The missing ink: Blocks, barriers, blindness- legacies of colonisation in non-Indigenous educator/citizens

Ever wondered why attempts to indigenize the curriculum fail? Ever wondered why Indigenous material is inserted to meet accreditation and then disappears? Ever wondered how Australian universities embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives/histories and knowledge and yet reflect institutionalised racism. On the surface the academy appears to address ‘the issue’. Ever wondered why ‘the issue’ is so often framed as ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives/histories’? Well, welcome to the secret world of non-Indigenous-ness where sub- and below conscious colonial ideas endure and enable the erasure of restorative justice. This paper touches on some of the issues, and enduring colonial discourse, by which non-Indigenous people maintain control. So, get down and get dirty and learn how non-Indigenous people maintain privilege; and consider how non-Indigenous people are a ‘problem’ to restorative justice on Aboriginal land. The paper concludes with strategies on how CQU might be a leader in the sphere of decolonisation (personal and institutional). The paper draws on whiteness theory/critical race theory (Gillborn, 2005) and Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholarship of coloniality (e.g. Moreton-Robertson, 2007; 2019; & Maldonado-Torres, 2007).