Indigenous Truth-Telling as a Philosophical Practice

Activity: Talk or presentation typesInvited talk

Description

This presentation was prepared and delivered at AAP 2024 by researchers from Flinders University and Charles Darwin University. The conference was an opportunity for professional philosophers and philosophy postgraduate students to present current work to a critical and collegiate audience. 

Abstract:
"We discuss alternative philosophies of Indigenous truth-telling, the practice aimed at disclosing and healing colonial injustices perpetrated against First Peoples. In Section I, Indigenous co-authors share Indigenous Standpoint narratives about injustices that have affected the Angan (Papua New Guinea), Akan (Ghana), and Debulai (Timor Leste) people. These testimonies include never-shared-before oral histories. In Section II, we discuss the contrast between truth-telling understood as a formal practice led by institutions such as government and judicial courts and truth-telling as a socially distributed and non-elitist philosophical practice. Drawing on the shared Indigenous narratives, we demonstrate that the social and psychological problems raised by each Indigenous co-author cannot be fully addressed by the first kind of truth-telling – the formal and elite-driven truth-telling associated with legal formal truth-commissions. We therefore argue for the need to develop a broader conception of truth-telling understood as a socially distributed and non-elitist philosophical practice. We discuss how cross-cultural narratives, oral histories, works of art, social protests, and work by allies can all pertain to Indigenous truth-telling understood as a philosophical and psycho-historical practice. Finally, we discuss concerns and objections that can be raised by our approach, including the problems posed by in-group biases, propaganda, and disinformation."
Period16 Oct 202418 Oct 2024
Event title2024 Australasian Association of Philosophy (AAP) Conference
Event typeConference
Degree of RecognitionInternational