Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website may contain images, voices or names of deceased persons.
The MK Turner Report is a landmark report, created by the cultural authority of Utyerre Apanpe network and Children’s Ground. In this series, we explore and further articulate the recommendations of the MK Turner Report to consider how they can be implemented. The Report’s second recommendation is that Government recognises and partners with an independent national First Nations governance body to develop and oversight the new First Nations education system.
To implement the new First Nations education system (read more here) the MK Turner Report recommends that the Australian government partners with a governance body made up of First Nations education experts. This body will oversee the learning system’s development, set standards of pedagogy and curriculum, support First Nations communities to implement the First Nation education system, and provide the cultural authority to establish a National Language and Resource Centre and its programs.
First Nations children will be educated in a system with agreed national quality and compliance standards, governed by Elders and leading cultural education practitioners. The community running the local education offering will be able to access support, resources, and guidance in a First Nations way of learning.
The government and Utyerre Apanpe will first work to legislate First Nations governed schools and establish a funding framework to sustain quality education. Utyerre Apanpe will create the policy, funding, standards, and evaluation of First Nations education (Apmerengentyele) schooling.
Utyerre Apanpe will work with government and education sector stakeholders to ensure First Nations-led and designed education is recognised as the key pillar of First Nations education systems. Utyerre Apanpe will work with the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) to establish standards in curriculum that align with cultural lore, protocol, and governance.
Utyerre Apanpe will work with First Nations bodies leading language, education, training, and curriculum development, such as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) and National Indigenous Languages Survey (NILS), to monitor the number, uses and status of First Languages.
Utyerre Apanpe will support First Nations educators, fostering recognition of their unique expertise and achieving remuneration which reflects this. They would partner with Batchelor College and Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) to support culturally responsive and safe teaching practices. First Nations educators in both First Nations and Western educational settings will be supported.
Finally, Utyerre Apanpe will oversee the education of First Nations students in mainstream Australian schools to ensure a culturally relevant education, in which their cultures and languages are respected. This includes supporting relevant bodies in the training of non-First Nations educators teaching First Nations students.
The MK Turner Report is a landmark report, created by the cultural authority of Utyerre Apanpe network and Children’s Ground. It establishes a plan for a First Nations-led and designed education reform in Australia, privileging an approach entitled Apmerengentyele, the Arrernte concept of ‘world view.’
