LAUSR

ABSTRACT Indigenous Australian identities are enmeshed in racializing discourses that often occlude diversity, hybridity, and intersectionality. Australians who self-identify as Aboriginal are often disbelieved by both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, or confront hierarchies of authenticity. Critical analysis of focus groups with undergraduate Aboriginal students suggests that while there are opportunities to find and reinforce their identities in Australian universities, those identities are also denied. Using counterstories and critical race theory, this study exposes dominant misrepresentations of Aboriginality in Australian higher education that can affect academic success and attrition. Universities need to abandon rigid, culturalist constructions of Aboriginal students’ identities, and expectations that these can be codified and regulated. Academic and administrative staff require sustained education in the histories of defining Aboriginality, and knowledge of Aboriginal identity politics, stereotypes, and the diversity of contemporary Indigenous peoples so they can respond in culturally safe and flexible ways to Aboriginal students.