Guides: Indigenous Studies: Indigenous Studies

Indigenous studies

In these databases, you'll find scholarly and peer-reviewed articles, data, statistics, and news articles across the interdisciplinary scope of Indigenous studies.

Indigenous studies helps you to think about Indigenous perspectives on a local, national and global scale. Topics you may be researching include:

Aboriginal art, literature and film
ethics of working with and/or for Indigenous communities
political activism and resistance
identity and representation
Indigenous research methodologies
customary laws.

Databases for Indigenous studies

Here are some databases with coverage across many areas of Indigenous studies. As this area is multidisciplinary in nature, some of these databases cross disciplines or draw from all areas of scientific, humanities, and social sciences research. Start with the list below and when needed also try other Australian or international multidisciplinary databases for more generalised resources.

Indigenous Collection (Informit Full-Text)
This full-text Informit database includes content from Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific and South East Asia, covering topical and historical issues within Indigenous studies from a humanities viewpoint. You can use the 'Change databases' function to select different collections within Informit, such as the Social Sciences collection or the Indigenous collection, depending on what you are researching.

Mura - AIATSIS Collections Catalogue
The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) catalogue covers many aspects of Indigenous Australian studies and includes both published and unpublished material. It provides links to full-text where available, and information on the availability of material held in the AIATSIS Library.

Australian Public Affairs Full Text (Informit Full-Text)
An Informit database focused on Australian public affairs. It includes literary journals like Meanjin and Griffith Review, as well as academic journals like Australian Aboriginal Studies and Journal of Australian Colonial History.

Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet
Research, policies and news relating to the physical, social, emotional and cultural health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Search for resources or browse by topic, determinants, population groups or locations.

Learning Ground: Indigenous Education Research Database
Learning ground is a gateway to the latest national and international publications focusing on Indigenous education. It spans early childhood, post school education, adult learning, and encompasses areas such as cultural diversity, parent and community engagement, wellbeing, identity and oral language. Learning Ground indexes books, theses, articles, conference papers and reports on Indigenous education from publishers in Australia and overseas. Index. Dates vary.

| User Guide & obtaining documents
Humanities International Complete (EBSCOhost)
This humanities database is full-text, international, with varying dates. It may index material not available in other databases, particularly if you are studying comparative Indigenous studies.
ProQuest Central
This large interdisciplinary, international database includes content from a broad range of subject areas. You can search several databases individually or in combinations. Dates vary and it contains full-text access. Use ProQuest for full-text scholarly journals, newspapers, magazines, dissertations, working papers, and some grey literature.
Web of Science - Core Collection
This is a large, rigorous multidisciplinary database. It is very strong on scientific content, so it may be particularly useful if you are looking for research in relation to Indigenous health.