ABSTRACT Koori Kollij was an Aboriginal Community Controlled educational programme in inner city Melbourne that used Black Power praxis to empower Koori students. 284 Koori students graduated as Aboriginal Health Workers with a uniquely holistic understanding of health between 1982 and 1990, they went on to establish scores of innovative health organisations. Activists taught community organisation, communications, the politics of health and Black Studies, and Koori Kollij was at the dynamic heart of the pan-Aboriginal movement for community survival, land rights and self-determination. This article uses the collections of the Aboriginal History Archive and interviews with former teachers and students to highlight the importance of Black Power in the development of the philosophies informing the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Movement. It contextualises Koori Kollij in its urban time and place, highlights the role of music, and engages theoretical insights regarding sovereignty and resistance to genocide.
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