Toward an Inclusive Curriculum:
Incorporating Indigenous Australian Content in Undergraduate Programs
"[T]he AVCC accept[s] the principle that all Australian higher education students [should] receive some understanding of Indigenous knowledge systems, cultures and values as an integral part of their studies. There are tangible benefits to be obtained in greater numbers of students gaining an understanding of Indigenous issues. The implementation of this principle will provide a sound basis for equipping all students with some generic skills for living in our society"
Australian Vice Chancellor's Submission to the Higher Education Review (2002:38).
Universities in Australia have been educating professionals for over 100 years. The education provided by Universities has shaped the thinking and practices of generations of professionals who have played a significant role in structuring relationships between Indigenous Australians and the broader society, including advising colonial and contemporary governments, authorities and professional bodies on policy and practice, constructing and legitimating societal values and attitudes, and providing professional services to Indigenous peoples.
The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (1991) was the first major national Inquiry to document the complexity and severity of the socio-economic disadvantage experienced by Indigenous Australians and consistently questioned the standard and appropriateness of the professional services provided to Indigenous Australians. The Royal Commission argued that professionals largely operated within a neo-colonial framework and were generally ignorant of knowledge and understanding of Indigenous cultures, worldview, histories and contemporary situations and lacked practical skills and strategies for working effectively in Indigenous contexts.
Whilst over the past decade there has been an upsurge of interest shown by Australian universities in ensuring the inclusion of some Indigenous content in discipline areas such as education, social work and nursing, this incorporation has been haphazard and incomplete. Consequently, seventeen years after the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody tabled its findings and recommendations in 1991, and fifteen years after the beginning of the process of reconciliation, the high levels of socio-economic disadvantage experienced by Indigenous Australians have not improved. Societal attitudes and services provided by professions to Indigenous Australians remain powerful barriers to achieving social justice. Professionals, educated and trained by universities, continue to contribute to the construction and perpetuation of these barriers. Doctors, social workers, psychologists, nurses, police officers, teachers, and other professionals continue to routinely construct and implement policies and practices which have the power to determine health strategies, place children in institutions, send Indigenous Australians to jail and structure the curriculum taught to the future generation of Australian professionals, based upon little or no knowledge and understanding of Indigenous cultures, histories or contemporary realities.
As the institution responsible for educating the next generation of professionals across a range of disciplines, Charles Sturt University has a significant role in shaping the culture, paradigms and practices of those professions. CSU has a major responsibility to provide the next generation of professionals with knowledge and understanding of Indigenous cultures, histories and contemporary contexts and equip graduates with culturally appropriate skills and strategies to prepare them for working effectively with Indigenous clients and/or communities. This education should engage students in a critical inquiry into the nature of their profession - its history, assumptions and characteristics, its role in structuring Australian society, and its historical and contemporary engagement with Indigenous communities and Indigenous people. These professional characteristics need to be examined and understood if professionals are to develop an understanding of the social and political contexts of Indigenous people's lives and communities and the roles of the professions in shaping those contexts to become agents of change.
The inclusion of Indigenous content into all CSU undergraduate programs offered by Charles Sturt University has the power to change the nature of Australian society and the quality of service provision provided to Indigenous Australians. The systematic and systemic inclusion of Indigenous Studies provides CSU with the opportunity to define itself as a leading institution in Indigenous Education and a significant agent for social change and ethical practice in contemporary Australian society. The implementation of policy ensuring that all graduates are provided with the opportunity to develop knowledge, skills, motivation and confidence to be able to work professionally with Indigenous people and communities provides CSU with the foundation upon which to set this higher education institution apart from other universities, being second only to the University of South Australia in implementing such policy.