Parrhesia ‘From the Heart’: Decolonial disruption in K-12 schools

Abstract

On October 14^th, 2023, over 70% of Australians rejected the government’s referendum to include Indigenous peoples in the constitution and establish an Indigenous voice in parliament. We locate the latest Australian rejection as another episode in a continuing global project of Indigenous dispossession and a flash point to escalating critical Indigenous activism in K-12 schools. This paper centres on learning through suppressed Indigenous histories and voices by positioning Foucault’s notion of parrhesia (truth-telling) as decolonial defiance.  We present three qualitative themes to guide teachers to perform this activist-centred work: 1). Founding Respect, 2). Humble Leadership, & 3). Indigenous Representation - drawn from the Weaving Stories of Strength (WSS) project. WSS conducted yarning sessions, an Indigenous dialogic method, with sixteen Indigenous educational experts from the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Synthesising their voices, we outline the conditions necessary to mobilise parrhesia as decolonial strategies.