Integrating Indigenous knowledges and perspectives through consultation and curricula co-design
Indigenous
Published on the 18 December 2025
Engaging with the world’s oldest living culture through the cycle of education has a cumulative positive social impact.
Drawing on Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing enables more holistic teaching and learning. Indigenous Cultural Knowledge belongs to Country; it needs community involvement and permission to be shared, says Anissa Jones, Indigenous Academic Specialist at UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture (ADA).
She is working with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Elders and senior knowledge holders, representatives in government and industry, and communities to consult on and co-design course materials with ADA academics.
Connecting to Country, culture, language and community through education has a cumulative positive social impact, says the proud Burubirangal Dharug woman.
“When students connect with the oldest living culture in the world in culturally appropriate ways, they come to understand the deep interrelatedness of humans, non-humans and the environment,” she says.
“Then they go out into the community … and they start building the change that needs to happen in their industry.”
This approach supports educators to foreground Aboriginal knowledges marginalised within ongoing colonial structures and ensures the cultural safety of course materials, she says.
“We’re working in ways that are responsive, innovative and reflective of the needs of Aboriginal communities, being mindful this isn't a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Encouraging educators to be aware of their own socio-cultural positioning is equally important.”
Ms Jones is a Dharug Dhalang (language) expert and a passionate educator who has taught from kindergarten to tertiary level for more than 20 years. She specialises in cultural awareness and cultural safety training.
She is collaborating on diverse teaching areas across the faculty’s six schools, from language revitalisation and Indigenous histories to designing on Country, on-country learning and engaging in Aboriginal teaching and research methodologies, such as yarning, deep listening and art practices.
Centring Indigenous perspectives through meaningful engagement
UNSW ADA is committed to improving the way we listen to, learn from and elevate Indigenous knowledges and Aboriginal communities in teaching and research.
Its 2051 foundational strategy highlights the value and benefits of Indigenous advancement for Indigenous people, for universities, for non-Indigenous students, researchers and staff, and for the nation as a whole.
All consultation is Aboriginal-led and focused on building strong networks and fostering a culturally safe environment.
“We can't really truly make change and explain the perspectives of Aboriginal people if we don't prioritise the lived experience [of Aboriginal peoples] culturally, appropriately, and safely,” Ms Jones says. “While I might want to put my foot on the throttle and just go, it’s necessary to remember that change takes time.”
Ms Jones facilitates meaningful connections to Aboriginal communities and key representatives in government and industry, expanding networks and helping strengthen Aboriginal perspectives within coursework.
This includes promoting opportunities to partner on research and teaching. For example, introducing her networks of community Elders, leaders and teachers from rural and urban schools to Associate Professor Kevin Lowe’s Culturally Nourishing Schools (CNS) program and symposium, aimed at better meeting the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, their families and communities.
She has collaborated on the design and delivery of PLAN6000: Planning with Indigenous People with Dr Ed Wensing, a planner, policy analyst and academic from the UNSW City Futures Research Centre, and Matt Kelly, a sessional academic and PhD candidate in the School of Built Environment.
Students develop an appreciation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledge, culture and tradition, specifically as they relate to land and waters in this course.
“The course provides real-world experience in engaging with Aboriginal communities to better understand their rights and interests, the importance of their connections to Country, and how that may be integrated into contemporary land use and environmental planning,” says Dr Wensing.
“It demonstrates how we can develop solutions to support more effective, equitable and ethical cross-cultural planning practice.”
“The student feedback has been phenomenal each time it’s run for the past two years,” says Ms Jones.
Considering the relevance of Indigenous Knowledge and culture to contemporary planning provides a unique opportunity to contextualise and interpret Indigenous policy, Dr Wensing says.
“By working with real-world communities as well as examining how the United Nations (UN) Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples applies to planning enables the exploration of property rights implementation models that promote equitable, just, and culturally relevant economic and social development.”
Working with Aboriginal methodologies and pedagogies
The UNSW Indigenous Strategy recognises that ‘responsibility’ is the ability to respond and that education enables us to do that. Ms Jones has presented on Aboriginal teaching and research methodologies, such as yarning, deep listening and art practices, as alternative points of connection to culture.
“It’s about [introducing Aboriginal] ways of knowing, being and doing, and using those as a way to incorporate Aboriginal perspectives. Aboriginal methodologies can enrich our understanding of diverse research and practice areas.”
Ms Jones has presented to linguistics students on language revitalisation (Dharug Dhalang) with Dr Clair Hill from the School of Humanities & Languages and to sociology students on yarning methodologies with Dr Sharon Aris from the School of Social Sciences.
Dr Hill researches Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander linguistics and languages based on long-term fieldwork on Australian languages, especially Paman languages (Umpila and Kuuku Ya’u) of north-eastern Cape York Peninsula.
Dr Aris is a sociologist interested in how different knowledges are produced and transmitted in secondary and tertiary education and through families. This engagement expands the faculty’s reach through her connection with the Nexus program at UNSW that promotes teaching innovations to academic and professional staff across the university.
Ms Jones also works with Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing. “This is a traditional Aboriginal way of learning that goes back 60,000 years,” incorporating narrative, visual and embodied learning approaches, specifically: story sharing; learning maps; symbols and images; land links; non-linear; deconstruct/reconstruct; and community links.
“Whether it's the deconstruct, reconstruct – pulling things apart, analysing everything and then you put it back together again – using story as a great way of communicating, or yarning narrative, the emphasis is on working collaboratively.”
Beyond ‘decolonising the curriculum’
These workshops and collaborations draw on the Faculty’s framework for developing good practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research, developed by ADA Co-Associate Deans Indigenous – Associate Professor Fabri Blacklock, a Nucoorilma/Ngarabal/Biripi woman, and Associate Professor Liza-Mare Syron, a Biripi woman – and previous Associate Dean Indigenous Associate Professor BJ Newton, a Wiradjuri woman.
This work recognises that the production, definition and legitimacy of Knowledges are not apolitical, but rather intrinsic to imperial power structures, here in Australia’s colonial context.
Ms Jones is conscious of the change towards more Aboriginal-led resources and initiatives that she has already seen within her lifetime.
“I [want to] see [more of] it in my grandchildren … when I finally shuffle off this mortal coil, [I want to see that] I’ve left them a legacy of change that they can feel safe in, [where] they can express themselves.”
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