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WS2121: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Skills and Frameworks Guide: Reflection

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Indigenous Australia - A Topical Self-Reflection

You may be aware that I am launching into my third career in the communications industry and undertaking Bachelor and Post Grad University studies. During the semester just passed, I completed the 'Introduction to Indigenous Australia' course. My intent for taking this course as an elective was to broaden my knowledge of Australian audiences and diversity and inclusion issues. The last essay was a self reflection piece. I was deeply moved by my learnings during this particular course, and wanted to share this paper and my reflections with you; especially, during this time of protest and change. 

Within two weeks of attending lectures and tutorials, I found myself in a disorientating dilemma. I felt a heavy feeling of guilt and mounting unanswered questions. Had I been living each day unaware that I approached every interaction and opportunity with unearned white privilege? Also, my outward nonracist and inclusive standpoint now seemed insignificant as I battled with my ignorance of Australian colonisation facts and Indigenous histories. Each week, as I read, watched and absorbed the recommended learnings concerning Indigenous issues and racism in Australia, a strong emotional response was triggered, and I felt a responsibility to share my insights and create conversations around this complex and frequently avoided issue. The four areas which struck a significant chord for me were: the limited schooling I received about Australia’s First Nation Peoples; the article,  White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack ; the book,  Is that You Ruthie?;  and the online lecture content. Below, I reflect on each of these, my growth during this course, and apply a sociological lens to support my deliberations.   

From the first lecture, it became apparent that when I attended school, the Australian and Indigenous histories included in the curriculum was insignificant and incomplete. Genine Hook (2012, p. 110) echoed my realisation and acknowledged an ‘education blind spot’ with relation to how Indigenous studies is taught in Australian schools. Reportedly, when a person went to school determined what they learned about Captain Cook’s role in Australian colonisation (Zarmati 2020). For example, if they attended school in the 1950s to 1960s, Captain Cook might have been portrayed as a great explorer who discovered Australia, or, in 1965 to 1979 the negative impact of colonisation for Indigenous Australians was mentioned somewhat (Zarmati 2020). Furthermore, Peggy McIntosh (1990) described the invisible systems of dominant discourse throughout educational systems which silently and unconsciously oppresses the ‘other’. I started to critically rethink how I understand Australian and Indigenous histories.

In particular, the unconscious oppressing of the ‘other’, became obvious upon reading the article,  White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack  by Peggy McIntosh .  The article shook my understanding of racism, highlighting the myth of meritocracy and democratic choice, and exposed my unearned advantage and privilege. Moreover, the exhaustive list in the article demonstrated the ‘white screen’ I looked through every day; the opportunities socially, the lack of prejudice professionally, the services I enjoyed, and the whitewashed shopping experiences I had. Also, reflecting on my friendships with people who have dark skin, I tried to imagine the things I took for granted through their eyes. For example: I can easily buy ‘skin’ coloured band-aids; I can challenge those in authority; I do not have to go out of my way to purchase appropriate toys and reading material for my children; I do not worry about my children being bullied for their skin colour; and no matter where I go, I will be around people who have the same colour skin and feel like I belong. Hollingsworth (2006 p. 6) reported the outcomes of a 2001 telephone survey, in which 83% of people said racial prejudice was an issue in Australia, and 39% of participants agreed that British Australians felt the benefits of ‘white’ privilege. I was pleased to read the majority acknowledged discrimination was a problem; however, dismayed that only 39% could identify with the unearned advantages and opportunities they enjoyed because their skin colour is white.

I understood racism to be meanness, bullying or unkindness directed towards a person whose nationality or skin colour is different from my own. Hollingsworth (2066, p. 7) challenges my pre-course belief that racism is primarily an individual experience, by identifying the decisive influence of social, structural, institutional, historical and cultural factors which sway a person towards a bias, avoidance or confrontation. From week two, I adopted a sociological imagination approach to expand my perspective and expose the limits of my awareness; specifically asking the questions: what is happening; what the consequences are; how you know; and how could it be otherwise (Willis 2011 p. 71). Furthermore, to gain a better understanding of racism and white privilege in Australia, I approached each week considering four forms of sociological imagination; historical, cultural, critical and structural (Willis 2011 p. 72). From this perspective, I began critically questioning social structures and discourses and looking for opportunities to advocate for inclusion, acceptance and representation of everybody. 

Is that you, Ruthie  set in motion a deeper level of understanding and context of white privilege and Indigenous histories. Specifically, the stolen generations, a topic I had little knowledge of, other than watching Kevin Rudd deliver the National Apology on 13 February 2008. I recall my feelings of sympathy for the families and their communities. Then, within a couple of weeks, when the debate was no longer raging through the media, the feelings of compassion for the injustice those families experienced faded from my thoughts. I reflect now, and wonder was that because I didn’t have the background knowledge and education to associate with the importance of this display from the government, as they acknowledged our First Nations People suffering due to the past Aboriginal protection and welfare laws and policies. I struggle with this indifference and see similarities with a character in  Is that you, Ruthie . The Director in William Street was well-intended and felt bad about the circumstances, yet still sends Ruthie back to Cherbourg after her unfair dismissal in 1945, without a second thought or sense of responsibility for her past or future (Hegarty 2003, p. 118). Additionally, as I turned the pages, I identified a similar dehumanising process of the government policies and policing described throughout and Max Weber’s ‘Iron Cage’. Weber described  bureaucracy, the hardest institution to abolish,  as an iron cage which cannot be shattered and is escape-proof; and is encasing a growing number of people (Ritzer 2013). I realised the iron cage that encircled Ruthie, her family, her community and her people, presents the illusion of an unbeatable entity; and the cage exploits, mistreats and diminishes any sovereignty of the individual or group. Nevertheless, there was also resistance, agency, bravery and courage from Indigenous people, which frequently challenged the status quo.   

These attempts at resistance and agency were recurring in the weekly online lecture content; which caused many tears as I processed the circumstance of our First Nations People. I found difficulty choosing one film or documentary to analyse for this essay. For instance, my standouts were:  Kanyini , grew my understanding of Indigenous connection to the land;  September , illustrated the power relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and navigating friendships with the ‘other’;  Samson and Delilah , highlighted the discrimination faced by Indigenous communities and the subsequent substance abuse;  The Song Keepers , when one of the members of the choir declared they were treated better by the German people than Australians;  Mabo , revealed the courage, determination, persistence and sacrifice required to stand up to the Australian Government;  A Dying Shame , emphasised intergenerational trauma, loss of culture, the effects of alcoholism on the community, lack of services and nutritious food options, limited funding, and no opportunities for young people; and  Good Morning Mr Sarra , demonstrated the potential of Indigenous students if provided with appropriate leadership, resources and self-belief. However,  Utopia  encompassed all the themes of what impacted me during the semester. This compelling documentary featured the similarities of historical and contemporary issues for remote Indigenous communities. Alarmingly represented throughout the documentary: the government still removes indigenous children from their communities; underserviced Aboriginal communities where physical and mental health issues thrive; police brutality and harassment; the complacent and ignorant attitudes of non-Indigenous Australians; government coverups and propaganda; and the lack of policies leading to real change for our First Nations People. Most evident was the limited national media coverage and public platforms giving Indigenous communities a voice, sharing positive stories and culture, and showing current projects promoting health and wellbeing. Nevertheless, interwoven throughout each online content piece, I saw Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples unwavering courage and determination to be heard. Theresa Petray (2012, pp. 4-5), affirms agency can reinforce and challenge social structures.

Before undertaking this course, I assumed all Indigenous people had the same definition and potential of self-determination, which I enjoyed. For instance, characteristics of self-determination which promote achievement include relatedness, autonomy and competence  (Nalipay, King & Cai  2020 p. 67). I now recognise not all our First Nations Peoples do have self-determination. Instead, their experience includes: cultural insensitivity; mixed messages broadcast through various media outlets; harmful attitudes and policies of the Australian Government; denigration; dispossession; removal of children from their families; and harsh punishments. I now know, a consequence of inhibiting access to Indigenous self-determination is intergenerational trauma on a wide scale.  Ultimately, I am re-examining my thoughts and ideas  of the effects of colonisation on our First Nations People , and  their ongoing fight for recognition and respect. Importantly, d uring this semester, I have lifted my ‘white screen’ and re-evaluated how I assess and judge the behaviours of others who have different skin colour, cultural beliefs and backgrounds. I am left with a deep sense of responsibility to somehow contribute to a nationwide conversation on the path to understanding, change, fairness, acknowledgement, and justly shared land, opportunities and riches. 

Hegarty, R 2003,  Is That You Ruthie , University of Queensland Press, St Lucia. 

Hollinsworth, D 2006,  Race & racism in Australia  , 3rd edn, Thomson Social Science Press, South Melbourne.

Hook, G 2012, ‘Towards a decolonising pedagogy: Understanding Australian indigenous studies through critical whiteness theory and film pedagogy’,   The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education,  vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 110–119, doi: 10.1017/jie.2012.27.

McIntosh, P 1990, ‘White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack’,  Independent School , vol. 49, no. 2. 

Nalipay, M, King, R, & Cai, Y 2020, ‘Autonomy is equally important across East and West: Testing the cross-cultural universality of self-determination theory’  Journal of Adolescence , vol. 78, pp. 67–72, doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2019.12.009.

Petray, T 2012,  Can Theory Disempower? Making Space for Agency in Theories of Indigenous Issues , viewed 6 May 2020, https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/handle/2123/8791/TASA%202012%20Theorising%20Indigenous%20Sociology%20Petray%2021%20November%202012.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Ritzer, G 2013, The Weberian theory of rationalization and the McDonaldization of contemporary society.  Illuminating social life: Classical and contemporary theory revisited , pp. 29-50, doi:  http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781506335483.n3 . 

Willis, E 2011,  The Sociological Quest,  5th edn, Allen & Unwin, Australia. 

Zarmati, L 2020,  Captain Cook ‘discovered’ Australia, and other myths from old school textbooks,  viewed 29 April 2020, https://theconversation.com/captain-cook-discovered-australia-and-other-myths-from-old-school-text-books-128926

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Indigenous Resilience in Australia: A Scoping Review Using a Reflective Decolonizing Collective Dialogue

1 School of Health, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia

2 Ngangk Yira Research Centre for Aboriginal Health and Social Equity, Faculty of Health Sciences, Murdoch University, Perth, WA, Australia

Debra Jackson

3 Susan Wakil School of Nursing University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

4 School of Indigenous Studies, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia

Joanne Durkin

Reakeeta smallwood.

5 Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Melanie Robinson

6 Western Australian, Department of Health, Perth, WA, Australia

Uncle Neville Sampson

Isabelle adams.

7 Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia

Cheryl Porter

8 New South Wales Department of Health, North Sydney, NSW, Australia

Rhonda Marriott

Associated data.

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/ Supplementary Material , further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.

Contemporary definitions and understandings of resilience refer to an individual's positive adaptation to the experience of adversity. One of the challenges of this extant body of work is that the central concept of resilience is rarely questioned. Current understandings of these concepts, largely framed in Western understandings, are unquestioningly accepted, reframed for, yet not by, Indigenous peoples, and then are unchallenged when imposed on Indigenous peoples. A scoping review was conducted and reported in line with the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. The review involved the participation of local Aboriginal Research Cultural Advisory Groups who participated and approved the analysis of the findings and collaborated on the design and writing of the paper. Eight publications drew on Aboriginal constructs of resilience in examining the effectiveness of programs, processes, and practices to promote individual and/or collective resilience and well-being. Most studies emphasized the need for strategies to strengthen individual or community connection to culture to foster resilience. Six studies used culturally validated strength-based tools to measure resilience, while two relied on Western constructs. This review reveals both the distinctive colonial characteristics of adversity experienced by Aboriginal people and the range of coping strategies and protective resources that support the development of resilience within different Aboriginal communities in diverse research sites across Australia. Importantly, many studies confirm adversity is linked to the enduring legacies of colonization, continuous and cumulative transgenerational grief and loss, structural inequities, racism, and discrimination. These external factors of adversity are unique to Aboriginal populations, as are the protective factors that entail strengthening connection to culture (including language reclamation), community, ancestry and land (including management and economic development) which contribute to individual and collective resilience. These findings suggest that Aboriginal community resilience is strengthened through the collective experience of adversity, such as transgenerational grief and loss, and the resulting support structures and shared resources that are developed and maintained through cultural practices to strengthen the bonds and mutual reciprocity to participate in transformative strategies to address adversity. This review highlights that strategies such as building on community strengths, capacities, and resources is critical when strengthening resilience within Indigenous communities across Australia.

Introduction

Contemporary definitions of resilience refer to an individual's positive adaptation to the experience of adversity. Indigenous resilience is a complex phenomenon which relies on the positive adaptation of the individual, the community and the environment to adversity. Indigenous Peoples of Australia, like most other Indigenous populations globally, experience higher levels of adversity than non-indigenous people with a greatly disproportionate burden of disease, disability, premature mortality, and pervasive health inequalities over many decades. For example, Indigenous Peoples are more likely to smoke, engage in unsafe alcohol use, experience psychological distress and suicide, exercise less and have greater risk of circulatory and cardio-vascular problems ( 1 ). Challenges such as these are underpinned by persistent and continued racism, and various entrenched historical, social, and economic determinants. These factors together constitute a complex, multifaceted and pervasive colonial legacy that includes severe economic and health inequity ( 2 ).

Clearly, given these complex and pervasive challenges, further interrogation into understandings of Indigenous resilience is needed. There are several published reviews that examine resilience in the context of Indigenous peoples, many focussing on young people [see for example: ( 3 , 4 )]. With the exception of Jongen et al. ( 5 ) these tend to be structured around extant Western definitions of resilience. One of the challenges of this body of work as it stands is that the central concept of resilience is rarely questioned, and neither are other closely related concepts such as adversity and risk. Rather, the current understandings of these concepts, largely framed in Western understandings, are unquestioningly accepted, and imposed on Indigenous Peoples. Thus, these reviews are limited by a form of cultural imperialism that we argue has simply promulgated Western understandings and conceptions of resilience. In fact, the tendency to use non-indigenous measures to define, measure and quantify resilience in Indigenous Peoples has previously been noted in the literature ( 5 ).

Much work is conducted and interpreted through a non-indigenous worldview—few authors are identifiable as Indigenous, and even fewer indicate any authentic engagement with Indigenous individuals and communities in developing protocols and interpreting results. Furthermore, much that is “known” about Indigenous resilience is based on research data drawn from international Indigenous populations. While this work has value and is important, we argue that findings and insights arising from studies conducted internationally cannot be assumed to be fully relevant to Indigenous peoples in Australia. It is evident that although some aspects of resilience for Indigenous peoples may resonant globally; there may be others that are culturally and context specific to Australia which we wanted to capture. Initially, we conducted a preliminary review of articles and upon reflection, realized we had in fact perpetuated the exact same renditions of resilience that had gone before us. Chambers et al. ( 6 ) described the tension they experienced when trying to apply the inclusion/exclusion criteria to their review. Similarly, we ended up with literature that told the same story we had read previously on numerous occasions.

As our intent was to provide a review of resilience from an Indigenous perspective, we worked closely as a team and with local Aboriginal Research Cultural Advisory Groups to decide how to adopt a decolonizing approach to conduct the review. In particular, it was important that we were authentic in adopting a different lens to ensure we challenged Western understandings ( 7 ) and as a result, we altered our search terms to more appropriately reflect a decolonizing approach to the literature. Our review confirmed that there is very little research that has focused on Indigenous perspectives of resilience. While there is substantial research focused on the strengths and protective factors associated with cultural and well-being outcomes, few studies incorporate the concept of resilience as an explicit focus relevant to Indigenous peoples.

Indigenous Concepts of Resilience

In this current review, we are aiming to more meaningfully and effectively incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing to produce authentic insights and understandings of resilience that are more culturally inclusive than has previously been achieved. We have active Indigenous involvement through having six Indigenous persons on the author team (RM, RS, MR, IA, CP, NS), and through a process of engagement with local Indigenous communities and Elders in two geographically disparate sites. We are also focussing on data derived from research solely conducted within Australia, with and by Indigenous People. Through these strategies, we aim to provide a more nuanced understanding of what constitutes resilience from the perspectives of Australia's Indigenous Peoples. A preliminary search of PROSPERO, MEDLINE, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and the JBI Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports was conducted and no current or underway systematic reviews on the topic were identified.

The aim of this scoping review was to incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing to produce authentic insights and more culturally inclusive understandings of resilience than has previously been achieved. This review explores the existing literature pertinent to Indigenous Australian Resilience. Key characteristics and key concepts of Indigenous Australian Resilience are explored.

Specific aims of this review were to:

• 1) Examine the scope of information in Australia reflecting Indigenous people's perspectives on, and understandings of, resilience.
• 2) Clarify key concepts and definitions of resilience from the perspectives of Indigenous peoples in Australia.
• 3) Examine key characteristics or factors of resilience from the perspectives of Indigenous peoples in Australia.
• 4) Examine how research is conducted on Indigenous resilience in Australia.

Methodology

This scoping review was undertaken from an Indigenist position to articulate an alternative position to Indigenous resilience from the accepted dominant Western view. As Chambers et al. ( 6 ) remind us, health research has been criticized because of its negative social constructions of Indigenous Peoples that serve to perpetuate populations as vulnerable while reaffirming racialized stereotypes. We adopted the decolonizing methodologies and methods of Smith ( 7 ) and Kovach ( 8 ) to interrogate the evidence from the perspective of Indigenous Peoples. We limited the review to Australian evidence to provide a context specific Indigenist perspective, and reviewed the underpinning theoretical constructions of, and tools used to measure resilience, as well as concepts of adversity and the critical role of culture and context in resilience. Similar to the review of Chambers et al. ( 6 ), we incorporated critical reflection to the review process. This helped to ground the work in Indigenous worldviews, while the reflective processes incorporated ancestral or cultural wisdom ( 9 ), and facilitated deep listening and engagement ( 8 ).

We are a diverse team that includes two Indigenous scholars (RM, RS) one Indigenous health professional (MR), three Indigenous community members (NS, CP, IA) and four non-indigenous scholars with extensive experience in Indigenous health and well-being research. All members respect and uphold the need for alternative epistemologies that question the dominant knowledge paradigm and adopt a critically reflexive position in order to privilege Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. Our positioning as a team created an opportunity to engage with the literature through a research agenda that aligned our collaborative understandings with Indigenous epistemologies and this is highlighted throughout our analysis of the literature ( 7 ).

A scoping review (SR) was selected as SR are useful when clarification around a concept or theory is required ( 10 ). The SR was conducted in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews ( 11 ) and reported in line with the PRISMA-ScR reporting guidelines ( 12 ). The completed checklist is included as Supplementary File 1 . The review involved the participation of a local Aboriginal Research Cultural Advisory Group in each research site (Western Australia, New South Wales) who advised on the search strategy, participated in approved the analysis of the findings, and collaborated on the design of the paper.

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

Studies were included if they were peer reviewed, primary research focussing on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives and understanding of resilience in Australia. The inclusion and exclusion criteria for selecting articles was established ( Table 1 ).

Inclusion and exclusion criteria for selecting articles.

Search Strategy

The literature search for this scoping review was carried out between June and August 4. The search adopted a three-step approach as outlined in the JBI Manual for scoping reviews ( 11 ). This involved searching relevant databases to analyze search terms and text words captured in the databases; completing a second search with the revised search terms across all databases, and searching of the reference lists of identified studies ( 13 ). Initial searches were conducted in CINAHL Complete and Informit Indigenous Collection. The initial search strategy was developed in consultation with a University health librarian. The text words contained in the titles and abstracts of relevant articles, and the index terms used to describe the articles were used to develop a full search strategy. These terms were discussed with the Aboriginal Research Cultural Advisory Group members partnering on this project and it was agreed to add 11 additional terms to the search. The addition of these key terms had not been considered in the initial search strategy, and as a result of including them, the database returns increased significantly. The revised search was conducted in CINAHL Complete and Indigenous and databases. This process and search development is outlined in Appendix 1 : Initial Search strategy and development. In order to get the most comprehensive contemporary picture of the resilience research, we limited our search 30 years.

The revised search strategy, including all identified keywords and index terms, was adapted for each included information source. The revised search using all newly identified keywords and index terms was then undertaken across CINAHL Complete, Medline, Web of Science, PsycInfo, PubPsych, and ProQuest databases. GREY literature was identified through searches of the National Health Medical Research Council, Australian Policy Online, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Informit Australian Indigenous; HealthInforNet, and Primary Health Care Research and Information Service. A further search was undertaken of Google Scholar to review and find any additional sources. Thirdly, the reference list of identified reports and articles were searched for additional sources. The keywords and subject headings used to search these databases are listed in Table 2 , Search Terms.

Search terms.

Study Selection and Outcome

Following the search, all identified citations were collated and uploaded into EndNote X9 (2020) version and duplicates removed. Titles and abstracts were screened by two independent reviewers, one Indigenous (RS) and one non-indigenous (JD), for assessment against the inclusion criteria for the review. Potentially relevant studies were retrieved in full and their citation details imported into the Joanna Briggs Institute System for the Unified Management, Assessment and Review of Information (JBI SUMARI) (Joanna Briggs Institute, Adelaide, Australia) ( 14 ). Full text screening of articles that passed title and abstract screening was carried out independently by the reviewers (RS/JD) in line with the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Reasons for exclusion of full text studies that did not meet the inclusion criteria were recorded and reported in the JBI System. Any disagreements that arose between the reviewers were resolved through discussion, or with a third reviewer (DJ).

The search of the databases yielded 5,290 citations. An additional 15 citations were identified through Google Scholar and hand searching of references included in the full text screening process. A total of 2,100 duplicates were removed resulting in 3,275 citations for abstract and title screen and 3,195 were excluded. This was due to the domination of Western ideas with a concomitant marginalization of Indigenous views possibly reflecting publication bias. As the study was based on a strength-based approach, we were able to exclude a high number of studies that focussed on risk. Full text screening resulted in an additional 72 articles being excluded. The flow chart detailing this process is included in Figure 1 . Prisma flow chart. The results of the search are reported in full in the final scoping review and presented in a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA-P) flow diagram ( 15 ). A total of 8 studies were finally included in the current review. Included Studies with Characteristics and Key concepts are included in Table 3 .

Prisma flow chart.

Included studies with characteristics and key concepts.

Types of Sources

This scoping review considered both experimental and quasi-experimental study designs including randomized controlled trials, non-randomized controlled trials, before and after studies and interrupted time-series studies. While the search strategy included the terms experimental studies and randomized controlled trials, no papers of these types met inclusion criteria. In addition, analytical observational studies including prospective and retrospective cohort studies, case-control studies and analytical cross-sectional studies were considered for inclusion. Only one ( 23 ) was identified. This review also considered descriptive observational study designs including case series, individual case reports and descriptive cross-sectional studies for inclusion. Qualitative studies were considered that focused on qualitative data including designs such as phenomenology, ethnography, grounded theory, qualitative description, participatory action research, feminist research and decolonising research. Seven were included ( 16 – 22 ). None of the systematic reviews, texts or opinion articles considered met the inclusion criteria. Studies published in English since 1990 to ensure a comprehensive analysis of all pertinent literature were included.

Data Extraction

Two PhD studies and six peer reviewed qualitative studies (two mixed methods) were included in the data analysis. Data extracted from the full texts of the studies occurred in two phases. The first extraction (RS and JD and DJ) focused on titles, meeting inclusion criteria, ideas, definitions of resilience and comments. The second extraction (RW) included the following: author, year; research question/aim; study design; study quality/effectiveness/acceptability; geographical setting; urban; rural remote); population (including sample size); context or intervention focus; and key concepts/outcomes reported.

Given the heterogeneity of study topics and populations an additional compilation of data was conducted to capture key concepts discussed across the eight studies encompassing individual, collective/community/social and environmental/structural resilience (see Table 4 ).

Protective factors of aboriginal resilience.

Quality Appraisal

As outlined we used a decolonizing approach in this review. Throughout this process, we were conscious of the potential impact of using a quality appraisal to exclude sources of information that do not meet Western research standards. Of particular concern were questions or judgements the tools ask authors to cast on research, particularly as they relate to the appropriateness, justification for and value of the research ( 24 ). As previously outlined we extracted information on quality/effectiveness/acceptability which ensured studies were peer reviewed and had appropriate ethical approval to carry out the research. No formal quality appraisal tool was used, nor is one required for a scoping review.

Interpretation of the Data

Given we were determined to present a different view to the current Western dominated understandings of Indigenous resilience, it was important our analysis of the evidence incorporated a decolonizing approach. To do this, we worked closely as a team but also took several iterations of the analyses back to the Aboriginal Research Cultural Advisory Groups for their input and discussion. In this way, reflexivity through collective dialogue was pivotal to the analytic process ( 6 ). In addition to incorporating a reflective decolonizing collective dialogue to reframe our exploration of the concept of resilience, we explored the notion that the influence of dominant discourses could impede the Indigenous definition of resilience causing Indigenous voices to go unheard if not given a safe place to be shared ( 25 ). By acknowledging this tension, we transformed our definition through creating space to understand resilience and interpret notions of resilience led by Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies. By incorporating this approach to analysis, we were able to adopt a critically reflexive lens to interrogate the extent to which adherence to Western constructions and measures of resilience may have influenced interpretation of ours and previous findings. It also provided a means for non-indigenous authors to examine their assumptions regarding the notions of resilience and adversity and ensure they privileged the voices of both the Indigenous authors and participants within the included studies.

All eight eligible studies in this review discussed Indigenous perspectives of resilience. They extended Western conceptions, going beyond the ability of individuals to cope in the face of adversity. For example, McLennan ( 20 ) describes how individual and collective relations enhance Indigenous community sense of well-being and ameliorate risk and adversity. Also evident in several studies ( 16 , 18 , 19 ) is the way adversity encompasses the experience of coping with the historical and contemporary impacts of colonization, including issues of racism and structural inequalities. Dobia et al. ( 16 ) and Gee ( 18 ) also suggest the high frequency of grief and loss experienced by Aboriginal people contributes to the significant burden of cumulative and transgenerational trauma. While Gee ( 18 ) explores these issues from a clinical and therapeutic perspective, Dobia et al. ( 16 ) highlight the importance of education to overcome racist stereotypes and the need for schools to promote understanding and manage grief from an Aboriginal perspective to become more positive and supportive environments.

Overall the studies obtained Indigenous perspectives on resilience from a range of different Indigenous populations in four states in Australia: New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia, representing gender diversity and different age groups (see Table 3 ). Several studies also identified a range of Indigenous perspectives related to both adversity and the strategies or interventions required to strengthen resilience. An analysis of the results of these studies show that while there are some striking commonalities among them, there are also some differences reflecting the needs of different population groups and circumstances or contexts in which the studies were conducted as well as their different aims. Three studies applied tools to measure resilience. In one study ( 23 ) mainstream tools were used to measure resilience which have not been validated in Indigenous settings, in two studies ( 16 , 18 ) the researchers worked with Indigenous communities to develop the measuring tools.

The main themes discussed in most of the studies which address the aims of the scoping review include: the definitions and frameworks of resilience; characteristics contributing to individual and collective/social resilience; measuring resilience; and, implications and strategies for policies and practice (service provider and clinical) to promote resilience. These themes are discussed in detail below.

Theme 1: Indigenous Concepts and Definitions of Resilience

Most of the studies linked resilience to well-being or mental health. The findings from McLennan ( 20 ) indicate that resilience is multi-layered with multiple family and community sources of protection, support and resources necessary to foster strength and well-being (resilience) in response to adversity and hardship. Key family and community protective sources include connectedness, sharing and affection, role models and leadership. Relationships are key to the sense of well-being of and within the community.

Gale and Bolzan ( 17 ) focussed on social resilience and highlighted the need to acknowledge the role of historical, economic and political factors in influencing individual, family, and community resilience. They discuss how the ongoing impact of neo-colonial practices fails to acknowledge Indigenous strengths or the adverse impacts of social determinants, focusing instead on Indigenous People “as being at high risk and requiring intensive intervention and governance” (p. 1). The authors argue that most studies of Aboriginal people are risk oriented, focusing on individual and family failure; “problematic schooling,” unemployment of parents and absent fathers without regard to social circumstances and processes that contribute to such specific risk factors. They identified several themes related to social resilience emerging from their interviews with young men. These included: being authors of their own solutions, having agency to carry out those solutions; not being problematized or labeled negatively; given respect as a group and having safety; civic connectedness, belonging and having a responsive community; and having hope for a future—flourishing not just surviving.

Similarly, in contrast to deficit constructions of resilience, drawing on an analysis of interviews with successful Aboriginal Elders and successful Aboriginal people in Western Australia, Aboriginal scholar and educator, Marion Kickett ( 19 ) defined resilience as:

The ability to have a connection and belonging to one's land, family and culture, therefore an identity. Allowing pain and suffering caused from adversities to heal. Having a dreaming, where the past is brought to the present and the present and the past are taken into the future. A strong spirit that confronts and conquers racism and oppression, strengthening the spirit. The ability not just to survive but to thrive in today's dominant culture . (2011, pii)

This definition was reinforced by Gee's ( 18 ) interview findings in his extensive study with Aboriginal health practitioners and Aboriginal clients seeking counseling in an Aboriginal community-controlled health service in Victoria. Gee ( 18 ) suggests that resilience processes and outcomes are generally seen as the interplay between risk and protective factors, where the protective factors modify the risks. Gee also makes the point that a review of literature focused on Aboriginal resilience found Aboriginal people identified similar individual and family level protective factors as in non-Aboriginal populations (e.g., the protective effects of self-esteem, mastery, parental support, and family cohesion). However, citing Kickett's ( 19 ) research, Gee notes that an important difference was the evidence for protective effects of cultural constructions of resilience across a range of different social and emotional well-being outcomes. Indigenous specific factors that emerged in the research conducted with Indigenous Peoples, include sense of pride in cultural identity, cultural attachment, participation in traditional activities, and connections to land and language [Kickett ( 19 ), p. 139]. Drawing on Kickett's definition, Gee ( 18 ) argues that in addition to recognizing the ability to overcome adversity, this Aboriginal understanding of resilience highlights the importance of experiencing belonging and being rooted in the land, family, culture, and spirit as a source of resilience and the need to conquer social adversities such as racism and oppression. As Table 4 confirms many of the studies in our review found similar results confirming the importance of individual factors as well as the distinct role of collective, cultural and environmental elements influencing resilience.

Citing Aboriginal perspectives with respect to childhood resilience, Young et al. ( 22 ) defined resilience as the ability to endure adversity with minimal disruption to normal development and social functioning and the strength to choose positive behaviors in the face of challenging circumstances. Drawing on their previous qualitative research findings with Aboriginal families participating in the Study of Environment on Aboriginal Resilience and Child Health (SEARCH) and their quantitative survey, Young et al. ( 23 ) suggested education and supportive familial and social environments as important for developing resilience in children.

Theme 2: Frameworks of Resilience

A socioecological model of resilience based on Bronfenbrenner's ( 26 ) theory, which emphasizes the importance of connectedness, relationality and a supportive environment in supporting individual development, was referred to in most of the studies reviewed. Dobia et al. ( 16 ) adopt a socioecological model of resilience, citing connectedness and cultural identity as positive aspects of resilience highlighted by Aboriginal community members. Dobia et al. ( 16 ), Gale and Bolzan ( 17 ), Gee ( 18 ), and McLennan ( 20 ) all draw on Ungar's critique of Western conceptions of resilience which fail to recognize how contextual and cultural processes are relevant to resilience of marginalized youth ( 27 , 28 ). Ungar et al. describe resilience as “ both an individual's capacity to navigate to health resources and a condition of the individual's family, community, and culture to provide these resources in culturally meaningful ways” [( 29 ), p. 10] Drawing on a widely representative range of Indigenous participant perspectives, several of the studies ( 16 – 18 , 20 ) affirm this definition, identifying the need to strengthen the capacity of communities and services to facilitate a positive environment to strengthen individual resilience in response to risk and adversity. A study of Indigenous young men by Gale and Bozan ( 17 ) highlights the importance of civic connectedness and responsive communities to promote resilience. These authors examined the importance of connectedness for participants in relation to family, school, community, and culture and identified themes supporting resilience based on the literature and interview findings. These themes include: School connectedness to mitigate behavioral problems and mental health problems and enhance student achievement.

Similar to studies of Indigenous perspectives of resilience in Canada ( 30 , 31 ), several studies ( 18 , 19 , 22 ) identified socialization and sense of cultural connectedness as key protective factors in developing an individual's resilience. A positive and strong sense of cultural identity; knowledge of traditional cultural beliefs and values; participation in cultural activities and practices, and engagement in cultural gatherings to promote individual and collective resilience were identified in the studies by Gee ( 18 ); Kickett ( 10 ); McLennan ( 20 ); and Young et al. ( 22 , 23 ). Focusing on social resilience, the study by Gale and Bolzan ( 17 ) stressed the importance of cultural identity and connection as major protective factors promoting resilience. Kickett ( 19 ) and Young et al. ( 23 ) point out that having access to traditional lands and its management and participation in cultural practices and story telling supporting the transmission of cultural knowledge promote resilience, physical health, and social and emotional well-being (SEWB).

McLennan's study sought “to investigate the presence and complexity of resilience within an Indigenous Australian community, and its relationship to well-being” [( 20 ), p. 2] to improve and inform new directions for health promotion and service provision. McLennan suggested that the concept of resilience was implicit in participants use of terms and phrases, including “strength,” “determination,” and “stubbornness,” and reporting factors that helped them feel supported and to “keep going.”

Drawing on the perspectives in these studies it is evident Indigenous communities experience distinctive adversities and risk as well as protective factors. Sivak et al. ( 21 ) did not focus specifically on resilience, rather the authors examined whether participating in language reclamation contributes positively to and aligns with the SEWB framework proposed by Gee ( 18 ). Key themes included: connection to spirituality and ancestors; Country; culture; community; family and kinship; mind and emotions; and impacts upon identity and cultural pride at an individual level. Whilst not stated, there is an implicit collective nature within Sivak et al.'s ( 21 ) key themes.

Community participants described the power of connections to culture and heritage and to the strength and resilience of past generations and what they went through and endured “ to still be alive today is so powerful. So there's a lot of strength that comes through so many generations.” (p. 8). With respect to the theme of connection to mind and emotions participants spoke of “increasing strength, resilience, personal growth, empowerment, and mending of community” (p.11). A sub theme of the overarching concept of social and emotional well-being involved intergenerational knowledge transfer; engaging all age groups in sharing language, dreams and aspirations for the community for the future and promoting a sense of belonging.

Family and community gatherings were also identified as a way “ for people to remind one another of their resilience and ongoing connection to a strong family, community, lineage and Country. The feelings of belonging fostered through the language-based gatherings allowed participants to help the group, and the generations to come” (p.13). A second sub theme examining the impact of language reclamation on well-being domains include: happiness and excitement; recognition; resilience; optimism and positivity; motivation; empowerment and self-esteem; self-confidence and personal growth; and pride.

McLennan ( 20 ) categorized protective factors as: individual; family; and community-based domains; acknowledging that some may develop from the interaction between these three domains, with individual character traits and coping influenced by parenting and role models. This study focused on community and family based protective factors in contributing to the development of resilience and support of well-being within communities.

In discussing Aboriginal community and health provider perspectives with respect to developing resilience in Aboriginal young people, Young et al. ( 22 ) identified six themes encompassing both internal and external factors. These were: withstanding risk; adapting to adversity; positive social influences; instilling cultural identity; community safeguards; and personal empowerment.

Theme 3 Key Characteristics Related to Indigenous Resilience

Protective factors of Aboriginal resilience were identified through the literature (see Table 4 ) and involved individual attributes and skills as well as social/collective, family/community and systemic/structural factors.

Individual Influences

Internal coping.

Participants in the study by Young et al. ( 22 ) focused on individual attributes suggesting the ability to withstand risk (displaying normative development, possessing inner fortitude) and adapting to adversity (necessary endurance, masking inner vulnerabilities); contribute to resilience. Further, participants believed that “children who experienced adversity, but who were able to show empathy, take pride in their appearance, show respect for themselves and others, maintain prosocial relationships, regularly attend school and value education” were resilient [( 22 ) p. 406].

Self-Concept

Dobia et al. ( 16 ) revealed the importance of significant associations between internal resilience factors (self-concept and greater levels of self-esteem) and environmental resilience and meaningful home and community participation, prosocial peers, and home support as positively influencing well-being. General self-esteem was also associated with internal resilience, and was the only self-concept factor associated with internal resiliency, they highlight the need for “a positive sense of self in the face of racist cultural stereotypes” (p. 11).

Personal Empowerment

In Young et al.'s ( 22 ) study, participants emphasized the importance of establishing positive pathways to hope and resilience for children for them to develop self-respect and make positive decision-making choices. Several study participants believed that children with a sense of self-esteem and self-efficacy, able to set, pursue, and achieve their goals are more likely to have the resilience to persevere in the face of adversity.

Interpersonal Qualities

In Gale and Bolzan's ( 17 ) study, participants identified a range of individual qualities and interpersonal skills that contribute to young people's resilience as being responsible to each other, communicating and negotiating decisions, setting rules around groups, and strengthening kinship and friendship ties. They also emphasized their commitment to a collective framework and their responsibility to the group and the land [( 17 ), pp. 13–14 emphasis added]. This study confirmed the interplay between individual and social/cultural protective factors that contribute to resilience.

Social Influences

Secure family environment.

Young et al. ( 22 ) found that while some participants feel resilience is an innate quality, many believe resilience can be learned and nurtured within supportive family and community interactions. The study findings in Kickett ( 18 , 19 , 22 , 23 ) suggest resilience is fostered within secure family environments that promote positive role models, healthy behaviors and relationships. Dobia et al. ( 16 ) also highlight the importance of family relations and McLennan ( 20 ) suggests the importance of affection and sharing within families as supporting resilience in young people.

Community Safeguards

Several studies stressed the need for communities to provide the foundations for building and maintaining resilience. For instance, Young et al. ( 22 ) highlighted the need for communities to offer strategic sustainable services, holistic support, shared responsibility, and providing enriching opportunities.

Role Modeling and Leadership

Aboriginal participants in all studies discussed the importance of positive role modeling to provide individual guidance and well-being within the community. Many participants described having role models including parents, uncles, aunts, Elders and schoolteachers as a source of inspiration, and saw people exhibiting leadership within the community as a motivating factor.

Cultural/Community Influences

Instilling cultural identity.

Young et al. ( 22 ) highlighted the need to invest in Aboriginal knowledge to build a strong cultural self-concept. Participants believed children's connection to culture fosters a sense of belonging and pride in their ancestry, generating strength during challenging times. Having a clear, strong and positive self-concept as an Aboriginal person makes people more resilient to the discrimination and negative stereotyping experienced in White society. A strong sense of cultural identity and safe, stable and supportive family environments were thought to promote resilient behaviors.

Strong Community Connections

An analysis of Aboriginal community and Aboriginal teachers' perspectives confirmed the importance of strong community connections in building bonds between young women and community resilience ( 16 ). The findings reinforced the importance of connecting local Elders and community members with young girls to build their sense of cultural identity and self-esteem, and to strengthen their connections within the community. All of the students nominated cultural camps; time with Elders; meeting new people; circle activities, and the ability to connect to their culture and other Aboriginal girls as important activities which strengthen their sense of cultural identity and connection.

Family and Community Connectedness

Making a strong link between well-being and resilience, McLennan ( 20 ) noted that the interdependent nature of individual well-being with family and community well-being was discussed repeatedly throughout the interviews and focus groups. Togetherness experienced at times of funerals, the occasional cultural gatherings and the more regular BBQ get-togethers were noted as important elements. According to the findings by Young et al. ( 23 ), it is likely that increased school attendance strengthens resilience through regular socialization with peers. Families that encourage adolescents to attend school are likely associated with other factors including nurturing parenting and family cohesion that build resilience. The authors stress the importance of a cohesive family environment and positive parenting behaviors in promoting good mental health which they link with resilience. Dobia et al. ( 16 ) suggested resilience was strongly related to a number of cultural identity dimensions, such as taking part in cultural events, learning cultural stories and protocols, being involved with community and Elders and taking pride in one's culture. These dimensions also yielded significant correlations with community support which was also strongly associated with family and land.

Importantly drawing on Aboriginal perspectives Gee ( 18 ); Kickett ( 19 ), McLennan ( 20 ), Young et al. ( 22 ) highlight the critical role of connection to culture as an important determinant of health and resilience. While Young et al. ( 23 ) claim they found no significant relationship between cultural knowledge and resilience and point to other studies that also had inconsistent results with the above studies, what is evident is that none of the studies used Indigenous measures of resilience, with most adopting the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire which, while widely used in Indigenous studies, has not been validated for use with Indigenous participants ( 32 ).

Affection and Sharing

Many of the participants in the McLennan ( 20 ) study emphasized the importance of affection and sharing among community members to support each to other overcome adversity, particularly in the form of grief. Elders spoke of sharing resources including food and income in times of hardship. Others highlighted the community's ability to care for one another as important.

Social Connectedness

While several studies confirm the important role of cultural connectedness, the study by Gale and Bolzan ( 17 ) identifies the importance of cross-cultural connections as contributing to social resilience. For instance, the PAWS-UP project meant that young people were involved in activities that increased their connectedness with the wider community. These civic connections and the resultant community responsiveness were pivotal to the young people's transformation and enhanced social resilience. Gale and Bolzan ( 17 ) show that social resilience involves the communities ‘ capacity to be responsive to Indigenous Peoples' active participation in its formation and direction ' (p. 23). Social resilience is both a process and outcome resulting in an enhanced sense of agency, changes in local community perceptions and power relations, and increased civic connectedness and community responsiveness between Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups. This highlights the importance of programs that engage Indigenous young people in whole community activities that transform perceptions and foster social resilience.

Theme 4: Tools for Measuring Resilience

Building on the emphasis of connectedness identified in the qualitative aspect of their study, Dobia et al. ( 16 ) measured connectedness using relevant items from the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) using the Resilience and Youth Development Module (RYDM) environmental resiliency scale. This measure assesses both internal resilience (personal strengths and communication skills), and environmental and social factors that contribute to resilience which enables analysis of the relationships between environmental risk and protective factors and internal strengths. It measures of the extent to which individuals feel connected and supported at home, school and in the community. Considering the views of Aboriginal participants and insights from Aboriginal Australian research literature a cultural identity measure was developed with nine factors identified as being important components of students' sense of their Aboriginal identity (with an additional factor assessing personal experiences of racism).

The development of this measure incorporated Aboriginal voice and included: Cultural Pride, Cultural Learning, Cultural Protocols, Cultural Elders, Cultural Family, Connection to Country, Cultural Mob, Cultural Events, Cultural Community Support and one measure of experiences of racism [( 16 ), p. 21]. These nine dimensions of relatedness were assessed across school, community, family, and peers to measure resilience. They drew on evidence which confirmed that a strong sense of Aboriginal culture and sense of belonging, connectedness and self-worth supports positive mental health and well-being (which is linked to resilience). Young et al. ( 22 ) suggest the ability to be resilient was identified as a “necessary ability” for Aboriginal adolescents to maintain good mental health. This was supported by the qualitative interviews with Aboriginal Girls Circle (AGC) participants, Aboriginal staff and community members. They also identified that a positive sense of cultural identity can be a source of resilience against the impacts of racism [( 16 ), p. 20].

Their findings demonstrate strong support for the association between a positive sense of cultural identity and the resilience and well-being of Aboriginal youth ( 16 ). The study also emphasized the importance of young people learning about Aboriginal culture to support positive development, confidence and strength and direct interactions with local Elders and community members to build cultural identity and self-esteem and strengthen connections within the community.

Gee ( 18 ) used structured interviews to measure historical loss, stress, depression, drug and alcohol use, empowerment, resilience as coping with stress, and personal, relational-cultural and global strengths. The findings informed the research and design of an Aboriginal Resilience and Recovery Questionnaire (ARRQ) (Study One) which was then applied by Gee in Study Two. It included two sub-scales, personal strengths and relational-cultural strengths, using this measure along with measuring the cultural idioms of distress included in the Aboriginal Australian Version of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (AAVHTQ), to interview 81 Aboriginal clients from the Family Counseling Services. Gee ( 18 ) revealed high levels of trauma among clients. He found that two generations of child removal, historical loss, experiences of racism, limited living expenses were associated with greater trauma symptoms severity. Conversely, clients exhibiting personal and relational-cultural strengths, and global strengths, were associated with lower trauma and depression symptom severity, and less drug and alcohol use. Furthermore, participants who had participated in healing from past trauma reported positive emotions, strong relationships (attachment), feeling safe, resilience as coping with stress and personal and relational-cultural strengths, and global strengths. Importantly, Gee ( 18 ) also found that the ARRQ shows promise as a measure that can be used by Aboriginal counseling services across Australia to better assess the extent to which its therapeutic practices and programs support Aboriginal help-seeking clients in increasing their strengths and resources, and experiencing healing and trauma recovery outcomes.

Theme 5: Strategies to Strengthen Protective Factors Within Individuals, Families, and Communities

An analysis of literature by McLennan ( 20 ) confirm that participation in family and community well-being programs and men's group activities improves individual empowerment, sense of self-worth, resilience and problem-solving ability, and capacity to strengthen their families and communities. In addition, McLennan identified several strategies to strengthen community including: increasing access to medical information and services; enhancing community cohesion, by encouraging closeness and increasing community gatherings and participation; increasing youth participation, respect and knowledge of their cultural heritage and kinship ties, through community activities and education; for families assisting parenting and financial management skills through support and education; and improving cultural identity and pride within the community, by passing on specific cultural knowledge from older community members and Elders (2015, p. 5). McLennan also stressed the importance of role models.

The study by Dobia et al. ( 16 ) using survey measures developed with Aboriginal people and drawing on Aboriginal literature, provides a nuanced understanding of Aboriginal mental health and well-being and the value of programs such as AGC which include a range of components to support individual and collective relations that are likely to be effective in enhancing resilience among young people. Using the ARRQ, Gee ( 18 ) also confirmed that cultural practices were a predictor of empowerment, partially mediated by self-esteem. His second study indicated a range of important risk and protective factors that influence post trauma outcomes among Aboriginal clients attending the Family Counseling Services. While some factors are consistent with the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and Complex PTSD recovery literature, Gee's study revealed unique socio-historical and cultural-resilience based factors that influence Aboriginal client outcomes.

Implications for Policy and Practice

Young et al. ( 22 ) suggest that the implications for public health policy and practice require more sustainable, Aboriginal-led programs to strengthen positive family dynamics, identify children at-risk and provide safeguards during periods of familial adversity. Several studies confirm the need for Aboriginal people to have improved access to culturally responsive health and social services and health information ( 18 , 22 ). Gee's study provides important insights into the therapeutic value of cultural healing in addition to clinical treatment as a critical element when working with Indigenous People to support recovery from transgenerational and contemporary and cumulative trauma, grief and loss. Community level interventions promoted through the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundational found that over 10,000 Indigenous people participating in 21 Indigenous healing projects that supported cultural connection and reclamation reported positive outcomes across three key domains of well-being that strengthen resilience. Overall 92 per cent reported “Strengthened physical, emotional, social and spiritual well-being” (national outcome one), 95 per cent reported “ Strengthened connection to culture” (national outcome two), and 94 per cent reported “Strengthened pride in cultural identity” (national outcome three) [Gilmour ( 33 ) p. 15]. The study by McLennan ( 20 ) found that broad ranging, interdependent protective factors were indicated within family and community systems, including supportive processes, community cohesion, love and support, role-modeling and leadership, affection and sharing, friendship, and culture. Their study highlights the need for greater research into the intersection between Indigenous community health and well-being and resilience, in order to build strengths-based models of health care and rehabilitation (or cultural reclamation) with and by Indigenous People. Utilizing, and building on, existing community strengths, capacities and resources is key to strengthening resilience. These resources need to be recognized and valued in health and mental health service initiatives, including their potential to be utilized as tools in preventing risk, strengthening recovery from health or adversity, and promoting well-being. The studies by Kickett ( 19 ) and Sivak et al. ( 21 ) confirm that the role of culture and language reclamation in supporting well-being is also critical. The results of the study by Young et al. ( 23 ) confirm the need for strategies to support Aboriginal families to have the ability and capacity to support and encourage their children's education to increase resilience in Aboriginal adolescents. They also highlight the need to provide social, scholastic support and physical/sporting programs for Aboriginal young people to foster greater self-efficacy and self-esteem that can lead to resilience. Their recommendations fall short on most of the studies that emphasize the need for programs that promote cultural connection, enhance cultural identity, links with Elders, ancestry, and connection with Country.

The aim of this scoping review was to incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing to produce authentic insights and more culturally inclusive understandings of resilience than has previously been achieved. This review allowed us to push to extend beyond the dominant, non-Indigenous definitions of resilience to better understand resilience from the perspective of Indigenous Peoples of Australia. Using a decolonizing approach, the literature review revealed a different narrative from our initial attempt at the review. If we had not persisted in our quest to truly understand resilience from an Indigenous perspective, we would have continued the same narrative to previous reviews that ignored the possibility of a different perspective on resilience. Using a decolonizing approach, we began to peel away the layers and reflect on ways in which we began to understand the multiplicity of elements within the concept of Indigenous resilience, depending on an individual's situation. Importantly, the results we gathered allowed our work to expand beyond the individual and their ability to cope with adversity to acknowledge wider viewpoints encompassing family, culture and community, that more closely reflect Indigenous perspectives and understandings of resilience ( 34 ).To articulate this perspective, Kickett ( 19 ) argues the notion of resilience must be made explicit, focusing on the individual, accessing land, family and culture and developing their identity, moving toward agency, determination and spirit, to not just survive, but thrive ( 19 ). Particularly, thriving in the face of adversity such as the impacts of colonialism and racism, to focus attention toward the importance of culture, strength and belonging.

The review supports previous findings that show the links between adversity and resilience and affirm the determination of communities (as a collective) that draw on their cultural knowledge and traditions to transform their situations in order to “thrive not just survive” ( 19 ). Importantly, in many of the review studies adversity was linked to the enduring legacies of colonization, continuous and cumulative transgenerational grief and loss, structural inequities, and racism and discrimination ( 16 , 18 , 19 ). The studies confirm that these external factors of adversity are unique to Aboriginal populations, as are the protective factors that entail strengthening connection to culture (including language reclamation), community, ancestry and land (including management and economic development) which contribute to individual and collective resilience. These findings go further than focusing on individual coping and personal development to promote resilience previously discussed in the literature. They suggest that Indigenous community resilience is strengthened through the collective experience of adversity, such as transgenerational grief and loss, and the resulting support structures and shared resources that are developed and maintained through cultural practices to “strengthen the bonds and mutual reciprocity” to participate in transformative strategies to address adversity. Several studies suggest that reframing resilience to embrace Indigenous perspectives has the potential to promote well-being in Indigenous communities across Australia.

Limitations and Opportunities for Further Research

As with all research, this review has some limitations. A limitation of this review is that this review was limited to peer review, published articles and we acknowledge that Indigenous authors are under-represented in the literature, perhaps because of publication bias and the continued challenges faced by Indigenous researchers in Australia. Further, we acknowledge that Indigenous peoples have other forms of disseminating information including the spoken word, storytelling, art and other important knowledge sharing methods. We did not capture evidence disseminated in these ways.

Furthermore, in this paper, we attempted to draw together unifying concepts, however, we acknowledge that these may not reflect the needs of the extremely diverse Indigenous populations across Australia. We would therefore advise any future researchers who are focussed on resilience to engage in active dialogue with community to achieve an in-depth understanding of what Indigenous resilience means within a local context.

Gender was presented as a consideration within many of the included studies presented. This provides an opportunity for further research focussed on issues of gender and understanding and promoting Indigenous Resilience.

This review confirms the critical value of adopting a decolonizing lens to examine Indigenous concepts of resilience in order to reveal understandings for policy, programs and practice, that were hidden under Western definitions and understandings of resilience. The studies analyzed in this review reveal both the distinctive colonial characteristics of adversity experienced by Indigenous people and the range of coping strategies and protective resources that support the development of resilience within different Indigenous communities in diverse sites across Australia. This review highlights that resources such as building on community strengths, capacities and resources is critical when strengthening resilience within Indigenous communities across Australia.

Data Availability Statement

Author's note.

The review involved the participation of local Aboriginal Research Cultural Advisory Groups who participated in the review, approved the analysis of the findings and collaborated on the design and writing of the paper.

Author Contributions

KU, DJ, RM, and JD: initial conceptualization and design of the review. RS and JD: all literature searching, screening, and appraisal. RW: data analysis and results presentation. UNS, IA, MR, and CP: guidance and cultural advice throughout the review. KU, DJ, RM, JD, RW, and RS: writing, redesign, and presentation of the paper. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Aboriginal Advisory Group Members at Coledale Community Center, Tamworth and the Aboriginal Advisory Group Members at Ngangk Yira, Murdoch University. All members supported this process from conceptualization through to completion.

Funding. This research was funded by the Australian Research Council; Discovery Grant # IN170100008—Murdoch University.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.630601/full#supplementary-material

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Critical reflection is an important aspect of teacher practice in Indigenous education. It involves thinking about teaching practice, but also requires that teachers go deeper and think about their cultural background and how this influences teaching and expressions of learning as well as how it positions people in Australian society.

• Reflection for learning, learning for reflection: developing Indigenous competencies in higher education. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 13(2), 99–118 by Dawn Bennett; Anne Power; Chris Thomson; Bonita Mason; Brydie-Leigh Bartleet. Publication Date: 2016 This article is good for providing examples of university student reflections in relation to working with First Nations people. This has been written by non-Indigenous academics. It is about a project in which university students, including pre-service teachers, worked with First Nations people and reflected on their learning. This is an academic article that explains the project and it has information about theory and methods. Look for the reflective model used and the excerpts from student reflections.
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Home > Griffith Health > First Peoples Health Unit > Our work > Yuwahn Wupin > Capability 3 Reflection

CULTURAL REFLECTION

Cultural reflection: Critically reflect on how one’s own culture, life experiences and world view as well as dominant cultural paradigms, influence perceptions of and interactions with Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

This module is about  REFLECTION of your cultural self and healthcare, racism and white privilege. You will continue your lifelong journey towards cultural capability by examining and reflecting on how one’s own culture and dominant cultural paradigm, influences perceptions of and interaction with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Within the Cultural Reflection capability module you will cover the following:

• Descriptor 1: Cultural Self and Healthcare;
• Descriptor 2: Racism;

Descriptor 3: White Privilege

• Descriptor 4: Self-reflexivity

Descriptor 1: Cultural Self and Healthcare

Introduction.

This topic develops students’ ability to recognise and describe their own cultural and professional identity and how this influences professional practice.

Learning Outcome

Upon the completion of this topic you should be able to explore the limitations of one's own perspective and identify the implications this may have on delivering culturally safe health care service to Australia’s First Peoples.

On our journey to be culturally safe, we must become self-reflexive practitioners. In order to do this we must first understand our cultural self, our cultural self in health care, how to practice reflection and more importantly, how to practise critical reflection.

Cultural Self in Healthcare

Not everyone shares the same views about health and what it means to be healthy. Yet – our individual practice is influenced by our philosophy, our worldview, our framework – about how we think about health.

'Our healthcare systems often privileges a certain way of thinking and doing at the expense of others’ ways of thinking and doing, and therefore, their health and wellbeing (Taylor & Guerin, 2014). First People may view health differently and have a worldview that is largely different to the biomedical model of health that forms the basis of Australia’s healthcare system today. Understanding of this difference is fundamental to providing culturally safe healthcare for First Peoples.

Cultural Self

A crucial part of being culturally capable, is being able to define our own culture to know how our own cultural identity influences and shapes our worldview (Smith, 2016). Worldview: The paradigms that guide and determine the ways in which people see the world. Worldviews influence how people make sense of the world through systems of knowledge (Best & Fredericks, 2014).

What influences your worldview? Think about your beliefs, values and attitudes – where do these come from?

Descriptor 2: Racism

This descriptor introduces students to stereotypes and different forms of racism, and how these impact Australia’s First Peoples. The topic develops students’ ability to reflect critically on how racism and stereotypes impact health outcomes.

Read the following essay  White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (excerpt from Working Paper 189. "White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming To See Correspondences through Work in Women's Studies" (1988) McIntosh).

Upon the completion of this topic you should be able to identify different forms of racism and prevailing stereotypes about Australia’s First Peoples and observe how they impact equitable health services access and health outcomes.

What is racism?

• Racism is the inequitable distribution of opportunity, benefit or resources across ethnic/racial groups;
• Racism is expressed through attitudes, beliefs, behaviours, norms and practices and may be either intentional or unintentional; and
• Racism is about power.

Racism can be both individual and institutionalised. Institutionalised or systemic racism describes the systemic disadvantage of racial minorities through systems and institutions (Taylor & Guerin, 2014).

Racism reflects, and is perpetuated by deeply rooted historical, social, cultural and power inequities in society. Racism is oppressive because it involves the systematic use of power or authority to treat others unjustly (Australian Psychological Society definition of racism, as cited in Ranzijn et al., 2009).

Most non-indigenous Australians are completely unaware of the persistent everyday racism experienced by First Peoples. Watch this short video from Beyond Blue about the ‘everyday’ racism experienced by First Peoples.

This topic introduces students to the concept of white privilege and how this impacts health outcomes and health care for First Peoples.

Upon the completion of this topic you should be able to define the concept of White Privilege and other social privileges and observe how this affects health care and health outcomes for Australia’s First Peoples.

What is White Privilege?

The concept of ‘whiteness’ examines how people with fair skin are dominant in society and have privileges that are unacknowledged (Taylor & Guerin, 2014). Although Australia has a culturally diverse population, non-Indigenous ‘white’ populations are the majority. This predominantly white ‘Western’ worldview has informed healthcare services and institutions and as a social norm is the basis of power (McDonald, 2007).

Watch this short video which demonstrates the concept of white privilege:

The purpose of examining the concept of ‘whiteness’ is to make the history and practices of white superiority in institutions and social life visible (McDonald, 2007). It is a way to confront cultural norms and expectations and that encourages health professionals to practise with multiple worldviews (Martin-McDonald & McCarthy, 2008).

A pivotal essay about White Privilege, was written in 1988, by Academic and Feminist, Peggy McIntosh (McIntosh, 1988), who identified some of the daily effects of privilege in her life, as a white person living in the United States.

Read her essay:

White Privilege And Male Privilege: A Personal Account Of Coming To See Correspondences Through Work In Women’s Studies

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

Project Implicit is a non-profit organisation and international collaboration between researchers who are interested in implicit social cognition - thoughts and feelings outside of conscious awareness and control. The goal of the organisation is to educate the public about hidden biases and to provide a “virtual laboratory” for collecting data on the Internet.

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) for social attitudes has been developed as a tool for exploring the unconscious roots of thinking and feeling, and allows individuals to gain greater awareness about their own unconscious preferences and beliefs.

It is not part of the assessment but you are encouraged to complete the IAT test on race hosted on the Harvard University website using the following link:

Implicit Association Test

Descriptor 4: Self-Reflexivity

This descriptor introduces students to the concept of ongoing self-reflexivity and its crucial role in facilitating culturally safe health service delivery.

Upon the completion of this descriptor you should be able to critically analyse one's own cultural values and privileges. Develop humility and respectful person-centered health care practices allowing you to understand one's own worldview for delivering culturally safe health care services to Australia’s First Peoples.

How we make sense of our values and beliefs about health care comes from various different frameworks of health. Different models of health have informed the way in which medicine and healthcare has evolved.

Self Reflexivity

A key outcome of cultural capability is being able to engage in self-reflexivity. Self-reflexivity is being critically reflective in the moment. It is having an ongoing conversation with one’s whole self about what one is experiencing as one is experiencing it.

To be self-reflexive is to engage in feeling and thought while being in the moment, it is an advanced form of self-knowledge. It is the ability to make the quality of our relationships better at the time in that encounter, without having to wait for our next interaction.

Self Reflection

Reflection is looking back on an experience or a situation with the intention of drawing insight that may inform future practice in positive ways (Taylor & Guerin, 2014).

Self Critical Reflection

Critical reflection is an extension of simple self-reflection. Critical reflection is paying critical attention to the values, norms and conventions that inform practice and action, so as to engage in the process of continuous learning (Dudgeon et al., 2014).

In order to be culturally safe health practitioner, you must be able to be critically reflective. Critical reflection requires you to understand your cultural self, as well as how your cultural self is situated in the broader healthcare system and how this may influence your practice.

Why do you think this would be important when working with First Peoples?

Health care services that make up the healthcare system in Australia are dominated by tertiary hospitals that largely treat patients at the end stages of disease using principles of Western medicine. What may be the implications of treating patients who share different views of health than the dominant biomedical model?

Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care

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Taylor K, Guerin P. (2014) Health care and Indigenous Australians: cultural safety in practice

Best, O. Fredericks, BL. (2014) Yatdjuligin: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nursing and Midwifery Care

Moreton Robinson, A. (2009) Talkin’ up to the White Woman

Durey A. (2015) Antonio Gramsci and Pierre Bourdieu: ‘Whiteness’ and Indigenous Healthcare

Martin-McDonald K. McCarthy A. (2008) ‘Marking’ the white terrain in indigenous health research: literature review

Dudgeon P et al, (2014) Effective strategies to strengthen the mental health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/6d50a4d2-d4da-4c53-8aeb-9ec22b856dc5/ctgc-ip12-4nov2014.pdf.aspx?inline=true

McIntosh P. (1988) WHITE PRIVILEGE AND MALE PRIVILEGE: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies.

Reflecting on a Way of Being: Anchor Principles of Cultural Competence

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A critical self-reflective practice is essential to cultural competence development. Importantly, critical self-reflection must facilitate intimate knowledge about who you are and how you are positioned in the world, and the consequences of that positioning. Within institutional settings, each of us, as employees, is inevitably bounded by the policies, structures and values of the institution. However, our individual identities, socialisation and worldviews will inform how we interpret those institutional boundaries, and how we embody and perform our personal values and boundaries.

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A Critique of Cultural Competence: Assumptions, Limitations, and Alternatives

Teachers and the foundations of intercultural interaction, introduction.

A critical self-reflective practice is essential to cultural competence development. Importantly, critical self-reflection must facilitate intimate knowledge about who you are and how you are positioned in the world, and the consequences of that positioning. Within institutional settings, each of us, as employees, is inevitably bounded by the policies, structures and values of the institution. However, our individual identities, socialisation and worldviews will inform how we interpret those institutional boundaries, and how we embody and perform our personal values and boundaries. Cultural competence is not just a skill to be learned; it is a way of being. Sara Ahmed, ( 2017 ) talks about feminism as “homework”: the work we do at home as well as at work. Ahmed contends that while we might retreat to theory and locate our work there, in fact “we have to bring feminist theory home because feminist theory has been too quickly understood as something we do when we are away from home (as if feminist theory is what you learn when you go to school)” (Ahmed, 2017 , p. 8). Ahmed’s point resonates strongly with the work of cultural competence. As much as we might engage with theory to deepen our understanding and develop our skills, an authentic cultural competence is not something that can be turned on at work or in specific situations. It is the work we do at home. It is how we live our lives; it is a way of being.

Cultural competence is commonly seen as a cumulative, non-sequential journey or continuum of learning (Cross, Bazron, Dennis, & Isaacs, 1989 ; Perso, 2012 ; Ranzjin, McConnochie, & Nolan, 2009 ; UA, 2011 ; Wells, 2000 ). Conceptualising cultural competence as a way of being highlights the process which I experience as a process of unknowing and knowing, of deconstructing and reconstructing. It is a journey inward to self as well as outward to community. It is the skill of untangling who you are and how you hold yourself in engagement and dialogue with difference and diversity. It requires honesty as well as deep and critical thinking, but it also requires experiences. This is the “homework” we have to do; we can approach cultural competence as theory—or we can dive in, live it and experience it.

At its essence, cultural competence is about relationships, trust and dialogue: dialogue with yourself and with others. As we get to know and understand ourselves better, we are better able to know and understand others. Like any relationships, sometimes we are ready for the conversation and other times we choose to avoid the prickly parts; or we don’t yet have the language or experience to understand them. Cultural competence work is the work of untangling, unpicking and revealing layers as we move through life. We move forward, then circle back to revisit and gain more understanding, more knowledge and more practice, enabling us to engage at ever-deepening levels.

This chapter aims to set out my way of being as an educator in cultural competence. When I think about my own cultural competence journey, I recognise four key aspects of my worldview which anchor my way of being: social justice, knowing self, re-storying and action.

The context in which I am doing this reflection is as an English-Australian White woman who works in the National Centre for Cultural Competence (NCCC), at the University of Sydney, where we lead thinking and education about cultural competence. The work of the NCCC is particularly informed and inspired by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges and contexts. Part of my role is to develop educational resources for staff and students and conduct research on various aspects of cultural competence.

The Cultural Competence Imperative

The NCCC was established with an initial primary focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural competence. This is in keeping with a move, in very recent times, among Australian universities to achieve greater inclusion of cultural competence in the higher education sector, specifically to address disparities experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Universities Australia (UA) states that cultural competence is:

The ability to critically reflect on one’s own culture and professional paradigms in order to understand its cultural limitations and effect positive change. (UA, 2011 , p. 3)

The impact of cultural incompetence on peoples’ lives is real and harmful, particularly for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. For example, 97% of Aboriginal people regularly experience racism (Ferdinand, Paradies, & Kelaher, 2013 ). Aboriginal men can expect to live 10.6 years less than other Australian men; Aboriginal women can expect to live 9.5 years less than other Australian women (ABS, 2013 ); and 28% of the prison population identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, even though they represent less than 3% of the total Australian population (ABS, 2018 ). For young people, the incarceration rate is even higher with 55% of youths in juvenile detention identifying as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander—a rate 27 times higher than the rate of detention of non-Indigenous youths (AIHW, 2016 ). In the Northern Territory, 100% of youths in detention are Aboriginal (Allam, 2019 ). These statistics are selected from many which reinforce the necessity of developing good cultural competence.

Often, though, these statistics are used to justify deficit dialogue and problematise Aboriginal people, rather than being used to point to ongoing issues of racism, colonialism, decolonising and oppression, and knowledge about how dominant cultures maintain power (Downing & Kowal, 2011 , p. 5). Meaningful and sustainable change will only be created when these underlying narratives and practices are addressed. It is through this lens that I approach cultural competence.

Anchor Principles of a Culturally Competent Way of Being

There are many aspects to cultural competence; however, when I conceptualise the practice, I am drawn back to some key principles which frame my approach.

Social Justice

In order to embed cultural competence, it is recognised that universities need to develop an organisational culture that is committed to social justice and human rights, and which values and supports Indigenous cultures, knowledges and peoples “as integral to the core business of the institution” (UA, 2011 , p. 3).

Just over 53 years ago, the 1967 Referendum promised a new equitable relationship between First Nations peoples and mainstream Australia, where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would enjoy the same rights and protections as all Australians (Behrendt, 2003 , p. 13). Behrendt states that since 1967 it has “become increasingly evident that the formal structures and institutions within Australia have not changed enough to equalise—let alone reverse—the socioeconomic impact of colonisation and past government policies and practices” (Behrendt, 2003 , p. 13). In fact, the evidence would suggest that there has been no will to change the institutions in substantive ways.

A lack of substantive change means that people continue to suffer greatly. The doctor who makes an incorrect assessment about a person’s illness based on their racist perceptions about Aboriginal people; the lawyer who assumes guilt because of a client’s Aboriginality; the prison staffer whose indifference to the heat in the back of a paddy wagon causes a man in custody to die; the Federal Government policy that suspends the Racial Discrimination Act (1975) and bluntly casts Aboriginal people as alcoholics who sexually abuse their children; the HSC students who racially attack an Aboriginal poet because they didn’t like their examination; the football fans who racially vilify Aboriginal players; the taxi driver who refuses to stop for Aboriginal passengers; the list goes on and on. Members of the dominant non-Indigenous society generally remain oblivious to these “everyday” acts of racism that are familiar to those from minorities and oppressed groups. Racism and injustice present a constant cacophony of insults and barbs which have ongoing and negative impacts on the recipients of such behaviours.

Social justice is concerned with the conditions for persons to participate in community and in society, enjoying their full human flourishing (Brennan in Rowse, 2012 , p. viii). Social justice recognises that our society is socially constructed and stratified and that some people have access to resources and are valued more highly. It recognises that relations of unequal power are constantly being enacted and we are all socialised into complicity (Sensoy & DiAngelo, 2014 , p. 2).

Social justice is a driving principle for me, particularly in the context of a settler-colonial country like Australia where cultural competence must address racism, privilege and Whiteness, and ongoing colonialism. Earlier in my professional life, I was able to gain some practical understanding of positionality, privilege and Whiteness through both work and personal relationships. However, it was not until I commenced my PhD studies that I engaged theoretically. It was through the process of grappling with Indigenous methodologies that I engaged in a more considered examination of what it means to be a White person in this context. Guided by the literature written by Indigenous scholars such as Judy Atkinson, Karen Martin, Lester-Irabinna Rigney and Linda Tuhiwai Smith, I started to “turn the gaze”; that is, rather than focusing on engaging non-Indigenous people to learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, I understood the importance of non-Indigenous people turning the gaze on ourselves to learn not only about who we are as cultural beings, but also how we interact with, and impact on, the systems that continue to marginalise and exclude. These are the areas that tend to create the most resistance in our education programmes.

It should come as no surprise that non-Indigenous people often resist talking about and examining concepts such as privilege and Whiteness; as DiAngelo ( 2011) explains, “White fragility is alive and well”. Privilege is hard for the privileged to identify and then to know what to do about it. An important cultural competence shift for privileged people (like me) to make is to racialise ourselves. Change will not happen when we continue to talk about the “Other” but not address our own racial identities, power and privileges. This work must always be guided and informed by, and in relationship with, Aboriginal and other minoritised peoples. The danger is that done badly, it becomes about “us” and how we feel and our limited self-knowledge, and blinkers about our racial identity confine us to perpetuating ignorance and silence about injustice.

Eddo-Lodge ( 2017 , p. 92) describes Whiteness as “a manipulative, suffocating blanket of power that envelops everything we know like a snowy day”. It is omnipresent and yet it is also about absences:

White Privilege is an absence of the consequences of racism. An absence of structural discrimination, an absence of your race being viewed as a problem first and foremost, an absence of “less likely to succeed because of my race.” It is an absence of funny looks directed at you because you’re believed to be in the wrong place, an absence of cultural expectations, an absence of violence enacted on your ancestors because of the colour of their skin, an absence of subtle marginalisation and othering—exclusion from the narrative of being human. (Eddo-Lodge, 2017 , p. 86)

It is the absences that can make it hard for people to engage with White Privilege. It is hard for most of us to examine what is not there, rather than what is, especially when that avoidance is supported and reinforced by our social norms and institutional structures. A crucial aspect of cultural competence is to develop the ability to surface and engage with those absences; to see those things that are often unseen by the privileged.

A privilege that is often unseen in the higher education sector is understanding how the dominance of western knowledge systems and structures has created unsafe environments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and has overtly contributed to the colonisation process, and this creates particular challenges (Riley, Howard-Wagner, Mooney, & Kutay, 2013 , p. 256). Battiste ( 2013 ) describes three tensions in decolonising education spaces. First, the struggle to sensitise the Eurocentric consciousness in general, and educators in particular, to the colonial and neo-colonial practices that continue to marginalise and racialise Indigenous students; second, convincing non-Indigenous people to acknowledge the unique knowledges and relationships that Indigenous people derive from place and their homeland; and third, there is a tension for all learners to learn respectfully with Aboriginal people, without appropriating their new knowledge and experience for their own ends.

Knowing Self

One of the challenges of cultural competence education is that, by its nature, individual behavioural change is often the focus, rather than systemic behavioural change being promoted. Many programmes grow out of the cultures and intellectual traditions of the dominant society and focus on cultural awareness, which effectively reinforces the dominant culture (Young, 1999 ). Acquiring knowledge about other cultures limits learning about ourselves and our cultures (Kumagai & Lypson, 2009 ) and usually avoids addressing institutional racism and oppression (Abrams & Moio, 2009 , p. 180; Garran & Werkmeister, 2013 ). Almost certainly, many programmes avoid the kind of critical thinking which addresses ongoing traumas arising from colonisation and racism. Without critical thinking, cultural competence becomes a safe alternative, complicit in avoiding difficult conversations about racism and individuals’ beliefs or their “heart and soul” (Yoon, 2012 , p. 598) and difference is identified as dysfunction rather than ongoing effects of trauma, colonisation and racism (Herring, Spangaro, Lauw, & McNamara, 2013 , p. 108).

At one level, cultural competence is about the ability to relate to people who may be of different cultures to oneself, including all aspects of cultures such as race, gender and sexuality. To relate to difference effectively, it is fundamental that one knows oneself. We are all constructed of multiple identities, and how we embody our identities and walk and act in the world is critical to understanding who we are; not only those things that are easily observable—such as what we eat, the holidays we celebrate, the clothes we wear, the languages we speak—but who we are at a deeper level. This includes understanding not only what our worldview is, but how it was formed. It means searching for clarity about how we were socialised, what our biases are and where they come from.

This is harder than it sounds, particularly for those of us from dominant White cultures. Often, in workshops, I ask participants to share just one thing about their culture. This seemingly simple question can flummox people, particularly those who identify as Australian. I am frequently told, “I have no culture; I’m Australian”. White Australians have not had to develop a racial identity (Sisneros, 2008 , p. 29), unlike people of colour who, whether or not they choose to be, are often labelled by their visible racial identity. This is exemplified by Nyadol Nyuon when she tweeted: “I am uncomfortable when, in media interviews, I am referred to as a South Sudanese lawyer. It would be accurate to refer to me as commercial lawyer” (Nyuon, 2018 ).

We are all cultural beings and have multiple identities. I identify as English, Australian, a woman, an educator, a wife, a daughter, an aunt, a friend and as White. The absences of how you identify can also be telling. I usually “forget” to identify that I am heterosexual, for example; this aspect of my identity is never challenged and is usually invisible to me. Likewise, it would not have occurred to me to identify as White in the earlier part of my life.

I always apply the “so what” test to self-reflection. It is easy to say, I’m a White middle-class, middle-aged immigrant woman from England. But, so what? It is not enough to just identify who we are, or even to make visible the identities that are so normalised that we forget we have them. We also need to critique how this influences and impacts on our interactions with people of different cultures and, most importantly, how we interact with and benefit from existing social structures. As Kondrat (1999) says, “advocates of critical reflectivity start with the supposition that all people and institutions somehow contribute to the oppressive behaviours and practices that perpetuate inequality” (quoted in Sisneros, 2008 , p. 23). It is this exploration of how we, and the institutions and systems in which we participate, contribute to perpetuating inequality that is essential for cultural competence. As Razack highlights:

encounters between dominant and subordinate groups cannot be “managed” simply as pedagogical comments requiring cultural, racial or gender sensitivity. Without understanding how responses to subordinate groups are socially organised to sustain existing power arrangements, we cannot hope either to communicate across social hierarchies or to work to eliminate them. (Razack, 1994 , p. 8)

Self-reflection is by its nature problematic because not only is it socially constructed (Sisneros, 2008 , p. 21), but it is also questionable whether one can really know one’s self. It is hard to view the world outside our enculturated “attitudes, presuppositions, biases, and assumptions” (Laughlin, McManus, & d’Aquili, 1992 , p. 24), and this inability to self-examine can lead to a “self-confirming cycle, where we reinforce our own beliefs” (Brookfield, 1998 , p. 197). However, failure to engage in this work leaves one unprepared for engaging in relationships in a multicultural environment (Sisneros, 2008 ). Self-reflection does not just happen and is a capability that needs to be intentionally developed. My aim, as an educator, is for transformative learning which Mezirow ( 2003 ) defines as “learning that transforms problematic frames of reference—sets of fixed assumptions and expectations (habits of mind, meaning perspectives, mindsets) to make them more inclusive, discriminating, open, reflective and emotionally able to change”.

Developing effective critical self-reflection skills is an essential component of cultural competence . Without it, reflection can be superficial and fail to lead to a lack of disruption or change in thinking or actions, whereas critical self-reflection involves social and political analyses which lead to transformative changes (Fook, White, & Gardner, 2006 , p. 9).

Re-storying

At the NCCC, we situate our work in the theory of cultural competence. However, we are also committed to decolonising praxis , discussion of which is generally absent from much of the cultural competence literature. One of the NCCC’s core values is to draw on Indigenous Knowledges (IKs), and work in collaboration with Indigenous and non-Indigenous students and staff to challenge structures and knowledge systems in the higher education space, which continues to discriminate and exclude.

Decolonising the academy in the NCCC context is about subversion, which Sefa Dei ( 2016 , p. 28) identifies as “putting a critical gaze on structures and process of educational delivery” (i.e. the structures and process of teaching, learning and administering education) that continually create and reproduce sites of marginality and colonising education for learners. For those of us who are non-Indigenous, working to a decolonising agenda raises interesting personal and pedagogical issues about our place in this space, of which we must be acutely cognizant. Importantly, this focus on decolonising knowledges avoids a critical element of returning land. As Tuck and Yang ( 2012 , p. 7) explain:

decolonization in the settler colonial context must involve the repatriation of land simultaneous to the recognition of how land and relations to land have always already been differently understood and enacted; that is, all of the land, and not just symbolically.

Sefa Dei ( 2016 , p. 29) also makes the vital connection between decolonisation, land and IKs. He says that without addressing issues of social justice and inclusion within the academy, there will be:

progressive and global emptying not only of knowledge but of bodies, of diversity, of creativity, of potential and kinetic energy, and of life. Transformation can only be realised when there is a space and pale for the natural world, the land and for bodies that hold and carry knowledge to engage their right to know, to show, and to tell their knowing their way transparently and without negative repercussion or obliterating neutrality.

This idea also points to Corntassel, Chaw-win-is and T’lakwadzi’s ( 2009 ) dialogue about re-storying and truth-telling which they identify as a form of resistance to colonisation (Corntassel et al., 2009 , p. 147). Stories in this context are “lived values that form the basis for Indigenous governance and regeneration” (Corntassel et al., 2009 , p. 138). They must connect to Indigenous ways of storytelling and “cannot be disentangled from ongoing relationships to their homeland” (Corntassel et al., 2009 , p. 147).

Recognising and deconstructing narratives is a powerful way to disrupt dominant narratives of oppression. As Razack ( 2000 , p. 182) reminds us, “national narratives are those of the dominant group”. They are also a tool of colonisation; as Said explains, “The power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming and emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism, and constitutes one of the main connections between them” (Said quoted in Razack, 2000 , p. 182). This point is also explored by Sensoy and DiAngelo: “Patterns, although enacted by individuals, accrue collectively at the group level and are the result of socialization; they are not ‘our fault,’ but we are responsible for becoming aware of and interrupting them”.

Consequently, with the intention of engaging with a decolonising lens, I increasingly frame our programmes around recognising, deconstructing and re-storying national, institutional and personal narratives which are “overarching stories, guiding myths or metaphors”, and one of the “primary modes of knowing for humans” (Milojevic & Inayatullah, 2015 , p. 152). Taking a re-storying approach creates space for diverse knowledges and Indigenous retelling of narratives. It also makes space for truth-telling and, in doing so, allows for what Corntassel et al. ( 2009 , p. 138) call the re-storying of the “dominant culture version of history; that is, we must make decolonizing space for Indigenous history—counter narratives of diplomacy, law and peacemaking practices—as told by Indigenous people themselves”. The crucial piece to this work, and often the hardest for the resistors to engage with, is to question the underlying assumptions embedded into narratives (Milojevic & Inayatullah, 2015 , p. 155). An inability to adequately challenge these assumptions, or understand the deep narrative basis for the assumptions, will lead to a lack of transformation.

Deep deconstructing of narratives creates space not only for different perspectives, experiences and truths, but also for non-Indigenous settlers to question the narratives that the nation-state, the media, our families and we as individuals hold up as immutable facts. It allows for a more honest exploration of our relationship to Aboriginal lands and peoples, and it creates an opportunity to more accurately retell our shared histories. It also leads us to action because “processes of re-storying and truth-telling are not effective without some larger community-centred, decolonising actions behind them” (Corntassel et al., 2009 , p. 139).

As I stated earlier in this chapter, my commitment to cultural competence is a commitment to transformation—of myself, the institution and broader society. Although cultural competence starts with the self, it is not enough to only change one’s thinking. hooks reminds us of Freire when she says that conscientisation is not an end in itself; it is necessary to verify in praxis what we know in consciousness (hooks, 1994 , p. 47). If we consider that institutions become institutions because the things they do become habit—or, as Ahmed explains, are “how we do things here”, where the very claim of a “how” does not need to be claimed—we might describe institutionalisation as “becoming background”, where being “in” the institution is to “agree” with what becomes background (Ahmed, 2017 , p. 25). Likewise, we might describe cultural competence as surfacing what becomes background and taking the steps to create change. What those steps look like will depend on the context.

In our workshops, we end with participants creating personal action plans. We remind people that the task might seem immense but that each of us can create change in our own contexts, and to break it into smaller achievable actions. Importantly, however, the focus must extend beyond the individual. Cultural change can only be sustainable when it has become systemic; when it becomes background and “how we do things here”. To that end, leadership and organisational commitment to change is a vital part of cultural competence work. Importantly, strategic intent must be translated into tangible behaviours and actions across the organisation.

As an educator, I am constantly reflecting on the boundaries of our work, how far to push and when to pull back. This is particularly pertinent in an institutional setting where people have not necessarily invited you to prod and poke their innermost beliefs and values. This is personal work, challenging work, and if we are true to the theory that we are all on a journey we have to allow that people have their own itineraries and allow them to set their own course to an extent. This is also community work. You cannot be a cultural competence island: cultural competence can only be developed in relationship to others. Another critical aspect of the work is how we institutionalise it. If we focus on the individual, we miss the imperative to enhance institutional enablers and dismantle barriers.

Cultural competence is about creating change. It is not a warm and fuzzy “tick a box” exercise to make us feel good, and it is not enough to be only aware of our context and cultures. We also need to take action. There is a requirement for change in this work, of ourselves and our society. I hope that we can ensure that every one of our students is able to understand how their world has been constructed, and how those constructs and the lenses through which they perceive it and their actions impact on the people they work for and with, whether that is as a doctor, a nurse, a banker, a magistrate or a footballer and knowing all that then they can work towards change.

This reflection has been a short exploration of some of the underpinning concepts that anchor my approach to cultural competence. Surfacing and explaining these anchors is critical self-reflection in practice and assists in asserting my philosophical and pedagogical approach to teaching and researching cultural competence .

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Russell, G. (2020). Reflecting on a Way of Being: Anchor Principles of Cultural Competence. In: Frawley, J., Russell, G., Sherwood, J. (eds) Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5362-2_3

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‘Very totemic and very Aboriginal’: Australia’s entry at Venice Biennale is a family tree going back 65,000 years

Archie Moore’s meticulous genealogy, kith and kin, is a memorial to Indigenous lives lost – but it’s also about global common humanity

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F or the past two months, in the quiet, darkened room of the Australia pavilion at the Venice Biennale , Bigambul-Kamilaroi artist Archie Moore has been drawing by hand in chalk a vast and meticulous genealogy.

But Moore’s work, kith and kin – Australia’s official entry in the 2024 Venice Biennale, which opened this week with the theme “Foreigners everywhere” – is about much more, and its grand scope reveals itself slowly.

Moore begins with his family tree. The chalk lines expand across and up the walls, back through time and space to encompass the thousands of generations that have gone before, and then they spill on to the ceiling where the ancestral names become like stars in an infinite night sky.

The work, kith and kin, is about 65,000 years of Aboriginal history and non-linear concepts of time and place. Moore, paraphrasing the anthropologist WE Stanner, calls it “the everywhen”.

“The past, present and future share the same space in the here and now,” Moore says. “Stanner said ‘one cannot fix the dreaming in time. It was, and is, everywhen’.”

Beneath this teeming mass of lives is a white table neatly stacked with the records of hundreds of Aboriginal deaths. Among them are the redacted coronial reports of the 557 Aboriginal people who have died in police and prison custody since the 1991 royal commission handed down 339 recommendations designed to stop those preventable deaths from occurring.

“It is as many coronial inquests that we could source through each of the different states and territories,” the curator of kith and kin, Ellie Buttrose, says. “Anything that couldn’t be found is represented with a blank document because making those gaps visible is really important to this project in multiple different ways.

“It’s about the tension between representation and abstraction. How do you represent these horrors? How do you do them justice? It’s very difficult with words or images, so the void plays an important role.”

The table sits within a pool of still water, serving as a shrine of remembrance and memorial for black lives lost to institutional violence and neglect. But the documents are hard to view.

“You have to lean across the water to glimpse them,” Buttrose says, “and you see your own reflection as you do. You become part of the work; you have to look at yourself in the context of all this loss.”

Moore and Buttrose have been working in the pavilion for about two months. It’s rare for artists exhibiting at the Biennale to spend such a long time in advance, Buttrose says. But the work had to be inscribed on to the space. The site has been empty for most of the time. Their small team has been working with just the birds for company and the occasional boat puttering down the Rio dei Giardini beyond the window.

Now, with the Biennale opening on Wednesday evening Australian time, there is noise and people and activity – foreigners everywhere. Days before the event, on the afternoon I go to meet Moore and Buttrose at the Australian pavilion, the Giardini is alive. There’s a dress rehearsal under way for the Altersea Opera, the Swedish-born Cantonese artist Lap See Lam’s exploration of migration and displacement, outside the Nordic pavilion. At the English and French pavilions, works are being trundled around, audio tested, gardens upgraded. Old trees have been removed and replaced in the time Moore has been here drawing kith and kin.

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He says the work of drawing by hand in chalk has been at times physically taxing. And while it is ambitious, it is also understated. After stepping into the darkened space designed by the Kaurereg-Meriam architect Kevin O’Brien, it is not easy to see all at once. But then the names, like spirits, reveal themselves. Moore says that is deliberate; Aboriginal worldviews are subtle and easily overlooked.

The work speaks to our people’s relationships to each another, our ancestors and our country. But it is also a history lesson (hence the chalk) about life before and during the brutality of colonisation. In places, dozens of the fragile squares are smudged and indecipherable.

“They are disruptions to the information and genealogy. So it could be a massacre, it could be smallpox, it could be records being destroyed or not recorded in the first place,” Moore says.

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In others, there is simply blank space, signifying the gaps in the archive, and the subsequent gaps in our own knowledge of our ancestors, the names they gave themselves and the humiliating descriptors they were burdened with by the colonisers.

The artwork is a result of a huge amount of research in libraries, newspapers, pastoral diaries, maps, archives, historical societies, Guardian Australia’s database Deaths Inside , state archives and discussions with family members.

“The phrase ‘kith and kin’ simply means friends and family these days,” Moore says. “But an old English definition from the 1300s shows kith to mean ‘countrymen’ and also ‘one’s native land’. That old English meaning feels more like the First Nations understanding of attachment to place, people and time.”

Art historian and critic Djon Mundine says he imagined Archie’s drawing as akin to “constructing an algebraic equation to solve an intangible, immeasurable problem”.

Mundine, writing in a catalogue essay, situates kith and kin among Aboriginal concepts of the sacred.

“Traditionally ‘God’ can appear in Aboriginal life as a flash of ‘white’ light or a refraction of light into the seven rainbow spectrum colours. Certain creatures display this refraction: the shedding skin of reptiles, wings of certain insects, shellfish, trees shedding their bark, and the scales of fish,” Mundine says.

“Archie meticulously drew row upon row of flat rectangular boxes in his family tree, that run down the wall like chanting names of dead people, as scallop-oyster beds, like fish scales, or a dripping broken honeycomb. Both metaphors (my own) are evocative of life, sex, regeneration, vitality, and potency. And very totemic and very Aboriginal.”

Moore says that, at its simplest, a family tree is universally understood.

“I’m just trying to give an impression of this huge amount of time and Aboriginal inhabitation on the continent. And I’m including everyone in the tree. If we go back 3,000 years, humanity all has a common ancestor. So it’s about the human global family tree as well.”

kith and kin opens at the Australia pavilion at the Venice Biennale on Wednesday at 6.45pm AEST (10.45am in Italy). You can watch the livestream on Instagram @austatvenice

A talk featuring Guardian Australia Indigenous affairs editor, Lorena Allam, will be livestreamed here on Thursday at 6pm AEST (10am in Italy)

Lorena Allam travelled to Venice courtesy of Creative Australia

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