How to Communicate with First Nations Peoples: a resource

Under our current Indigenous Content in Courses Policy, Gulaay is responsible for the professional development of staff and provides training, resources, learning materials and cultural immersion experiences to help staff comply with the requirements of this policy. Additionally, Gulaay curates the Indigenous Education Strategy Collection in the University’s Digital Object Management collection and the graduate learning outcomes support website. As part of this, Faculties are strongly recommended to arrange in-depth professional development in relation to Indigenous cultural competence.

As a result of many conversations – we in Gulaay – decided to create a resource that that addresses how to communicate with First Nations peoples. The resource has the potential to go across all courses and disciplines. Specifically this resource would be used in final degree subjects across many discipline areas as a way of encouraging the engagement of students in the last part of their cultural competence journey as they are getting ready for what they need once they go out into the workforce. This resource is not limited however to our students; it also has potential sector-wide application.

The resource builds on a ‘living document’ that Bathurst Wiradyuri Elder Uncle Brian Mallyan Grant has worked on over many years and more recently with Associate Professor Annette Gainsford in The Centre for Law. Additionally, it builds on the work already done in cultural immersion activities run by Gulaay and can be used to support course mapping in relation to the Cultural Competence Pedagogical Framework which is a requirement at Charles Sturt University in relation to First Nations Curriculum.