Indigenous rethinking challenging White academic privilege

Review essay considering:
Sand talk: how Indigenous thinking can save the world, by Tyson Yunkaporta, Melbourne and London, Text Publishing, 2019, ISBN 9781925773996, 9781925774764;
Fire country: how Indigenous fire management could help save Australia, by Victor Steffersen, Hardie Grant, Melbourne, 2020, ISBN 9781741177268; and
Indigenous research: theories, practices, and relationships, edited by McGregor, Deborah, Restoule, Jean-Paul and Johnston, Rochelle. Toronto and Vancouver, Canadian Scholars Press, 2018, ISBN 9781773380858.

Indigenous knowledges carry both weight and burden in postcolonial worlds. The subtitle to Tyson Yunkaporta’s Sand Talk suggests they can save the world. The subtitle to Victor Steffersen’s Fire Country suggests they might help save Australia. Both these volumes have received largely positive receptions. But who is really listening? What is really changing? What is really at stake? In contrast, Indigenous Research responds to academic interest in and misunderstanding of Indigenous, Indigenist and decolonial research in settler states. Taken together, these three volumes offer powerful guidance to reorient academic engagement in contemporary Indigenous affairs.