Borderlands: an Australian Duo-Ethnography of First Nations and Western Psychology

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to articulate, for other Western psychologists, learnings about the ways in which hegemonic Western psychology is a colonising practice, and how cultural humility can enable a space in which First Nations knowledge is given preference. Using duo-ethnography as a method of dialogical qualitative inquiry, we explore the cultural interface of First Nations knowledge and Western psychology in Australia. The story of a First Nations educator and activist, from the Bundjalung nation, explores borders in culture, geography and language. The story of a white psychologist examines colonisation and genocide in Australia, and the emergence of Western psychology from systems that subjugate First Nations Peoples. Using border theory, we create a dialogical space between these stories, forming a borderland that facilitates the development of cultural humility for the white psychologist.