Dr John Doolah

Lecturer in Indigenous Education

Maiem (hello), I am a Torres Strait Islander of Erubam le (Erub person) and Meriam le (Mer person) heritage. I belong to the sager people of Mer. My Mer nosik (clan) division, is Samsep-Meriam.

My teaching background is in course development, course coordination and lecturing local, national, and international students in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies courses. In my current position at the University of Melbourne Graduate School of Education I lecture and coordinate Indigenous Education undergraduate and the Master of Teaching First Nations Education courses.

My overall research interest is in the impact of colonisation on Indigenous Australians. I have researched the migration of Torres Strait Islanders from Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait) to Keo Deudai (mainland Australia), with the application of the Indigenous research paradigm, ‘consisting of Indigenous ontology, epistemology, methodology, and axiology’. My PhD thesis is titled: “Stories behind the Torres Strait Islander Migration Myth: the journey of the sap/bethey.” The sap/bethey (driftwood) is one of my lubabat (totem). I am in the insider researcher position, taking on the characteristics of the sap/bethey, I am a traveller. The story of the sap/bethey is about travelling away from home (Zenadth Kes) to the land of the ‘Ladaigal’ (Aboriginal) people.