Indigenous knowledges” (IK) in the Australian curricula and pedagogical space is a contentious phrase, often informed by the broader Australian socio-cultural, political and economic landscape. For the most part, these educational policies are fuelled by agendas of ‘reconciliation’, ‘equity’, ‘equality in participation’ and ‘social justice’. While these discourses are important, we argue that personal and professional commitment to social justice are necessary starting points for reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. We draw from a recent research project on supporting preservice teachers as future curriculum leaders to develop their knowledge of embedding IK at one Australian university; the project was funded by the Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT).

Cultural interface theory (Nakata, 2002; 2007) proved a useful overarching framework for us to unpack pedagogical relationships between preservice teachers and their supervising teachers. The cultural interface enabled us to view sites of curriculum and pedagogical decision-making between these stakeholders as places of knowledge convergence and productive engagements, rather than as sites of divergent knowledges and irreconcilable differences. Phenomenology as a methodological approach (van Manen, 1984) was adapted to direct attention to the subjective experiences of participants in these pedagogical negotiations. Preservice and supervising teacher voice was actively sought in analysing and naming these experiences. The key question explored in this research was: what is your experience of embedding Indigenous knowledges during teaching practicum? The research was based on principles of Indigenous research methodology.

Project participants included 25 pre-service teachers, of whom 21 were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, all with a commitment to embedding Indigenous knowledges and perspectives in the school curriculum. A total of 23 supervising teachers in 21 schools participated in this project in both urban and rural schools in Queensland. All qualitative data was analysed by NVivo and Leximancer, qualitative data analysis software.

In this paper, we discuss four themes that emerged from the research findings. Based on the research participants’ perspectives, change, know (knowledge), help and affirmation were identified as the key concepts to shifting discourses around Indigenous knowledges and perspectives in the Australian curricula and pedagogical relationships. Engaging in critical pedagogies and Indigenous frameworks interrogate the complexities of dominant curricula taught and learnt from a homogenous standpoint while silencing the active presence of Indigenous peoples and their knowledges and perspectives, and allows the agency of future curriculum leaders and their supervising teachers to develop sustainable pedagogical approaches to make space for Indigenous knowledges in the Australian curriculum in both university and school levels.