Expectations and Opportunities: Addressing the priorities and requirements of diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities in the Australian tertiary music education system

Abstract

The thesis describes a nationally focussed Indigenous-centred investigation of the priorities, requirements, and needs of diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in engaging with the Australian tertiary music education system. The research responds to long standing historic inequities in which Australian First Nations music, musicians, and music making remain on the periphery of the work of Australian tertiary music institutions, and First Nations musicians continue to encounter systemic barriers to equitable access, participation, and success.

The overarching aims of the research were to contribute to alleviating structural inequalities resulting from a legacy of settler-colonialism in the context of the Australian tertiary music education system by privileging the views and perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The main goal of the research was to develop nationally focussed Indigenous-informed empirical evidence, grounded in the insights and perspectives of experientially informed First Nations stakeholders, as a means for enhancing the engagement of Australian tertiary music education institutions with diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and improving outcomes of benefit for diverse First Nations Peoples and communities in the Australian tertiary music education system.

The research comprised a first-time, bespoke, place-based, Indigenous-centred extended co-design case study conducted at the ANU School of Music at the Australian National University (ANU) from 2022-2025 and employed an Indigenous-centred participatory mixed-methods methodology embedded in an overarching framework of Indigenous-informed and Indigenous-centred co-design. The research design comprised four integrated components: The ANU School of Music Indigenous Reference Group, a series of four Indigenous Focus Group Co-design Workshops, a nationally focussed Survey Questionnaire, and three in-depth Interviews.

The research findings provide comprehensive and detailed evidence-based insights into the priorities, requirements, and needs of diverse First Nations Peoples and communities in engaging with the Australian tertiary music education system, and ways in which tertiary music education institutions can address these, with specific reference to the ANU School of Music. For Australian tertiary music education institutions, the findings highlight the essential importance of inclusive and responsive policies, programs, and practices that recognise First Nations rights; align with First Nations cultures and values; support the identified learning priorities, aspirations, and needs of First Nations musicians; recognise First Nations diversity; and above all, observe Indigenous self-determination as the guiding principle.

The study demonstrates the efficacy of Indigenous self-determination and Indigenous-centred co-design in developing evidence-based approaches to enhancing outcomes of benefit for diverse First Nations Peoples and communities in the Australian tertiary music education system. The research contributes data that adds to an understanding of the priorities, requirements, and needs of First Nations Peoples, and provides a set of recommendations for enhancing institutional responsiveness to the rights and interests of Australian First Nations Peoples and communities, and at the ANU School of Music specifically. The findings and recommendations are applicable also in other Australian tertiary music education contexts. Show more