a particular community? So also I think, you know, playing an important role along with the Office of Indigenous Strategy and Leadership in making sure that the ways in which we approach our communities is ethical and culturally appropriate.
And what kind of impacts are you seeing of centres like Wollutuka on Indigenous students’ retention and on research?
So I think one of the things that you’ll find about the University of Newcastle is its really strong history in Health. So at one point, the University of Newcastle graduated over 50% of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander doctors. We do have a specific unit called Thurru. And so they do alternative entry and also support the students going through. But from that, and from the University’s partnership with the Hunter Medical Research Institute, HMRI, we have a really strong history and track record in medical research. We also, led by Dr. Ray Kelly, have great strengths in Aboriginal languages. And then, you know, there’s the work that we’re doing with regional futures, which is really bringing in the voices of urban Aboriginal people as well. I’d also say that, you know, we’ve graduated more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers than any other university. And we also do research and consultancy work for the Department of Education in reimagining evaluation. So, you know, when I look at what we’re doing, it’s always about being grounded in culture, being grounded in place, no pun intended, and trying to speak to those institutions which already exist and to have them see that Indigenous knowledges are a strength, you know, so often, you know, and you’ll see in the literature, people talk about the deficit discourse. We’re very, very strength-based. We believe that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges are transformative knowledges, are the knowledges that should underpin things like the Sustainable Development Goals. You know, when I look at my language, there is no word for poverty. Yeah, so obviously, there’s a way to say I don’t have something, but there’s no word to explain that that could be structural and multi-generational. So if we look at something like the Sustainable Development Goals, which at its heart is about ameliorating poverty, you know, I think that we should be asking the cultures that don’t even have a word for poverty, not the cultures that take poverty across the globe for those answers.
What do you see as some of the most exciting research currently being done by Indigenous scholars?
I’m a big believer that Indigenous history is important and I think as we look at a period of global warming, speaking to cultures that actually remember the last ice age through oral history that understand rising sea levels, that have the ability to be resilient in the face of that change is particularly important. I think one of the things that we see as critical is that Indigenous peoples, particularly in the Pacific, are at the forefront of impacts of global warming. So, you know, our, if you like, our cousins in the Torres Strait Islands and the Torres Strait Eight and the challenges that they’ve made around rising sea levels, but also understanding and I think being really flexible around those Pacifica peoples that will be displaced from their lands in our lifetime through rising sea levels. And so I think that there’s going to be a really important space for understanding what it means to be Indigenous, not on your lands. What does it mean to be Indigenous when your lands are underwater? And I think that so many people see, you know, things like the dreaming or our histories as only being past oriented, but we know that they’re past, present and future. So through and drawing on those histories and traditions, you know, Indigenous peoples are going to remake and reshape their relationship to where they are. And I think that that’s a really important space. Allied with that, then I think that there are global political and social elements such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to really consider how we can uphold Indigenous sovereignty. But as I was just raising, what is Indigenous sovereignty going to mean when your land is underwater? And when your land is underwater from the impact of industry and actions that you had no part in, you know. So I think that we as global Indigenous people are going to be an incredibly important voice in the rest of this century and I would hope beyond.