Service learning with First Peoples: a framework to support respectful and reciprocal learning

ABSTRACT

This article outlines a framework for working with First Peoples. The framework supports respectful and mutually beneficial learning partnerships and culminates from 6 years of practice and research in arts-based service learning with Aboriginal communities in Australia. We begin by looking at synergies between global service learning and service learning with First Peoples. We then position this work within an international context, focusing on Indigenous frameworks for practice identified in service learning with First Nations communities in North America. We next describe the Australian context and touch on the multilayered intercultural processes and outcomes associated with the programmes across three universities. Finally, we introduce the framework and elaborate on its dimensions.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous
• intercultural learning
• service learning
• framework for practice
• evaluation tool
• higher education

Acknowledgements

Support for this project was provided by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT). The OLT project team includes [hidden].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In Australian Aboriginal culture, images of deceased people are not shown publicly for a period of time following their death, as a sign of cultural respect.

2. ‘Sorry Business’ is a term used by Indigenous Australians to refer to the death of a family or community member and the mourning process.

3. ‘Avoidance practices’ refers to those relationships in traditional Aboriginal society where certain people are required to avoid others in their family or clan.

4. ‘Country’ is a term used by Aboriginal people to refer to the land to which they belong and their place of Dreaming. Aboriginal language usage of the word country is much broader than that in Standard English.

5. The kinship system is a feature of Aboriginal social organisation and family relationships across Central Australia. Members of each kinship group have a ‘skin name’. This complex system determines how people relate to each other and their roles, responsibilities, and obligations in relation to one another, ceremonial business, and land.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching [Innovation and Development Grant (ID11-2081)].

Notes on contributors

Brydie-Leigh Bartleet

Associate Professor Brydie-Leigh Bartleet is director of the Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre and Deputy Director (Research) at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, Australia. She has worked on a range of national and international projects in community music, arts-based service learning with Australian First Peoples, intercultural community arts, and arts programmes in prison. She has worked on four successive ARC Linkage projects, led a major OLT Innovation and Development project, secured over a millions dollars in research funding, and produced well over a 100 research outputs. In 2014, she was awarded the Australian University Teacher of the Year. She serves on the Board of Australia’s peak music advocacy body, Music Australia, and a range of international and national boards including the International Journal of Music Education and is associate editor of the International Journal of Community Music.

Dawn Bennett

Dawn Bennett is John Curtin Distinguished Professor of Higher Education, Director of the Creative Workforce Initiative, and Chair of the Curtin Academy at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. Her research focus is the development of employability within higher education, including identity development and the nature of graduate work. Dawn retains a special interest in careers in the creative industries and continues to engage in practice-based research in music. She is also a passionate advocate for the inclusion of Indigenous cultural competencies within higher education. An Australian Learning and Teaching Fellow and Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the United Kingdom, Dawn serves numerous editorial boards and convenes the Australian Learning and Teaching Fellows’ national network. She serves on the board of directors for ISME and Music Australia, and as a commissioner with the ISME Commission for Education of the Professional Musician. Publications are listed at Academia.edu.

Anne Power

Associate Professor Anne Power is Academic Course Advisor for the Master of Teaching Secondary Program at Western Sydney University, Australia. Her research interests include music education, music, and its relationship to other art forms, professional learning, and service learning. Her work with service learning and disadvantaged students converges with themes of creativity. She is editor of two journals and is on several editorial boards. Anne is a co-author of several reports for state and federal education authorities. She is a 2010 winner of the ALTC Award for University Teaching for the submission Beyond Institutional Walls: Community engagement in secondary teacher education for programmes that enhance learning and she is a 2015 recipient of the Exceptional Service Award from the Professional Teachers’ Council of NSW. Publications are updated on Academia.edu.

Naomi Sunderland

Dr Naomi Sunderland is senior lecturer in the School of Human Services and Social Work and member of the Music, Health, and Wellbeing Research Stream at the Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre at Griffith University. Naomi has an extensive background in participatory, creative, and community-based research in the areas of health, well-being, and arts-based community development. She has collaborated on many arts and health research projects including the 1000 Voices Disability Life Stories Project; a social determinants of health evaluation of the Scattered People asylum seekers and refugee music group; and a participatory intercultural evaluation of multi-arts work with Barkly Regional Arts in the Northern Territory. Naomi teaches in the First Australians and Social Justice team at Griffith University and specialises in topics around transformative intercultural and immersive education, equity, and diversity. Naomi has a PhD in applied ethics and human rights from the Queensland University of Technology. She has published widely on the topics of health promotion partnerships, music and well-being, disability and happiness, and transformative ethics.