Reviews of Disciplining the Savages: Savaging the Disciplines

Robert Kenny, Australian Humanities Review, Issue 46, 2007
Nakata’s book is of first importance in the current debate over policies towards indigenous education. It is a product of the cultural interface that Nakata describes and is an important contribution from a scholar and activist who is eminently qualified.

Shino Konishi, Journal of Australian Studies, June 2008
Disciplining the Savages: Savaging the Disciplines is a significant book because it examines Torres Strait Islander history, a field of Australian studies which has remained largely unexplored. Further, it examines this history from an Islander's perspective.

Peta Stephenson, Australian Historical Studies, 39, June 2008
Nakata’s wish to contribute to the educational experience of Torres Strait Islanders makes this a highly original book that is sure to become an important resource for Indigenous and non-Indigenous academics wanting to bring Indigenous knowledge, traditions, and systems into teaching and learning contexts.

Sue McGinty & Tyson Yunkaporta, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, June 2009
This work represents a significant shift in Indigenous research, a turnaround that centres the native viewpoint and turns the academic gaze back upon itself. This decolonisation is apparent in the clever title, which effectively changes the status in Indigenous people in research from object to subject. However, the work goes beyond merely buttressing anticolonial positions, proposing a vision of future research and an Indigenous Standpoint theory.

Vicki Greives, Cultural Studies Review, Vol. 15, No. 2, September 2009
This book represents an important statement of academic achievement by a Torres Strait Islander, one who has navigated through the demands of Western education and notably the first who has achieved a university doctorate. Nakata is thus well placed to critique Western knowledge acquisition and its impacts on ‘Islander’ peoples.