Archie Thomas
Biographic Data
| ID | 3840897 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Archie Thomas |
| GIVEN NAMES | Archie |
| FAMILY NAME | Thomas |
| SIGNATURE | THOMAS A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Technology Sydney |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5460-5641 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 16 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Before ‘gender whisperers’
This paper responds to the contemporary backlash to LGBTIQ+ rights and its focus on queer and transgender children and teachers in schools, by returning to campaigns to exclude gay and lesbian teachers in the 1970s. It brings renewed historical context to debates surrounding teacher employment and teachers’ moral status as harbingers of the future nation state. We focus on one Australian case, when in 1976 the Queensland government refused to emp…
First Nations media in the Closing the Gap era
In 2020, a new Closing the Gap Agreement and an associated Joint Communications Strategy committed the Australian Government and state and territory governments to working with First Nations media to advance Closing the Gap aims, after lobbying by First Nations Media Australia. The new attention to First Nations media occurs after two decades of government disregard. We observe how First Nations media organisations have consistently advocated for…
“It’s Trauma on a Deadline”
This article argues that, in an era of digital journalism marked by increased demands for racial and media justice, moves by Australian media institutions to employ Indigenous journalists to demonstrate their commitment to equity and diversity may place these journalists at risk of harm. This is not only because of their increased exposure to harm online, but because the burden of change is placed on these same journalists, while news organisatio…
What’s the use of educational research? Six stories reflecting on research use with communities
The question of how education research can be ‘useful’ is an enduring and challenging one. In recent years, this question has been approached by universities through a widespread ‘impact’ agenda. In this article, we explore the tensions between usefulness and impact and present six stories that reflect on research use with communities. These stories engage issues of the risk of usefulness, the time that is needed to work collaboratively for resea…
We cracked a hole in this very white structure’
A new wave of anti-racist politics is challenging the racialised dynamics of news media reporting. This paper explores the experiences of Indigenous journalists working in mainstream news media organisations in Australia in this changing context, and their strategies to navigate the racial political economy and news values of the industry. While many have observed the growing number of Indigenous journalists working in mainstream news, Indigenous…
The economic world of choice
Indigenous language bilingual schooling, introduced in Australia's Northern Territory (NT) in 1973, was a reality for over twenty-five schools at the program's height. Today, the language-of-instruction in these same settings is English only, with only 7 state schools operating bilingual programs. Overt Government hostility began with an attempt to defund Indigenous bilingual education in 1998-99. This paper argues that the discursive techniques …
Education, Racial Justice, and the Limits of Inclusion in Settler Colonial Australia
Education both actively excludes (through suspensions and expulsions) and tries to include (through inclusion policies, programs, and pathways). Students who experience both exclusion and attempts at inclusion tend to be racialized Black, Brown, and/or Indigenous; identify as queer or trans; be experiencing poverty; and/or be living with a disability. These are also the young people who tend to experience incarceration in settler colonial states.…
The Truth Will Set You Free? The Promises and Pitfalls of Truth‐Telling for Indigenous Emancipation
First Nations in Australia are beginning to grapple with processes of treaty‐making with state governments and territories. As these processes gain momentum, truth‐telling has become a central tenet of imagining Indigenous emancipation and the possibility of transforming relationships between Indigenous and settler peoples. Truth, it is suggested, will enable changed ways of knowing what and who “Australia” is. These dynamics assume that truth‐te…
Land, labour, and sovereignty in school
Schooling has been a site of harm for Indigenous people in settler colonial contexts, as a tool of dispossession, assimilation and separation from country and kin. However, schools have simultaneously been sites to work against this and build alternatives to settler colonial systems that nourish Indigenous futures. This article centers the connections between Indigenous labour, land, sovereignty and schooling. It focuses on the Strelley mob's inn…
We wanted to be boss’
Much historical scholarship on Indigenous education policy focuses on attempts to assimilate Indigenous peoples. Meanwhile, educational policy debates tend to focus on achievement, framed by deficit. Rarely considered are strategic political actions by Indigenous groups to remodel schooling. This paper examines how Indigenous groups have embraced opportunities to construct new Indigenous futures through schooling, and have built modern Indigenous…
"Surviving School and "Survival Schools
In Australia, Aboriginal peoples have sought to exploit and challenge settler colonial schooling to meet their own goals and needs, engaging in strategic, diverse and creative ways closely tied to labour markets and the labour movement. Here, we bring together two case studies to illustrate the interplay of negotiation, resistance and compulsion that we argue has characterised Aboriginal engagements with school as a structure within settler colon…
‘In this house we believe in fairness and kindness’
In December 2017, Australia legalized same-sex marriage (SSM), following a 13-year ban and a drawn-out postal survey on marriage equality that saw campaigners mobilize for a ‘Yes’ vote on a non-binding poll. Through a discourse analysis of the Yes and No campaigns’ television and online video advertisements, we demonstrate how the Yes campaign was symptomatic of what we call a ‘post-liberation’ approach that saw SSM as the last major hurdle for L…
The dice are loaded’
This article responds to debate over casualisation within the Australian Historical Association (AHA) and within the history profession in Australia more generally. It is argued that competing interests increasingly govern relations between salaried and casual academics. The article seeks to historicise these competing interests within the discipline in the history of Australian universities since the late 1980s. The authors draw on Marx’s descri…
The Truth Will Set You Free? The Promises and Pitfalls of Truth‐Telling for Indigenous Emancipation
First Nations in Australia are beginning to grapple with processes of treaty‐making with state governments and territories. As these processes gain momentum, truth‐telling has become a central tenet of imagining Indigenous emancipation and the possibility of transforming relationships between Indigenous and settler peoples. Truth, it is suggested, will enable changed ways of knowing what and who “Australia” is. These dynamics assume that truth‐te…
We wanted to be boss’
Much historical scholarship on Indigenous education policy focuses on attempts to assimilate Indigenous peoples. Meanwhile, educational policy debates tend to focus on achievement, framed by deficit. Rarely considered are strategic political actions by Indigenous groups to remodel schooling. This paper examines how Indigenous groups have embraced opportunities to construct new Indigenous futures through schooling, and have built modern Indigenous…
The dice are loaded’
This article responds to debate over casualisation within the Australian Historical Association (AHA) and within the history profession in Australia more generally. It is argued that competing interests increasingly govern relations between salaried and casual academics. The article seeks to historicise these competing interests within the discipline in the history of Australian universities since the late 1980s. The authors draw on Marx’s descri…
First Nations media in the Closing the Gap era
In 2020, a new Closing the Gap Agreement and an associated Joint Communications Strategy committed the Australian Government and state and territory governments to working with First Nations media to advance Closing the Gap aims, after lobbying by First Nations Media Australia. The new attention to First Nations media occurs after two decades of government disregard. We observe how First Nations media organisations have consistently advocated for…
Land, labour, and sovereignty in school
Schooling has been a site of harm for Indigenous people in settler colonial contexts, as a tool of dispossession, assimilation and separation from country and kin. However, schools have simultaneously been sites to work against this and build alternatives to settler colonial systems that nourish Indigenous futures. This article centers the connections between Indigenous labour, land, sovereignty and schooling. It focuses on the Strelley mob's inn…
"Surviving School and "Survival Schools
In Australia, Aboriginal peoples have sought to exploit and challenge settler colonial schooling to meet their own goals and needs, engaging in strategic, diverse and creative ways closely tied to labour markets and the labour movement. Here, we bring together two case studies to illustrate the interplay of negotiation, resistance and compulsion that we argue has characterised Aboriginal engagements with school as a structure within settler colon…
‘In this house we believe in fairness and kindness’
In December 2017, Australia legalized same-sex marriage (SSM), following a 13-year ban and a drawn-out postal survey on marriage equality that saw campaigners mobilize for a ‘Yes’ vote on a non-binding poll. Through a discourse analysis of the Yes and No campaigns’ television and online video advertisements, we demonstrate how the Yes campaign was symptomatic of what we call a ‘post-liberation’ approach that saw SSM as the last major hurdle for L…
The dice are loaded’
This article responds to debate over casualisation within the Australian Historical Association (AHA) and within the history profession in Australia more generally. It is argued that competing interests increasingly govern relations between salaried and casual academics. The article seeks to historicise these competing interests within the discipline in the history of Australian universities since the late 1980s. The authors draw on Marx’s descri…
"Surviving School and "Survival Schools
In Australia, Aboriginal peoples have sought to exploit and challenge settler colonial schooling to meet their own goals and needs, engaging in strategic, diverse and creative ways closely tied to labour markets and the labour movement. Here, we bring together two case studies to illustrate the interplay of negotiation, resistance and compulsion that we argue has characterised Aboriginal engagements with school as a structure within settler colon…
We wanted to be boss’
Much historical scholarship on Indigenous education policy focuses on attempts to assimilate Indigenous peoples. Meanwhile, educational policy debates tend to focus on achievement, framed by deficit. Rarely considered are strategic political actions by Indigenous groups to remodel schooling. This paper examines how Indigenous groups have embraced opportunities to construct new Indigenous futures through schooling, and have built modern Indigenous…
Education, Racial Justice, and the Limits of Inclusion in Settler Colonial Australia
Education both actively excludes (through suspensions and expulsions) and tries to include (through inclusion policies, programs, and pathways). Students who experience both exclusion and attempts at inclusion tend to be racialized Black, Brown, and/or Indigenous; identify as queer or trans; be experiencing poverty; and/or be living with a disability. These are also the young people who tend to experience incarceration in settler colonial states.…
The Truth Will Set You Free? The Promises and Pitfalls of Truth‐Telling for Indigenous Emancipation
First Nations in Australia are beginning to grapple with processes of treaty‐making with state governments and territories. As these processes gain momentum, truth‐telling has become a central tenet of imagining Indigenous emancipation and the possibility of transforming relationships between Indigenous and settler peoples. Truth, it is suggested, will enable changed ways of knowing what and who “Australia” is. These dynamics assume that truth‐te…
Land, labour, and sovereignty in school
Schooling has been a site of harm for Indigenous people in settler colonial contexts, as a tool of dispossession, assimilation and separation from country and kin. However, schools have simultaneously been sites to work against this and build alternatives to settler colonial systems that nourish Indigenous futures. This article centers the connections between Indigenous labour, land, sovereignty and schooling. It focuses on the Strelley mob's inn…
“It’s Trauma on a Deadline”
This article argues that, in an era of digital journalism marked by increased demands for racial and media justice, moves by Australian media institutions to employ Indigenous journalists to demonstrate their commitment to equity and diversity may place these journalists at risk of harm. This is not only because of their increased exposure to harm online, but because the burden of change is placed on these same journalists, while news organisatio…
What’s the use of educational research? Six stories reflecting on research use with communities
The question of how education research can be ‘useful’ is an enduring and challenging one. In recent years, this question has been approached by universities through a widespread ‘impact’ agenda. In this article, we explore the tensions between usefulness and impact and present six stories that reflect on research use with communities. These stories engage issues of the risk of usefulness, the time that is needed to work collaboratively for resea…
We cracked a hole in this very white structure’
A new wave of anti-racist politics is challenging the racialised dynamics of news media reporting. This paper explores the experiences of Indigenous journalists working in mainstream news media organisations in Australia in this changing context, and their strategies to navigate the racial political economy and news values of the industry. While many have observed the growing number of Indigenous journalists working in mainstream news, Indigenous…
The economic world of choice
Indigenous language bilingual schooling, introduced in Australia's Northern Territory (NT) in 1973, was a reality for over twenty-five schools at the program's height. Today, the language-of-instruction in these same settings is English only, with only 7 state schools operating bilingual programs. Overt Government hostility began with an attempt to defund Indigenous bilingual education in 1998-99. This paper argues that the discursive techniques …
First Nations media in the Closing the Gap era
In 2020, a new Closing the Gap Agreement and an associated Joint Communications Strategy committed the Australian Government and state and territory governments to working with First Nations media to advance Closing the Gap aims, after lobbying by First Nations Media Australia. The new attention to First Nations media occurs after two decades of government disregard. We observe how First Nations media organisations have consistently advocated for…
Before ‘gender whisperers’
This paper responds to the contemporary backlash to LGBTIQ+ rights and its focus on queer and transgender children and teachers in schools, by returning to campaigns to exclude gay and lesbian teachers in the 1970s. It brings renewed historical context to debates surrounding teacher employment and teachers’ moral status as harbingers of the future nation state. We focus on one Australian case, when in 1976 the Queensland government refused to emp…
Political science (12 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Law (11 works) · Politics (9 works) · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights (7 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Indigenous (6 works) · Economics (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Colonialism (4 works)