Introduction
This subject guide highlights some key discipline resources to get you started with study and research.
- Refer to the New Students Library Guide for everything you need to know about Library services and resources.
- Build your researching, reading and writing skills with the Research Essentials Library Guide.
- Streamline your access to online resources with the Library's quick access tools.
Databases and journals
Use databases to search across many academic resources (including peer-reviewed journals) at the same time.
Refer to the A-Z Ejournals and Databases page for a comprehensive list of available resources.
Core Arts and Humanities databases:
The selection of multidisciplinary databases below will retrieve results from different subject areas.
- Discovery (EBSCO)Use Discovery to look for books, ebooks, journal articles and more. It's a great place to start your search but does not give you everything the Library has.
- Google ScholarGoogle Scholar is one of the most popular ways to find academic sources for study and research. Did you know you can use it to search for journal articles that the University of Melbourne has access to? You can do this through the link above or set up your Google Scholar preferences to include Library content.
- JSTORJSTOR is one of the largest databases the Library has access to. It is a multidisciplinary database so it looks in thousands of journals in over a hundred subjects - many of them related to arts and humanities. Highly recommended as your first or second place to search.
- ProQuest CentralCovering more than 160 subjects areas, ProQuest Central is the largest aggregated database of periodical content. This award-winning online reference resource features a highly-respected, diversified mix of content including scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, books, newspapers, reports and videos.
- Scopus (Elsevier)Scopus is another large, multidisciplinary database. It looks through journals, books, and conference papers. It has some advanced tools that can help you discover new research quickly - the 'times cited' and 'related articles' links are great time-savers. While it doesn't always have full-text PDFs it is still an excellent place to look for your research.
- Web of ScienceWeb of Science is a massive, multidisciplinary database which includes a large amount of humanities and social sciences material from as far back as 1900. Like Scopus it has some advanced features that allows you to quickly link to related research.
Databases relevant to Australian Indigenous Studies:
For more focused results, try searching in one of these subject-specific databases.
- Indigenous CollectionThe Informit Indigenous Collection (IIC) offers both topical and historical issues within Indigenous studies. Readily available, the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary framework encompasses anthropology, community development, cultural studies, economics, education, health, history, human geography, law and land rights, literature, politics and policy making, (post)colonial studies, psychology, race studies, sociology and visual and performing arts. It covers the period from 1977 to present both for full text publications and index.
- Indigenous AustraliaIndigenous Australia covers Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies including the stolen generation, arts, copyright issues, racism, discrimination, and communities and represents the collections of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Library. It covers the period from 1968 to Dec. 2002.
- AIATSIS - Indigenous Studies Bibliography (Informit)Indigenous Studies Bibliography covers published and unpublished material on Australian Indigenous studies and is produced by Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Library. It covers the period 1990 to present.
- Anthropology Online (Alexander Street Press)Alexander Street Anthropology brings together a wide range of streaming video, written ethnographies, field notes, seminal texts, memoirs, and contemporary studies, covering human behavior the world over. Essential for study in the areas of politics, economics, history, psychology, environmental studies, religion, area studies, linguistics, and geography, the database will contain more than 1,800 documentary films and over 100,000 pages of full-text material at completion, including tens of thousands of pages of previously unpublished material from major archives.
Key journals for Australian Indigenous Studies
The following titles are peer-reviewed journals which include high-quality articles for your research.
Books
You can access print and eBooks via the Library Catalogue. To find books on a particular subject, try a keyword search:
To improve your searching skills, see the Research Essentials Library Guide. Note that you can search the catalogue in non-Latin scripts (including Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese and Korean).
For information on access and loans, including material from other libraries, see the borrowing from the library page. The eBook Guide provides information on eBook access.
Theses
Media
Here are some selected media and news websites and databases. This list is by no means comprehensive. If you are a coursework student, check your LMS to see if your lecturer has provided further recommended media sources.
Radio and television
- 3KNDMelbourne’s only indigenous radio station provides the community with 24 hours of Broadcast service to our listeners in a friendly, informal, educational and positive in Indigenous spirit, whilst maintaining the highest technical and programming standards.
- Awaye!ABC Radio National show presenting diverse and vibrant Aboriginal arts and culture from across Australia.
- Speaking OutABC Local Radio show covering politics, arts and culture from a range of Indigenous perspectives.
- First AustraliansThe history of Australia from an Indigenous peoples' perspective, beginning with the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney and ending in 1993 with Eddie Kolki Mabo's legal challenge.
- NITV (National Indigenous Television)Australian free-to-air television channel that broadcasts programming produced and presented largely by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
- TVNews (Informit)TVNews indexes Australian television news, current affairs and selected documentaries from the free-to-air networks. Coverage commences with September 2007 and is updated daily.
- EduTV (Informit)50,000+ broadcast programs from free-to-air and pay TV channels in Australia. Coverage commences with 2006 and includes content from the ABC, SBS, NITV, 9, 7, 10, and others.
Newspapers
- Koori Mail (online)100 per cent Aboriginal owned and controlled. Situated on Bundjalung country on the far north coast of New South Wales. Its shareholders are five small Aboriginal organisations – the Bundjalung Tribal Society, Bunjum Co-operative, Buyinbin Co-operative, Kurrachee Co-operative and Nungera Co-operative.
- Koori Mail (print)Print copies of the fortnightly national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander newspaper Koori Mail are available from the Baillieu library.
- INFOKOORI: Australian Indigenous Index (State Library of NSW)Index to the Koori Mail from 1991 to now. Also indexes biographical information from various magazines including: Our Aim (1907–1961), Dawn (1952–1969), New Dawn (1970–1975) and Identity (1971–1982).
- National Indigenous TimesAustralia’s leading news media organisation for Indigenous affairs, 100% Indigenous-owned.
Offers rigorous and fearless reporting on the issues that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
- FactivaBrowse and access the latest news from 200 countries, in 26 languages – including newspapers, continuously updated newswires from Dow Jones and Reuters, journals and magazines, websites, blogs, and multimedia.
- Google News Archive SearchUseful for news from the 1950s-1970s, however it is not complete.
- Trove Digitised Newspapers and moreHistoric Australian Newspapers, 1803 - 1954
A continually growing collection of Australian newspapers from the National Library of Australia.
Find more news resources using the News and Newspapers guide:
Websites
You can find relevant information and resources for your research on the websites of professional organisations and bodies, institutes, NGOs, government departments, etc.
This guide gives a few suggestions to get you started and to give you an idea what to look for. It is by no means comprehensive. If you are a coursework student, check your LMS to see if your lecturer has provided website recommendations.
Tip: if you want to limit your Google search results to organisational, governmental, or educational websites, use Google's advanced search option to limit the site or domains to .org, .gov, .edu.
Organisations and associations:
- Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)Australia's only national institution focused exclusively on the diverse history, cultures and heritage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia.
- Australian Human Rights Commission - Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Social JusticeA source of statistics, policies, publications, reports, rights information
- Centre for World Indigenous StudiesA global community of indigenous studies activists and scholars advancing the rights and knowledge of Indigenous Peoples worldwide
- Koorie Heritage TrustThe Koorie Heritage Trust Inc is a not-for-profit Aboriginal community organisation that aims to protect, preserve and promote the living culture of Aboriginal people of south-eastern Australia.
Referencing and citing
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