Silence or Deafness? Education and the Non-Indigenous Responsibility to Engage

Abstract

Schools are understood as an important site for the circulation of discourses pertaining to colonisation and reconciliation. Wider community educational practices have also engaged with these concerns, including initiatives such as the Reconciliation Study Circle Kits that were developed by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation in Australia in the 1990s. This paper considers the role of school and community education in developing non-Indigenous Australians’ understanding of, and engagement with, Australia’s post-invasion history and reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Drawing on original focus group and interview research the paper highlights some of the key areas where education appears to have transformed non-Indigenous perspectives in recent decades, while also highlighting areas for further policy and curriculum development.