Reconciliation in education: Supporting voice and wellbeing

Esma Livermore

Wominjeka. I would like to Acknowledge that we are gathered on the Lands of the Wurundjeri and Bunurong Peoples. I pay my respects to Elders, past, present, and emerging, and also acknowledge any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People that are out there in the Zoom world today.

Nina Ross

I’m Nina Ross, Senior Officer of Professional Learning and Curriculum, and with me is Esma Livermore, Senior Officer of RAP Community at Reconciliation Australia Narragunnawali Reconciliation in Education Program. Today, we grow our understanding of reconciliation in education and how Reconciliation Action Plans (RAPs) support and promote First Nations’ voices, as well as the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous children and young people. We will begin the virtual conference by considering how we can play an active role in promoting and teaching reconciliation in our learning communities. By growing our understanding of what reconciliation is and what our professional requirements are, we can continue to drive reconciliation in education across all sectors, stages and states and territories. Reconciliation Australia was established in 2001 and is a lead body for reconciliation in the nation. We are an independent, not-for-profit organisation that promotes and facilitates reconciliation by building relationships, respect, and trust between the wider Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Our purpose is to inspire and enable all Australians to contribute to the reconciliation of the nation. Our vision is for a just, equitable, and reconciled Australia. We have several programs, as you can see on the screen now, and the Narragunnawali Reconciliation in Education Program aligns, seeks to deliver on Reconciliation Australia's vision and operational mission by promoting reconciliation within and across the education ecosystem.

Reconciliation Australia's Narragunnawali team is comprised of diverse First Nations and non-Indigenous teachers and educators all committed to driving a better and braver future for reconciliation in education. In having acknowledged Country, I would also like to acknowledge the meaning of the word ‘Narragunnawali’ that we were given permission to use by the United Ngunnawal Elders Council, representatives of the Ngunnawal community on whose land Reconciliation Australia's head office in Canberra stands. ‘Narragunnawali’ means alive, wellbeing, coming together, and peace. It reminds us that in order to foster a stronger sense of wellbeing, coming together, and peace in the relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, reconciliation in Australia needs be alive. It needs to be actively driven on an everyday and bettered basis. But where have we come from, where we are at, and where we need to go in this reconciliation in education journey to foster a future where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander self-determination is at the centre of education systems and in turn, actively engages the hearts and minds of future generations to contribute to the reconciliation process?

Today, we will be sharing some insights with tools and resources to support you in your personal and professional reconciliation in education journey, to promote wellbeing and the advocacy for voice in your school or service. But in many ways, you are the best resource out, that’s there, and I think that putting yourself in the reconciliation journey is where you will be able to find the most meaning. If you can answer the question of why you are doing what you're doing and why it is meaningful to you and your learning community, then that is what reconciliation really relies on.

Esma Livermore

While opinions about reconciliation in Australia vary, Reconciliation Australia defines the concept of reconciliation in Australia through the five dimensions of reconciliation. In 2016, Reconciliation Australia released a landmark report providing a shared language around reconciliation. The ‘State of Reconciliation in Australia’ report found that reconciliation is comprised of these five integral and interrelated dimensions. Race relations, which is all Australians understanding the value of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and non-Indigenous cultures. Rights, and experiences, which results in stronger relationships based on trust and respect, and that are free from racism. Equality and equity, where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples participate equally in a range of life opportunities and the unique rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are recognised and upheld. Unity is an Australian society that recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and heritages as a proud part of shared national identity. Institutional integrity is the active support of reconciliation by the nation’s political, business, and community structures; and historical acceptance, where all Australians understand and accept the roles of the past and the impacts of those wrongs. Australia makes amends for the wrongs of the past and ensures they are never repeated. So in summary to that, we can say that the state of reconciliation in Australia will only ever be as strong as the weakest dimension or the weakest link here because they are all interrelated and intertwined.

While opinions about reconciliation in Australia are varied, Reconciliation Australia defines the concept of reconciliation in Australia – oh, you’ve gone a bit back. Sorry, Nina’s gone back a bit. Here we go. So we are just going to show you a short video around the ‘State of Reconciliation in Australia’ report.

Video (State of Reconciliation in Australia)

For over 80,000 years, the world's oldest continuing culture has thrived on this land. Colonisation has taken much away, but Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have fought for culture and community, fought for justice and respect, and fought for a better future. This resilience and determination has shaped Australia's story. How the next chapters will be written, rests in all of our hands. As a brave new era for reconciliation unfold, bold and meaningful actions will lead the way. Progress has been steady, but there's more we need to do. Racism still harms many communities. More than 50 percent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have experienced at least one form of racism in the last six months. So let's tackle prejudice and make relationships stronger. There's frustration and anguish when politicians and leaders drag the chain. We need governments to step up now for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The gaps in health, justice, education, and employment are still significant. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people must have access to the same opportunities as other Australians. Addressing the wrongs of the past is more difficult when we don't care, don't want to think about it, or just want it all to go away. But big change starts small and every one of us can play a part. The great thing is, most of us do care and want to do something positive about reconciliation. Over 90 percent of Australians feel the relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians is important. The vast majority believes that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should have a say in matters that affect them. More people than ever before are ready to explore the hard truths, with almost 90 percent supporting formal truth-telling processes in relation to Australia’s shared history. There's huge support for the Voice to Parliament as outlined in the Uluru Statement From The Heart. As a nation, we are proud and inspired by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and importantly, most Australians believe national unity is possible. As our nation's story unfolds, the small actions we take will have effects far and wide. Every positive step builds a better future. A future that's more equitable. A future that's more just. A future that's more hopeful. Your voice can make a difference and it all starts with being braver. So call out racism wherever you find it. Question the media if what they're saying isn't right. Challenge leaders to act on injustices. Learn more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and histories, and help drive reconciliation among your friends, family, and in your workplace. Our path is clear. Together we can make a better Australia where we celebrate our rich history and diverse cultures, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are respected and empowered. Your brave actions will lead us to a just, equitable and reconciled Australia.

Esma Livermore

The ARB data show we widely believe that knowing about First Nations histories and cultures are important. The slide that’s on the screen at the moment is just about both the general community and the Aboriginal and Torres [Strait] Islander peoples believe it is important for all Australians to learn about the histories of First Nations People and their cultures.

Nina Ross

Historically, the formal education system in Australia has served as a tool of colonisation. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' pedagogy and perspectives have been systematically excluded from and silenced within mainstream education institutions, policies, and frameworks. As a result, generations of Australians have grown up with an inadequate understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and very limited awareness of the true history of Australia. Education institutions have contributed to a lack of historical acceptance, deepening inequalities and inequities, and disrupting pathways towards strong relationship building and unification processes across generations.

In 2008, the ‘Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians’ articulated nationally to understand and acknowledge the value of Indigenous cultures and possess the knowledge, skills, and understanding to contribute to and benefit from reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. This led to the establishment of an Australian curriculum and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priorities. This also included reconciliation in the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, in Focus Area 2.4. It states that all educators must address the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers across Australia. These Standards are evidenced in programs, units, registers, and professional learning. Focus Area 1.4, which is strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, means best practice for teaching First Nations kids. Focus Area 2.4, understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, which means opportunities for all students to develop understanding and respect. Creating environments for reconciliation as per Focus Area 2.4, can also have important flow-on benefits to Focus Area 1.4. While a focus on reconciliation is most clearly captured within Focus Areas 2.4 and 1.4, it is ultimately embedded across all Standards and all Focus Areas.

In the primary and secondary school contexts, the Australian curriculum's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priorities further points to the importance of respectfully embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content and perspectives across all subject areas and year levels. It's vital that not only Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students can see themselves, their identities, and their cultures reflected in the curriculum, but also that all Australian students can meaningfully engage with the world's oldest continuing living culture. The latest version nine, of the Australian curriculum, has sought to strengthen these cross-curriculum priorities and further recommends for teaching and learning to better respond to calls from First Nations People for truth-telling, better respect for First Nations histories and cultures, and better representation of contemporary First Nations Australians as strong, resilient, rich, and diverse. Each state curriculum body in turn, has the same requirement to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives into all key learning areas as cross-curriculum priorities. Teachers in Australia must include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content.

The National Quality Standard, or the NQS, sets the high standard benchmark for early childhood education and care and outside of school hours care services. In the early years context, a focus on reconciliation is reflected across the National Quality Standard, but is perhaps most clearly tied to Quality Area 6, which asks for collaborative partnerships to be developed within families and communities, including a services local Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander community.

The EYLF, or Early Years Learning Framework, recommends for the framework's vision explicitly recognises the role of early childhood education and care and outside of school hours care, in advancing reconciliation. Similarly, reconciliation is core within the vision and also to each of the principles, practices, and learning outcomes of the EYLF, but is perhaps most clearly captured by the principal Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Perspectives, which clearly outline educators' obligations to provide opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to see themselves, their identities, and cultures reflected in their environment. It is important for growing a strong sense of identity, to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in all educators' philosophy and practice to advance reconciliation, think deeply, and seek assistance where possible through engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and how to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in the philosophy of the setting, their planning and implementation of the curriculum, to deepen knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander relationships and connections to Country and family, including kinship systems and cultural connections in their local communities, so they can build engaging, reciprocal relationships between services and community, and respectfully and truthfully reflect the histories and cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through community involvement and culturally sensitive practices.

Now cultural responsiveness should not be viewed as a standalone imperative, but rather as part of a whole-school approach to fostering wellbeing and driving reconciliation in education. After the release of the ‘Building a Culturally Responsive Australian Teaching Workforce Project’ final report, AITSL have launched their integrated Cultural Development Capability Framework, the Intercultural Development Continuum, and the Intercultural Development Self-Reflection Tool. This is a tool for all school and service community leaders, teachers, support staff, administrators, and even school psychologists and counsellors, to use to check their level of cultural responsiveness using a private questionnaire. There is a framework to unpack the results and resources on how to improve levels of cultural responsiveness, and this is for all people working in education and with young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, from in-service teachers to graduates to very experienced teachers and leaders. It enables people to explore their own positionality and conscious and unconscious bias. Learning is improved when schools value wellbeing in their philosophy and framework, wellbeing. It’s also one of the meanings of the Ngunnawal word ‘Narragunnawali’. Wellbeing impacts on how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students learn, their high achievement, absenteeism, school retention rate, numbers in HSC (Higher School Certificate) courses, and tertiary pathways. Wellbeing relies on schools addressing racism, any antisocial behaviour, student agency, a sense of belonging, and students' ability to celebrate their cultural identity. The Importance of Reconciliation in Education literature review states that education is recognised as a key determinant of both health and wellbeing. Exposure to negative experiences in childhood can have repercussions for the rest of a person's life, as it shapes their engagement and attitudes towards institutions. The direct negative consequences for health can also affect future health outcomes directly. Although race relations are just one of the five dimensions of reconciliation, it can directly affect all others. For example, the positive benefits of education for other aspects of reconciliation in education, are unlikely to materialise if students are discouraged from participating in education. There is a clear empirical link between experiences of racism and discrimination, and a number of poor education outcomes.

Esma Livermore

Analysis of data from the longitudinal study of Indigenous children showed that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who attended a school where their parents or caregivers knew that the school had a RAP, were less likely to report that their children did not want to go to school, were more likely to think that the school understood the needs of the Indigenous student, and were more likely to think that the school was good for them. Now that we understand the professional requirements for teachers and educators, we're excited to share with you the Narragunnawali platform that helps teachers meet them. On the platform, there is much to explore for educators, parents, communities, and students. It is free to sign up, and the registration gives you access to the full suite of offerings. A Reconciliation Action Plan, or RAP, is a formal commitment to reconciliation. It documents how your school or early learning service will strengthen relationships, respect, and opportunities in the classroom, around the school or service, and with the community. Schools and early learning services can develop a RAP using the Narragunnawali platform to register and extend on existing initiatives or begin their reconciliation journey. So after freely signing up and logging into the Narragunnawali platform, follow the prompts to create or join a RAP for your school or early learning service. You will find the key steps in the RAP development process include: establishing a RAP working group, responding to the RAP reflection survey, writing a vision for reconciliation, adding actions to the RAP, submitting the RAP for review publication, and refreshing the RAP every 12 months. This whole process includes support from the Narragunnawali team and also a weekly virtual office-hours sessions on Thursdays, serving as a drop-in centre for questions and help. This slide shows the RAP framework, and the relationship, respect, and opportunities in the classroom, around the school or service, and with the community. There are required actions that we believe all schools and services should be doing, and how they come together.

Right now, we are going to do a bit of an interactive session with you, and here's a chance for you to tell us if your school or service currently has a Reconciliation Action Plan. If you’re A) yes, my school or service has a published RAP, B) yes, my school or service's RAP is in draft form, C) no, my school or service doesn't have a RAP, but I'm keen to learn more and develop one, or D) no, my school or service doesn't have a RAP. So we are just going to give you a couple of seconds to click in and select yours. As we can see on the screen, we have around 47 percent of schools and early learning services out there right now that have a published RAP, so that's really exciting for us to be able to see those numbers. And about 32 percent say, "No, my school or service doesn't have one," but hopefully, today’s session will help guide you to the Narragunnawali platform and increase those numbers.

Alright, so we’ll move on to the next slide after that nice little poll. RAP action pages are like professional learning pages in and of themselves. Each RAP action links to professional learning curriculum resources and, in turn, is linked to the Professional Teaching Standards and the National Curriculum Version 9. Here is an example of a RAP action within the framework. This one aligns with the new AITSL: Building a culturally responsive Australian teaching workforce toolkit. Here's another RAP action that connects to wellbeing, and another action that connects to wellbeing also.

Nina Ross

So professional learning on the platform. These resources build your awareness and understanding of Aboriginal [and] Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures, and contributions. Doing these professional learning activities help you not only deliver your Reconciliation Action Plan actions, but can also be used by individuals on their own reconciliation journey. The activities are teacher-led, you can do them solo, in small groups, or even during staff meetings. So, each resource aligns with the National Quality Standard for Early Learning, the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers for primary and secondary teachers and at least one RAP action. You can register for a Narragunnawali webinar for more insights on reconciliation in education and times spent engaging with professional learning on the platform can be added to your elective professional development hours, but it's best to check with your professional development guidelines with your teacher accreditation regulatory body in your state or territory. So, an example of one of our professional learning resources is ‘Tackling Tokenism’. This professional learning resource is designed for early learning, primary, and secondary teachers and is linked to the standards. And this one helps teachers create authentic and meaningful learning experiences and environments to enable a sense of belonging and for students to see their identity and the identity of the oldest living cultures in Australia. So our curriculum resources, these early learning, primary, and secondary curriculum resources, help you build practical activities and lessons. They promote reconciliation and develop children's and students' understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures, and contributions. Each resource has elements of the EYLF, or the Early Years Learning Framework, and the Australian curriculum, and it aligns with Reconciliation Action Plan actions also. You can use them as is, or adapt them to suit your local community and setting. An example of one of our curriculum resources is the ‘Invisible Discrimination Meets Respect.’ This curriculum resource is an example of wellbeing in the classroom. It helps students talk about and confront racism, both covert and overt.

So, coming up, hopefully, you're all aware it's National Reconciliation Week. This year's theme for National Reconciliation Week is ‘Be a Voice for Generations’. It's about thinking of generations before and after us and advocating voice and agency to make change. It's about using our voice for change but also actively listening to and promoting the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. On our platform, we have some curriculum resources that help teachers and educators engage with NRW activities. They're all differentiated for early learning, primary, or secondary and include a range of ideas that can be adapted for your context.

Esma Livermore

We are going to go to a bit of a poll, so here's a chance for you to tell us how your service or school will engage in the National Reconciliation Week activities this year. A) We will include the Narragunnawali curriculum resources in our activities, B) We will use the reconciliation posters available in print or download, C) We will create and use our own activities for NRW, or D) Our service or school will not be participating. So, we’ll give you a couple of seconds to get onto the poll, and we look forward to seeing what you have. So it’s great to see, Nina, they are going to be using our Narragunnawali curriculum resources. You know, it's always good to get on there, we always provide ideas for action in those spaces, so be able to get in there and just remember, the Narragunnawali platform is there to support and help the needs of those that are developing reconciliation within their school.

Nina Ross

And we will have an on-demand webinar that was live a couple of days ago, unpacking some of those resources available on the platform.

Esma Livermore

Great, still see 56 percent of those mob about there are going to be using the platform. Hopefully, we'll get back into our presentation. Here we go.

So now is a chance for you to think about what will the next steps be in your reconciliation journey for you and your school or service. So what’s next? You can get on, feel free to scan the QR code to access the Narragunnawali platform registration page, where you can access the NRW curriculum resources and start your school or service Reconciliation Action Plan journey. As you can see on the slide, you can sign up to the platform, engage with the NRW activities and events, and then start your RAP journey or continue on your RAP journey for those who are already on the Narragunnawali platform.

And I think we've come to the end of our presentation. I don't know if that was a lot quicker from us, but you know, thank you again for everyone that’s been able to take the opportunity out of your day to join us today and thank you to Be You and Beyond Blue for inviting us along to be able to share the Narragunnawali platform, talk about reconciliation in Australia, and where we're at.

Good luck on your reconciliation journey. Thank you.

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