In this article, we argue that current assessment practices in higher education require urgent examination and should be re-imagined in culturally responsive ways to ensure fairness for all. From sociocultural and social justice perspectives, we highlight examples of cultural and linguistic bias in assessment that disadvantages many First Nations…

Objective: Sport may promote academic performance through physiological and psychosocial mechanisms. We aimed to examine the association between sports participation and academic performance in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Methods: Participants were from four successive waves of Australia's Longitudinal Study of Indigenous…

The "Developing Indigenous Early Career Researchers Project" is a three-year longitudinal study funded by the Australian Research Council that ran from January 2020 to December 2022. Its main focus was to investigate the experiences and perspectives of Indigenous Early Career Researchers working in universities across Australia. This…

Data reporting in the Australian education system produces deficit-based comparisons of academic achievement between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. Since 2009, data from the National Assessment Program -- Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) have been used by the Australian government to allow it to report on 'Closing the Gap' policy. These…

Whilst Indigenous Graduate Attributes -- or the embedding Indigenous cultural competencies within broad graduate attributes -- are becoming increasingly popular within some universities, it is essential that universities be held accountable for the realisation of such policies. Considering that Australian Indigenous Studies -- an essential…

Urban Indigenous students' school attendance and factors contributing to annual attendance rates are relatively unknown, and yet almost 80% of the Indigenous population resides in non-remote regions. Our longitudinal study evaluated an urban primary school where Indigenous families preferentially enrolled their children because they recognised it…

This article explains Presentation Feedback as a potential Indigenous methodology realised during a research study. Presentation Feedback methodology involves a three-step method and is considered complementary to other methodologies such as Indigenous women's standpoint theory and shared epistemology and is explained in this article as…

The scholastic success of Bolongaia (Maria Lock), at the Parramatta Native Institution in 1819, arguably positions her as an academic giant. Bolongaia's exam results challenged the opinions of the day when she 'bore away the chief prize'. Bolongaia's academic success was based purely on her acquisition of western based knowledges and values. In…

Australian children from regional, rural and remote (RRR) areas exhibit lower educational outcomes than their peers in metropolitan areas. The mechanisms driving the comparatively poorer educational outcomes of children in RRR areas, however, are not well understood. This paper proposes and tests two sets of factors that may be responsible for…

This article focuses on leadership by women in Indigenous research in the higher education sector of Australia. The research that provided the context for this exploration of Indigenous women's leadership involved archiving ceremonial cultural knowledge from the Daly and Wagait regions of the Northern Territory. The article introduces the concept…

Academia is a world based on individualism and competitiveness, which for Indigenous peoples, and particularly Indigenous women, is culturally unsafe. Furthermore, whilst the academy is rushing forward to be inclusive of Indigenous peoples, cultures and knowledges, it does so whilst still maintaining its structures of white, patriarchal privilege.…

The horizon can mean many things to individuals. The author gives an account of those within her 'sphere of influence' who enabled her to stand on their broad shoulders to face the challenges and bask in the joys within the tertiary sector and, around the world. Having been raised in an atmosphere of colonisation where assimilation was the norm,…

The present study aimed to empirically evaluate the knowledges, attitudes and perspectives of pre-service teachers towards Indigenous peoples, and to identify relationships between student learning experiences and student knowledges, attitudes and preparedness to work with Indigenous peoples, at one Australian university. The project was part of a…

The first recorded Aboriginal person to graduate with an undergraduate qualification from any Australian university was Aboriginal woman Margaret Williams-Weir in 1959 (Melbourne University, 2018). Williams-Weir graduated with a Diploma in Education. There have now been six decades of graduating Indigenous Australian women in the discipline of…

In this study, Indigenous children's affective engagement with primary school is examined in terms of feelings of involvement and belonging at school and towards education as a worthwhile pursuit. Previous Australian research has concentrated on Indigenous children's education through attendance and school performance. Data from wave 6 of the…