‘The Academy’, a new collaboration between the University of New England (UNE) and Dhiiyaan Centre, aims to build a “community of practice” that co-creates education pathways embracing Indigenous culture and place.
NSW Minister for Skills and Training, Alister Henskens, recently announced seed funding for The Academy as part of the $1.75 million NSW Government Collaboration and Innovation Fund.
Professor Joe Fraser, UNE’s Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous, says the Academy’s overarching goal is to engage Indigenous people on the path towards self-determination, with education as the vehicle.
Successful attendance of a university has become a valuable indicator of educational success. Indigenous students are 41 per cent less likely to attend university than their peers.
Improving Indigenous representation at university involves “sustained pathways and engagement with students through respectful relationships”, Professor Fraser observes.
The Academy’s approach will bring together educators and Indigenous communities on a joint quest to make higher education relevant and engaging to young Indigenous students from Year 8, long before university admission. Prof. Fraser says that this involves focussing on sense of identity and place.
“We need to be able to develop forms of education that tell Indigenous peoples: you don’t need to give up your identity to participate, you don’t need to give up your sense of place.”
“One of the definitions of learning is ‘transmission of culture’. There’s a lot of emphasis on education as a path to a career, a mortgage, that sort of thing, and that’s relevant. But education should also help us engage with the world and have meaning.”
“Including Indigenous ways of knowing is an important step in this process. Working with Indigenous organisations, schools, and disciplines at UNE will allow the development of a program that is engaging and relevant to the community being served.”
“The Academy is about winding two ideas of education into a single strand that acknowledges Indigenous cultural roots and recognises the importance of place to Indigenous people, while putting those things in a wider context.”
Academy-designed additions to the school curriculum will be introduced to Indigenous students in Year 8 and continue through to Year 11. Throughout these years, students will be made aware of the possibilities of higher education, be supported to build an ethic and literacy for higher education, and develop strong relationships with UNE.
In Year 12, students will focus on the HSC, while being made aware of the various pathways into university education.
UNE’s Oorala Centre will act as The Academy hub, but the initiative will otherwise exist as a network of collaborating schools and Indigenous communities across the New England-North West, who with UNE specialists will jointly develop The Academy’s programs.
“In many Indigenous communities, there is a frustrating sense of lack of sovereignty and lack of control over life, which is expressed through emotion,” Prof. Fraser says.
“I think a knowledge community could help people get another perspective on these problems – one in which people have agency to address their issues. And I believe that could be very powerful.”
