UTS Indigenous Graduate Attribute Project: Examining institutional readiness for embedding Indigenous knowledges in the curriculum

Abstract

In February 2015, in a bold, perhaps unprecedented manoeuvre, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) appointed three senior Indigenous staff to lead a coordinated approach to embedding Indigenous Knowledges in the curriculum, university wide. This transformative agenda was preceded by careful institutional planning in the context of growing national receptivity. There has been growing pressure for Australian universities to genuinely engage with Indigenous Australians. A trio of reports (Bradley, Noonan, Nugent & Scales, 2008; Universities Australia, 2011; Behrendt, Larkin, Griew, & Kelly, 2012), has articulated the necessity for this engagement, signalling dedicated Indigenous curriculum for all university students as a way to enhance outcomes for Indigenous Australians. Responding to Behrendt’s (2012) call for whole of university approaches, UTS approved in principle the development of an Indigenous Graduate Attribute (IGA) Framework for the entire university. Recognising that resources would be required to support the implementation of such an ambitious project, a proposal was made to establish an Indigenous academic expertise centre to support the implementation of IGAs. This presentation will outline the institutional framework which underpins the IGA Framework at UTS, and discuss the early practical and theoretical planning work that the Centre for the Advancement of Indigenous Knowledges is undertaking.