Aboriginal enabling pedagogies and approaches in Australia: Centring and decolonising our approaches

Abstract

This viewpoint paper draws on my experiences as an Aboriginal educator/academic and highlights my current research involving a literature review on the intersection of enabling education and Aboriginal pedagogies, with the express aim of developing an Aboriginal enabling pedagogy for use in the Australian higher education sector. I would like to begin by acknowledging country. This is an important protocol that precedes activities that include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. I would like to acknowledge that this paper was written on the lands of the Awabakalpeople. I would also like to acknowledge the ongoing sovereignty of Aboriginal peoples over these lands and pay my respects to the elders past, present and future, for they hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and the hopes of Aboriginal Australia. I would like to acknowledge the loss of lands, cultures and treasures, and highlight the damaging consequences of this loss for the people, communities and nations. Reconciliation is a belief that we can walk together to a better future. However, we must remember that under the concrete and asphalt, this land is, was and will always be traditional Aboriginal land.