Storylines of Indigenous Women’’s Leadership in Early Childhood

Kerith Power s research career follows decades as an early childhood educator. This genealogy of the early childhood field supplements her contribution to the literature on responsive cross-cultural research methodologies. A member of Monash's Space, Place and Body research group, Dr Power is currently researching songs of place belonging.

Storylines of Early Childhood Education. In this feminist post-structural genealogy, Kerith Power draws on yarns of a number of Indigenous leaders' own early childhood experiences, to trace how storylines of difference have constructed the disciplinary field of Indigenous early childhood education. Mainstream storylines such as community, philanthropy, equity, child care and protection, health, hygiene, development, quality and developmentally appropriate practice mean something different in an Indigenous context. Power tells a range of Indigenous leadership stories: from those that employ, co-opt and contest 'mainstream' knowledge to examples of positioned and situated leadership that employ and maintain traditional and contemporary subjugated knowledges. As a white feminist she acknowledges feminist complicity in racist practices while honouring her own elders. She proposes that Indigenous women leaders and white feminists can learn from each other to reclaim matriarchal leadership and construct a field of early childhood education that opens up a space for all us and our children to respect, celebrate and value difference.