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.
The first suite of papers in this volume focuses on the Australian context, with papers by Andersen et al. and Durey et al. providing us with insight into the use of narrative and images in the University of Tasmania Murina programme in the first paper and the impact of an intercultural academic leadership programme to build health science educators’ capacity to teach Indigenous health in the second. The papers by Fitch et al. and Briggs take us into the context of high schools. Fitch et al. demonstrate the ways youth sports programmes positively impact on the development of empowerment and positive identity assets for Aboriginal youth, while Briggs explores the complex links between attendance, retention and engagement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. The papers by Hogarth and Zoellner focus on Indigenous policy, with Hogarth examining the language used in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Acton Plan, while Zoellner explores the capacity of an adult and community education provider to balance public policy against its vision for the future of Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander education.
The second suite of papers has an international focus, with papers from Canada, Fiji and New Zealand. Stoffer explores the potential of creating culturally safe assessments for Inuit students, while Kitchenham examines the influence of interactive technologies on the mathematics achievement of Indigenous primary students in Canada. Ali explores the importance of preserving and promoting Indigenous knowledge and traditions through the Centre for iTaukei Studies at the University of Fiji, and Hindle draws on interviews with Māori students and their whanau (families) around the development of culturally responsive leadership in secondary schools. The final papers in this volume, by Rameka and Tocker, speak specifically to Māori education, exploring the importance of negotiating cultural knowledge, values and understandings in order to define what ‘being Māori’ means for teachers and children and the diverse ways education has impacted on the lives of many Māori people.
We hope you enjoy reading the papers in this volume and hope that they inspire us all to continue ongoing discussions and debates across the various research areas and strands of thought in Indigenous educational research and practice globally.
