We are very pleased to bring you Volume 46 of The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education. This year is a particularly significant time for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues and education. It marks the 25th anniversary of the landmark Mabo decision that refuted the legal doctrine of terra nullius and recognised that the Miriam people were continuously present and exclusively possessed Mer in the Torres Strait. It is also the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum, a significant milestone resulting in constitutional change to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the national census. This year also marks the release of the Universities Australia Indigenous Strategy 2017–2020, which is designed to provide a sector-wide initiative that binds all universities together with common goals. The strategy includes important initiatives to increase the numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people participating in higher education, increase the engagement of non-Indigenous people with Indigenous knowledge and educational approaches, and improve the university environment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

‘Riawunna’ is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘a place of learning’ for Aboriginal people, from entry level to tertiary studies, at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) and operates on Hobart, Launceston and Burnie campuses. The Riawunna Centre was established to encourage Aboriginal people to aspire to higher levels of education, and to support them to be successful in their chosen course of study. One strategy developed to support the participation, retention and success of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is the Murina program. During the four year period between 2010 and 2013 every student at UTAS who graduated from the Murina program and chosen to enrol in undergraduate studies has been successful in completing their courses. One of the tools used to achieve this result is the strong use of narrative and images in our teaching. This whole-person approach to teaching resonates culturally with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, but is also applicable to any student of any culture, especially those who come to university tentatively and with low expectations of what they can achieve.

Progress has been slow in improving health disparities between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) Australians and other Australians. While reasons for this are complex, delivering healthcare respectful of cultural differences is one approach to improving Indigenous health outcomes. This paper presents and evaluates an intercultural academic leadership programme developed to support tertiary educators teaching Indigenous health and culture prepare interdisciplinary students to work respectfully and appropriately as health professionals with Indigenous peoples. The programme acknowledges the impact of colonisation on Indigenous Australians and draws on theories of the intercultural space to inform reflection and discussion on Indigenous/non-Indigenous relations and their impact on healthcare. Furthermore, the programme encourages establishing a community of practice as a resource for educators. Evaluation indicated participants’ confidence to teach Indigenous content increased following the programme. Participants felt more able to create intercultural, interdisciplinary and interactive learning spaces that were inclusive and safe for students from all cultures. Participants learned skills to effectively facilitate and encourage students to grapple with the complexity of the intercultural space, often tense, uncertain and risky, to enable new understandings and positions to emerge that could better prepare graduates to work in Indigenous health contexts.

Participation in sport during high school has been linked with a range of educational and developmental benefits. However, there is limited research investigating the benefits of participation in sport from the perspective of Aboriginal former youth sports participants. The purpose of the current research was to investigate how participation in sports impacted on the educational engagement, aspirations and development of Aboriginal former youth sports participants. Interpretive phenomenological analysis of semistructured interviews with six participants was conducted. Analysis was conducted utilising the Positive Youth Development asset framework. Participants reported a positive influence for their participation in youth sport on key education related assets including, achievement motivation, school engagement and relationships with teachers. Participants also reflected upon the role of participation in youth sports in the development of empowerment and positive identity assets. For these participants, involvement in youth sport had clear educational and developmental benefits. It is concluded that youth sports participation is one developmental context with the potential to have a positive influence on the educational and developmental trajectory of Aboriginal youth.

This paper aims to provide some insight into the links between attendance, retention and engagement of Indigenous senior students in an urban environment. A study of 58 students from two urban high schools during the period 2009–14 was undertaken. The study used data from a variety of school records, as well as informal interviews with students. It is argued that while the broader comprehensive statistical studies are useful there is a need to have some more, in depth, localised studies in urban schools. Results of the study support the link between absences and student disengagement. There was a clear positive link between retention to Year 12 and superior attendance. In many individual instances, the links between attendance, retention and engagement were complex. There was also a need to place emphasis on alternative paths for some of the disengaged group rather than just trying to improve attendance. These paths included employment opportunities, Technical and Further Education (TAFE) and post school traineeships or apprenticeships. This paper points to the need for further longitudinal studies in urban high schools to study the long-term life outcomes for Indigenous students.

This paper argues that genuine engagement and consultation is required where Indigenous voice is prevalent within the policy development process for true progress to be achieved in the educational attainments of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. It is important to note that there has been little critical analysis of policy discourses. More specifically, analysis of how language is used to maintain societal constructs. By providing an Indigenous standpoint, it is anticipated that this paper makes explicit to policymakers the bias and taken for granted assumptions held by those who produced it. This paper is derived from a larger project, namely my Masters of Education (Research) thesis (Hogarth, 2015). The major findings that emerged from the data included (a) the homogenous grouping of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, (b) the maintenance of the prevalent dominant ideology of a deficit view within policy and finally (c) the expectation of government of increased engagement and connections with and by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in education without consideration of the detrimental effects of past policies and reforms. The potential implications of making explicit how language positions Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students’ educational attainment can inform future policymaking and contribute to the struggle for self-determination.

This case study of an adult and community education provider based in far north Queensland describes its capacity to balance various iterations of public policy against its vision for the future of Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islanders. Community-controlled organisations wanting to contribute to economic and social development in regional/remote Australia through the use of formally recognised vocational education and training have adjusted to at least three major sociopolitical changes at the national policy level since the early 1990s. These include redefining equity, marketising the delivery of public services and increased centralisation. The contemporary orientation of vocational education and training as part of the Indigenous Advancement Strategy has become a highly prescriptive and heavily centralised mechanism for the establishment of employment outcomes. This has been framed as an obligation and right of Australian citizenship as opposed to the other wellbeing and personal development benefits of education. This registered training organisation has navigated four burdensome (re)definitions of equity that have made planning and delivery of true lifelong training objectives difficult. The provider has embraced the marketisation of the sector and navigated other policy changes in order to provide the services and knowledge set out in the college mission statement.

There are still no major assessment and diagnostic tools that educators can use to properly assess our Inuit students’ learning. Cultural safety as it is currently defined in New Zealand educational research (Macfarlane et al., 2007) is necessary in creating a classroom community that encourages the appreciation of culture and worldview, and ultimately enables success as defined by the culture and community of the students. Modern day assessment tools used with Inuit students must also conform to this standard of cultural safety in order to ensure the equity and authenticity of the assessment results. There is a need for ongoing research and development of culturally safe assessment tools. To date, recommendations that include collaboration with local populations, evaluation of the tools presently being used, and the due diligence of ensuring these tools are culturally unbiased are a few guidelines that have the potential of creating culturally safe assessments that portray students’ true learning abilities and assist both teacher and community in the support of their students’ learning and success.

This three-year research study examined the influence of interactive technologies on the math achievement of Indigenous students in Years 4, 5, 6 and 7 technology — equipped classrooms in a rural elementary school in British Columbia, Canada. Using a mixed-methods approach, the researcher conducted semistructured interviews and collected math achievement data (reported elsewhere) over a three-year span, and distributed a survey to the teachers in the second year of the study. All data sources revealed that interactive technologies such as SMARTBoards, student response systems and document cameras influence positively Indigenous students’ math achievement over a three-year period.

Indigenous knowledge is multidimensional encompassing the beliefs, practices, arts, spirituality and other forms of traditional and cultural experiences that belong to Indigenous communities globally. In order to protect, preserve and recognize the knowledge of the Indigenous people of Fiji, known as the iTaukei, the University of Fiji has established a Centre for iTaukei Studies. The Centre apart from its cultural dimension has adopted the western system of disseminating knowledge through publications, text books and teacher education programmes. While maintaining the importance of preserving the originality of the Indigenous cultural identity and practices, the paper highlights how the infusion of the cultures of the Indigenous people and that of the Indo-Fijians, who have co-existed together for over 100 years, has shaped the unique multicultural landscape in Fiji.

We propose the use of an ontological perspective to shift current thinking about the phenomenon of home/school partnerships, particularly through an examination of school leaders (leadership team) — community relationships that seek to better serve Indigenous students and their communities. We reanalysed focus group interviews of indigenous Māori students and their whānau/families from a wider New Zealand study that investigated the development of culturally responsive leadership in 84 secondary schools. The aim of the leadership intervention was to improve school practices and enable Indigenous Māori students to achieve and enjoy educational success as Māori. Reanalysis of interview material revealed categories related to relational being that highlight both opportunities and impediments to authentic relationships between schools and communities and the development of culturally responsive leadership. This paper attempts to create a framework in regards to relational ontology within a broader struggle for transformative praxis and to provide direction for further theoretical and practical investigation within schools.

Before the arrival of Europeans in Aotearoa, New Zealand and their subsequent settlement in the 1800s, there was no concept of a Māori identity. Over time, however, as a result of rapid colonisation, Māori became a minority population in New Zealand. Consequently, the term Māori as normal or usual, began to lose its meaning (Webber, 2008), and another meaning began to emerge based on contrasts with the Pākehā settler population. This paper explores the complex and increasingly diverse nature of Māori identities in contemporary Aotearoa/New Zealand, including contemporary early childhood contexts. It discusses the importance of negotiating the terrains of cultural knowledge, values and understandings in order to define what ‘being Māori’ means for teachers and children in an increasingly diverse and complex settings.

Through tracing in detail the story of schooling for three individuals, this article provides a rich description of the way that education impacted on the lives of many Māori between the early 1900s and the year 2000. Although there is extensive research on the historical colonising effects of schooling on Māori and te reo Māori (the Māori language), this article approaches these effects by bringing them alive and illustrating them in the everyday lived experience of women from three generations: my mother, myself, and my daughter. Through this method, the article maps in evocative detail the important historical period between the banning of Māori language in schools and the renaissance of Māori language teaching and speaking in schools.