Seizing academic power: Indigenous subaltern voices, metaliteracy, and counternarratives in higher education

This chapter draws on examples from our mentoring experiences and collaboration with Alaska Native and Australian Aboriginal graduate students in higher education. We describe and analyze efforts to create academic narratives designed to counter the conventional discourse shaping graduate education and characterizing much existing academic literature. We document deliberate resistance to established "grand narratives" and mainstream academic texts that frequently misrepresent, misinterpret, and stereotype Indigenous populations. We explore ways in which students have adopted successful and creative ways to use counternarratives and other forms of expression that (a) more accurately and respectfully present Indigenous knowledge, epistemologies, and worldviews, and(b) reflect presentations of self (both in style and content) more consistent with individual and community identities. The literacy strategies we describe affirm subaltern knowledge, create "free spaces" for authentic voices, and provide access to academic power.