By Associate Professor Nikki Moodie, AFSE Program Director

2023 Atlantic Fellows learning on *Tjerrangerri / Minjerribah Country* hosted by *Minjerribah Moorgumpin (Elders-In-Council) Aboriginal Corporation, North Stradbroke Island, Queensland.*

The Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity (AFSE) takes an interdisciplinary approach to social change. The program offers Fellows the opportunity to learn from Indigenous scholars, knowledge holders and each other to develop impactful social change projects. 

Indigenous peoples globally number an estimated 476.6 million people (1) making up roughly 5% of the global population and accounting for 15% of the world’s people living in extreme poverty (2). By contrast, Indigenous people hold jurisdiction over a quarter of the planet’s surface, within which Indigenous lives, knowledges, and rights steward 80% of the planet’s remaining biodiversity.  

Despite the importance of Indigenous lives and knowledges on global diversity, Indigenous peoples in many countries face significant barriers to accessing higher education. Only 7.8 per cent of Indigenous peoples globally have a university degree compared with almost 20% of non-Indigenous people and 46.6% of Indigenous people globally have no education (3). In Australia, somewhere between 8% and 10% of Indigenous people have a university degree (4), compared with 32% of the broader Australia population (5).  

Significant barriers to accessing education, like cost, location, experiences of racism, family, community, and cultural commitments, are challenges experienced by many Indigenous people that universities often have a poor track record responding to.
As a result, universities can be a culturally unsafe environment for many Indigenous people. For Indigenous people in leadership positions within their communities, government, private or non-profit organisations, finding time to invest in further education is often an unrealistic possibility given the highly pressured environments in which they work and live.

With this context in mind, AFSE is committed to creating a culturally safe and equitable environment that recognises how universities historically have been tools of colonialism facilitating the extraction of Indigenous wealth and knowledges. AFSE also acknowledges that universities have also been places where Indigenous scholars have made enormous contributions in all fields and disciplines. Alliances, movements, and knowledges have been created by Indigenous people and our allies that have amplified our voices and worked to build new and old ways of being in the world that honour people and land.  

“The one thing I've learned through this year is how to find the keys to unlock those doors that keep us disempowered and to really find impact. And the way of finding impact is through education... Education is giving me the opportunity to open the door for my people.” Stephina Salee 2022 Atlantic Fellow for Social Equity

The Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity program offers tailored and individual support to Fellows that enables a more equitable experience in higher education. This includes culturally safe and responsive education that is designed to recognise and celebrate Indigenous culture, languages, and knowledge, privileging those who have fought for the right to be in these spaces, to create and use scholarly knowledge for the resurgence of our own ways of being. Adopting an inquiry- or project-based learning model allows AFSE to support each Fellows’ personal objectives and develop initiatives, practices and projects that support our goal of Indigenous-led social change.  Anchoring ourselves in Indigenous thought and philosophy, and expecting ethical and evidence-based project design, means that AFSE is well-placed to support Fellows to meet the challenges we face for the next generation of decision-makers.

“AFSE is proud to place Indigenous pedagogies, research translation and community-building at the heart of our work with Fellows. The best and most critical research – from Indigenous thinkers and those who walk with us – is clear about the ingredients for social change.” Associate Professor Nikki Moodie

The language of 'barriers and enablers' is often used when talking about Indigenous education. By shifting the focus to pedagogical relationships, learning design and empowerment, AFSE offers a way to reconsider the relationships that Indigenous people and communities have with institutions of higher education. In doing so, AFSE works towards the goals that Indigenous people, scholars and communities have defined for themselves.

Read more from Associate Professor Nikki Moodie here in ‘Assessing the Evidence in Indigenous Education Research: Implications for Policy and Practice.’

This book explores the current state of research on Indigenous education in Australia. In particular, these chapters focus on exploring deep and enduring questions about the failures of schooling to address the needs of Aboriginal communities. This book provides a systematic analysis of existing research to explain how connection to culture - and the recognition of Indigenous sovereignties and knowledges - are the keys to Aboriginal excellence in schooling.

1 International Labour Organization [ILO] 2019, 13

2 World Bank 2019

3 ILO 2019, 80

4 AIHW

5 ABS