{"id":8592,"date":"2022-06-30T09:00:03","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T01:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/curtin-appoints-first-dean-of-indigenous-futures\/"},"modified":"2022-12-08T13:21:27","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T05:21:27","slug":"curtin-appoints-first-dean-of-indigenous-futures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/curtin-appoints-first-dean-of-indigenous-futures\/","title":{"rendered":"Curtin appoints first Dean of Indigenous Futures\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

If we looked at tertiary education in Australia with an Indigenous gaze instead of a colonial one, how could it be different, and better?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This question underpins the work of Curtin\u2019s first Dean of Indigenous Futures, held by Yindjibarndi woman Mandy Downing.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dean Downing says she was honoured to take up the role, which is based in Curtin\u2019s Faculty of Humanities, adding she was passionate about ethical research and supporting Indigenous Australians\u2019 aspirations in tertiary education.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m grateful to be part of a faculty that values Indigenous knowledge in education and research. There is outstanding capability in this area,\u201d Dean Downing says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dean Downing\u2019s task is to understand where the strengths and weaknesses lie within the Indigenous futures space. For example, Curtin staff must complete cultural awareness training, but Dean Downing says it\u2019s important to consider the impact of this requirement on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a potential for us to relive trauma. It can be perceived as a micro-aggression, which assumes that none of our Indigenous Australian staff have cultural capabilities. We need to choose wisely about where we invest our energy by way of self care.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As well as acting in the senior management role, Dean Downing will continue her research work at Curtin, where she specialises in ethical considerations for Indigenous Australian research and institutional racism.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, she is the Senior Indigenous Facilitator for the National Environmental Science Program Sustainable Communities and Waste Research Hub, and the Co-Chair of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) National Research Ethics Committee.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to reconsider the research landscape so it becomes normalised for Aboriginal people to be the researchers rather than the researched,\u201d Dean Downing says.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCurrent systems and policies are designed from a cultural deficit discourse, which assume we\u2019d never be the experts.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dean Downing says universities are well positioned to reframe the way we learn and share Indigenous culture, history and identity.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUniversities play an important role in shaping peoples\u2019 views through education. So it\u2019s vital to listen when Aboriginal people share their lived experience.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a privilege to learn from Aboriginal people in the community. As a university, we have a lot of opportunity to develop our cultural capabilities on campus and in the community. We have a responsibility to lead by example and show what can be achieved when we walk together.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If we looked at tertiary education in Australia with an Indigenous gaze instead of a colonial one, how could it be different, and better?\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4182,"featured_media":8593,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,3,4,82],"tags":[],"research-areas":[59],"class_list":["post-8592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander","category-campus-and-global-community","category-research","category-society-and-culture","research-areas-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-knowledge"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":{"title":"Zoe Taylor and Yasmine Phillips","url":"#","target":""},"photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Mandy-Downing.gif","author_meta":{"first_name":"Zoe","last_name":"Taylor","display_name":"Zoe Taylor"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 04:58:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8592"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=8592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}