Adults Constructing the Young Child, “Race,” and Racism

Abstract

Between 2003 and 2007 as an Indigenous Victorian working in the early childhood field, I interviewed forty members of the Indigenous and non-Indigenous early childhood community in Victoria to gather data for my PhD thesis “Indigenous Self-determination and Early Childhood Education and Care in Victoria.” Research participants were interviewed around five broad questions. It is the responses of the research participants around one of those questions “What Understandings of Victoria’s Indigenous Cultures do Indigenous and non-Indigenous Preschoolers Hold?” that is the basis for this chapter. In analyzing participants responses, I concluded that Indigenous and non-Indigenous children are exposed to colonial concepts of the Indigenous “other” imbedded in dualisms such as Indigenous/non-Indigenous, assimilated/traditional and that these understandings inform the relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children and the emerging identities of Indigenous children in early childhood settings.