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This article discusses mentorship provided to Indigenous Australian secondary school leavers. The authors suggest that although current scholarship in the field is insightful, there is a dearth focussing on mentorship provided during the post-secondary school transitional phase. Also, much literature problematizes Indigenous mentees and is contextually bound to individual programs, singular communities or cohorts. Although governments, industries, communities and further education providers have funded and facilitated many mentorship programs across the nation, little systemic or institutional impact has been made. Current data demonstrates a continuous downward trajectory in the full engagement of Indigenous Australian secondary school leavers, that is, those who are full-time working, studying or both studying and working (Australian Bureau Statistics, 2021; Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2018). This is concerning as the post-secondary school transitional phase is cited as a critical stage for combating or embedding inequities young Indigenous Australians often endure intergenerationally (O’Shea, McMahon, Priestly, Bodkin-Andrews & Harwood, 2016). By centring national and international First Nations scholars the authors argue for reconceptualisations of Indigenous mentee success through Indigenous ontological lenses and reorientations of mentorship frameworks towards approaches which strengthen young peoples’ connections with culture, community, Elders and Country.

Growing research into the experiences of non-Indigenous early career researchers (ECRs) has identified a multitude of challenges that can impede early research career development. Expectations to publish, secure research grants and to deliver large teaching loads contribute to high levels of frustration and stress. While additional challenges - often associated with cultural work - have emerged in the literature with Australian and international Indigenous academics, research focused specifically on Indigenous Australian early career researchers is severely lacking. This paper begins with an examination of the Australian Indigenous pipeline to early career positions through undergraduate and postgraduate study. It reviews the trajectories of non-Indigenous early career researchers and then draws on emerging research with Indigenous academics in Australia and abroad to advocate specific investigation of the career trajectories of Indigenous Australian early career researchers. In accordance with a commitment from Australian universities to increase the number of Indigenous students and scholars, it is critical that experiences and needs of Indigenous early career researchers are investigated and understood. With a deeper level of understanding more effective strategies and systems can be implemented to better support and facilitate career trajectories of Indigenous Australian early career researchers and thus build a richer academy.

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 article presents four main attributes identified by Indigenous Early Career Researchers as necessary to creating culturally safe spaces in Australian universities. These attributes include, safe to: (a) be Indigenous; (b) seek advice and make mistakes; (c) speak openly; and (d) trust. The successful implementation of these attributes requires institutional support and commitment in the form of relevant higher education policies and practices. Importantly, an overarching perspective of this article is that effective implementation of culturally safe spaces for Indigenous Early Career Researchers requires a significant shift in institutional discourse from the inclusion of Indigenous Peoples and Knowledges to recognising Indigenous Peoples as sovereign.

In 1991, the Australian Government released the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Report. Of the 339 recommendations, Recommendation 62 identified that there was an alarming over-representation of Indigenous youth in contact with the criminal justice system. The report called for immediate action by governments to develop strategies that would urgently reduce retention rates of Indigenous youth within the prison system. Analysis of the literature indicates that almost three decades after the release of this report, the high numbers of Indigenous youth who are incarcerated, or who have come into contact with the juvenile justice system remains the same. Although there is a good deal of literature investigating the criminological characteristics of this phenomena; there is a substantial gap in the literature surrounding the educational exclusion of young Indigenous males from the formal education system. This paper focusses specifically on the literature surrounding student exclusion from state schools and how this may provide some insight into the subsequent over-representation of young Indigenous males within the Queensland juvenile justice system.

Abstract There is clear evidence that Indigenous education has changed considerably over time. Indigenous Australians' early experiences of ‘colonialised education’ included missionary schools, segregated and mixed public schooling, total exclusion and ‘modified curriculum’ specifically for Indigenous students which focused on teaching manual labour skills (as opposed to literacy and numeracy skills). The historical inequalities left a legacy of educational disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Following activist movements in the 1960s, the Commonwealth Government initiated a number of reviews and forged new policy directions with the aim of achieving parity of participation and outcomes in higher education between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Further reviews in the 1980s through to the new millennium produced recommendations specifically calling for Indigenous Australians to be given equality of access to higher education; for Indigenous Australians to be employed in higher education settings; and to be included in decisions regarding higher education. This paper aims to examine the evolution of Indigenous leaders in higher education from the period when we entered the space through to now. In doing so, it will examine the key documents to explore how the landscape has changed over time, eventually leading to a number of formal reviews, culminating in the Universities Australia 2017–2020 Indigenous Strategy (Universities Australia, 2017).

Cinema is an art form widely recognised as an agent to change the social condition and alter traditional norms. Movies can be used to educate and transform society's collective conscience. Indigenous Australian artists utilise the power of artistic expression as a tool to initiate change in the attitudes and perceptions of the broader Australian society. Australia's story has predominately been told from the coloniser's viewpoint. This narrative is being rewritten through Indigenous artists utilising the power of cinema to create compelling stories with Indigenous control. This medium has come into prominence for Indigenous Australians to express our culture, ontology and politics. Movies such as Samson and Delilah, Bran Nue Dae, The Sapphires and Rabbit-Proof Fence for example, have highlighted the injustices of past policies, adding new dimensions to the Australian narrative. These three films are just a few of the Indigenous Australian produced films being used in the Australian National Curriculum. Through this medium, Australian Indigenous voices are rewriting the Australian narrative from the Indigenous perspective, deconstructing the predominant stereotypical perceptions of Indigenous culture and reframing the Australian story. Films are essential educational tools to cross the cultural space that often separates Indigenous learners from their non-Indigenous counterparts.

Indigenous leaders in higher education are restive, disaffected, and dissatisfied with the slow gyrations of change. Using Interest Convergence Theory, this paper will unravel the constraints inherent in institutional reform that delimit the influence of Indigenous senior leaders in the sector. Positioned amidst the burgeoning impact of neoliberalism, an architecture of colonial governance models, and systemic resistance to change, Indigenous leaders are affecting reform. By providing examples of reform-driven agential actions shouldered by senior Indigenous leaders across Canada, Aotearoa, America and Australia, this paper, underpinned by relationality, details how Indigenous leaders are engaging with Indigenous Institutional work and Entrepreneurship, speaking back to interest-driven institutional policies and practices in the sector with a pronounced focus on nation building. Drawn from an international, comprehensive qualitative study, we investigate how Indigenous leaders in higher education are disrupting systemic racism to promote equity and justice within higher education amid macro-level resistance to change.

Drawing on demographic data collected from interviews with 50 Indigenous Australians with a doctoral qualification and 33 of their supervisors, this paper provides the first detailed picture of Indigenous doctoral education in Australia, with the focus on study modes, age of candidates, completion times and employment. It also analyses data produced through interviews with supervisors including age, employment levels and academic background. The study confronts a number of common perceptions in the higher education sector, to find that many Indigenous Australians are awarded their doctoral qualification in the middle stages of their career. This particular cohort is more likely to be studying in the arts and humanities, employed in higher education and enrolled on a full-time basis. This Australian Research Council (ARC) funded research provides new and important data to inform government policy, and to allow universities to implement strategies and recommendations arising from the Behrendt Report of 2012.

Abstract Indigenous participation rates in higher education are significantly lower than the rates reported for non-Indigenous people in Australia – with the greatest disparity evident in the area of postgraduate studies. This problem needs to be addressed by providing culturally appropriate support mechanisms to Indigenous postgraduate students. This article draws on the findings of a doctoral thesis in which the support provided to Indigenous postgraduate students in Australia was investigated (Trudgett, 2008). Several issues and problems emerged from the data surrounding the support, or lack thereof, provided to this cohort by the Indigenous Units or centres in universities today. Nine recommendations for consideration and implementation by the Indigenous Units within Australian universities are provided. These recommendations have the potential to reduce this disparity by helping to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous participation and, most importantly, completion rates in postgraduate studies.