Adopting an Indigenous rights-based approach to working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students: Repositioning school psychology to address Competency 8
This paper examines the emerging professional expectation that school psychologists will be able to demonstrate competency in delivering services to Indigenous students. We argue that achieving this competency requires an underpinning Indigenous rights-based perspective embedded in professional education and practice. We discuss the historical context of psychology in Australia, the competencies needed for psychologists and […]
Systemic Racism and Oppression in Psychology: Voices from Psychologists, Academic Staff, and Students
Psychology must reassess its training approach, as the current monocultural paradigm not only causes harm, but also fails to equip psychologists with the knowledge needed to provide culturally appropriate care for Māori, Pacific, Asian, and other minoritised groups. Findings from this report contribute to the growing evidence of the urgent need to address barriers preventing […]
Māori-focused Course Content in Undergraduate Psychology Programmes in Aotearoa New Zealand
Despite consistent critiques of the psychology discipline for over 40 years there has been insufficient inclusion of Māori worldviews in tertiary learning environments, and we still do not have a comprehensive curriculum that can prepare psychology graduates to work with Māori. Out of 141 courses offered in 2022 that we assessed, only two (1.4%) were […]
Marginalisation, Migration, and Movement: Responding to the Underrepresentation of Māori in the Clinical Psychology Workforce in Aotearoa New Zealand
Within Aotearoa, the shift towards an Indigenously grounded psychology continues with great excitement and caution. An over-reliance on epistemologies, research, and practice based on Western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic (WEIRD) societies remains a barrier to achieving this. To understand the growth of the clinical psychology workforce and the Māori workforce, Manatū Hauora, Ministry of […]
Considering cultural responsiveness in the creation of the International Competences for Undergraduate Psychology (ICUP) model: What can psychology learn
This article aims to describe the development of foundational competencies relevant to cultural responsiveness (CR), within the context of the International Competences for Undergraduate Psychology (ICUP) model (Nolan et al., 2025). The underlying premise of the ICUP model is that the acquisition of undergraduate-level foundational psychology competences can and should have high value in personal, work, […]
A Framework to Enact Competency 8 Through an Indigenous Rights-based Approach in School Psychology
This paper presents a framework implementing the Psychology Board of Australia’s Competency 8 through an Indigenous Rights-Based Approach (IRBA), recognising that effective cultural competency requires Indigenous expert leadership rather than models developed without Indigenous guidance. Centring Indigenous Sovereignty, self-determination, and reciprocal partnerships with Indigenous experts, the framework emphasises sustained relationships rather than episodic training. The […]
Decolonizing psychology education in Australia through the Australian Indigenous Psychology Education Project
There is a critical need for Indigenous knowledges in psychology as a matter of epistemic justice and achieving health equity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In Australia, Indigenous psychologists are at the forefront of the decolonizing psychology movement by challenging the Western hegemony and privileging Indigenous knowledges in psychology. Situated within this movement, […]
The contribution of evidence-based practice and the practice-based evidence approaches to contemporary Australian psychology: implications for culturally safe practice
Psychological practice emphasises the importance of using the best available evidence to ensure accountability and promote positive outcomes for individuals and communities. These expectations are critical for community trust; however, without adequate consideration of broader processes of knowledge production, this focus can marginalise populations and perpetuate health inequities, such as those experienced by Aboriginal and […]
Indigenising Curriculum at The University of Queensland
This publication is a collection of scholarly chapters exploring Indigenising the curriculum across diverse disciplines at the University of Queensland (UQ). The edited collection will be framed by the Indigenising Curriculum Design Principles developed by Tracey Bunda and the Indigenising Curriculum Working Party (Bunda, 2022) and explores the pedagogies, processes, benefits and difficulties of Indigenising […]
Fact sheet: Professional competencies for psychologists. Understanding Competency 8: Demonstrates a health equity and human rights approach when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, families and communities
Cultural Safety in Australia
Recommendations from Research into What Aboriginal Students Say Affects Their Social and Emotional Wellbeing While at University
This article will report on the recommendations from a study that investigated what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students said affected their social and emotional wellbeing. The study interviewed students from seven different universities and utilised thematic analysis to determine what the factors where. As a result, a number of strategies became apparent that could […]
Calling out Racism in University Classrooms: The Ongoing Need for Indigenisation of the Curriculum to Support Indigenous Student Completion Rates
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students continue to experience racism in Australian university classrooms. The Reconciliation Australia Barometer report (2022, p. 5) recently noted that experiences of racial prejudice have increased for Indigenous people with 60% of Indigenous people who responded to the survey experiencing at least one form of racial prejudice in the past […]
The importance of Indigenous centres/units for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students: ensuring connection and belonging to support university completion
Indigenous student completion rates remain very low relative to non-Indigenous students. Some universities have higher Indigenous student completion rates than the national average but research-based evidence of these universities as ‘success models’ is limited. Drawing on findings from interviews with Indigenous university graduates and staff as part of a National Centre for Student Equity in […]
Listening more: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. A Guide for Psychology Supervisors.
The Listening More: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. A Guide for Psychology Supervisors is designed to support supervisors in being culturally safe and responsive in their supervision of Australia’s psychologists, specifically when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This project was led by the Australian Indigenous Psychology Education Project (AIPEP), in collaboration with […]
Listening more: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. A Reflective Journal for Psychology Supervisors.
Welcome to the one of two companion documents to the Listening More: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. A Guide for Psychology Supervisors. (hereafter, the Guide). This document is the Listening More: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. A Reflective Journal for Psychology Supervisors (hereafter, the Journal). The second companion document is the Listening More Manual of […]
Listening more: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. Manual of Resources for Psychology Supervisors.
Welcome to the one of two companion documents to the Listening More: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. A Guide for Psychology Supervisors (hereafter, the Guide). This document is the Listening More: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. Manual of Resources which includes a sample of recommended reading and resources to assist psychology supervisors’ learning journeys. The […]
Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices)
Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices) project builds on the legacy of the 1986 Women’s Business Report. The Australian Human Rights Commission (the ‘Commission’) and the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) have partnered on a national conversation to elevate the voices of Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander women and girls. Led by the Aboriginal and Torres […]
Responding to COVID-19 and Beyond: Key Recommendations for the Effective Public and Mental Health Response to Support the Well-Being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in Australia
The Australian response to COVID-19 demonstrates how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership, partnership, and self-determination are critical in ensuring public health measures and pandemic response planning is effective for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This chapter outlines the key evidence-based recommendations and actions developed by three national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led groups, […]
Mental health and well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia during COVID-19
In May 2020, an independent working party was convened to determine the mental health and well-being needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia, in response to COVID-19. Thirty Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders and allies worked together in a two-month virtual collaboration process. Here, we provide the working party’s five key […]
Partnership for Justice in Health: Scoping Paper on Race, Racism and the Australian Health System
This discussion paper was first prepared as a scoping paper designed to assist the Partnership for Justice in Health (P4JH) consider what is offered by existing scholarship about race and racism in the health system, and in particular, to identify a research approach to support the Australian Government’s National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health […]
Ahpra Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employment Strategy 2020-2025
Improving Housing and Service Responses to Domestic and Family Violence for Indigenous Individuals and Families
This study investigated the needs of Indigenous women and children who are severely over-represented in rates of domestic and family violence (DFV). Developing culturally appropriate responses to Indigenous DFV and improving integration between housing and DFV and child protection services should reduce rates of Indigenous women’s injury and death, as well as rates of Indigenous […]
Achieving stability for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care – SNAICC Policy Position Statement
SNAICC and many of its members have been watching with concern as, around the country, a range of processes are undertaken to progress longer-term care arrangements for children. They vary in detail but have been broadly described as permanency planning measures. Some of these proposals have already taken the form of legislative changes (NSW, Vic. […]
Social Justice and Native Title Report 2015
The Social Justice and Native Title Report from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner is delivered to the Australian Parliament on the exercise and enjoyment of the human rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This also includes reporting on the operation of the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) and its […]