The Routledge Handbook of Global Indigenous Disability Knowledge Systems brings together first-time contributors alongside experienced academics, including government officials, senior executives, and university students.
Hero image: Artwork by John Gilroy.
Building on the success of Indigenous Disability Studies, the Routledge Handbook of Global Indigenous Disability Knowledge Systems was created due to the demand for Indigenous disability scholarship.
It is led by three Indigenous scholars with lived experience of disability, Professor John Gilroy, Dr John Ward and Rodney Adams, members of the Centre for Disability Research and Policy at the University of Sydney. Together, they are undertaking this project to deepen and expand the field through culturally grounded, community-informed perspectives.
The handbook aims to advance both disability and Indigenous studies by offering a global perspective on Indigenous experiences of disability. This volume explores how disability has been understood across diverse Indigenous cultures and historical moments.
By centring the voices and knowledge systems of community members—leaders, educators, healers, and spiritual practitioners—it critically engages with the past and present while envisioning pathways for the future.
The handbook seeks to (re)claim and (re)evaluate Indigenous approaches to disability, contributing to the development of future generations of Indigenous disability scholars and advocates.
The Routledge Handbook of Global Indigenous Disability Knowledge Systems integrates a wide range of approaches - research methods, policies, reports, oral and auto-histories, legal frameworks, occupational therapy, social services, and emerging forms of knowledge-sharing - positioning it as both a key resource in disability studies and a reference guide for marginalised communities.
By expanding its scope to reflect the social and cultural diversity of Indigenous disability knowledge systems, the handbook embraces different ways of communicating, learning, living, and thriving. It aims to move beyond traditional formats to become a globally inclusive resource in Indigenous disability studies.
This volume offers a comprehensive, distinctions-based analysis of Indigenous scholars' perspectives, lived experiences, and knowledge systems related to disability. It highlights how Indigenous communities continue to generate and sustain knowledge across various fields, despite ongoing legal, social, economic, medical, and political inequities imposed by state and institutional systems.
As Professor John Gilroy noted, “What this book has done reeks of awesomeness... reshaping and reclaiming disability studies for Indigenous peoples by Indigenous peoples is nothing but a form of disability reconciliation.”
Through this work, Routledge contributes to the ongoing decolonisation of thought, language, and practice within the field.
We seek chapter contributions that will advance the disability and Indigenous understandings of disabilities from a global representation but also how disability has been interpreted through various pivotal points in our past. Your participation is vital to shaping a comprehensive and meaningful collection.
Drawing from the insights of Indigenous educators, scholars, professionals, and emerging disability theorists, this work critically interrogates the colonial legacies of disability discourse and policy. It seeks to disrupt pathologising narratives and affirm Indigenous modes of understanding, teaching, and living with disability.
This book will be comprised of ten parts that will illustrate a comprehensive overview of Indigenous disability knowledge systems:
Please contact the editors directly if you are interested in contributing a chapter to the book:
Professor John Gilroy is a Yuin man from Australia and is a professor of sociology in Indigenous health, specialising primarily in disability studies.
He has worked in disability, aging research, and led many research projects in urban and rural/remote and done community development with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, as well as government and non-government stakeholders for most of his life.
John is passionate about Aboriginal owned and driven research to influence policy.
Dr John T. Ward who is of mixed heritage French-Canadian and Algonquin from the territory of Kitchisibi.
His specialisation is Indigenous wholistic knowledge, ethics, disabilities, learning disabilities and dyslexia among Indigenous people in Canada.
He also works as a HR advisor in disability and Indigenous knowledge for the Government of Canada.
Rodney Adams is a deaf Koori man from Australia, living on Gumbaynggirr country on the NSW Mid North Coast.
He is an Adjunct Lecturer in Aboriginal and Deaf Studies at the University of Sydney organising the Aboriginal Sign Language Forum every year.
His interest is the revitalisation of Indigenous Sign Languages within the context of deaf First Nations people as possible core instigators to its vitality. The depth and richness of these Sign Languages are essential to deaf and hard of hearing in much the same way as Indigenous Spoken Languages are to non-deaf.
Email
Professor John Gilroy:
john.gilroy@sydney.edu.au
Dr John Ward:
john.ward1@sydney.edu.au
Rodney Adams:
rodney.adams@sydney.edu.au
Mailing address
Susan Wakil Health Building,
University of Sydney, Camperdown,
NSW 2006
