First Nations work
The privilege of working alongside First Nations communities
Learning, reflecting and growing through First Nations’ ways of working
Introduction
In Australia, our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are working together towards self-determination, recovering from past harm and violence caused by colonisation and leading the future design of service systems that are responsive to community and Country needs, and built on the foundations of culture.
Around Australia people are sitting together in conversation, in community, on Country and sharing knowledge and truth. The Western approach to knowledge sharing and gathering has historically been extractive, with data interpreted and manipulated in ways that harm Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. If we want data to be transparent and true in how it’s captured, given and delivered, we need to do things differently.
This page was created as a place to share this work, and my reflections, perspectives and gratitude for the privilege of being able to partner with First Nations communities.
Identity
Understanding impact of colonisation on my own identity
This work takes time, learning and a sense of humility. I am deeply grateful to be invited into work where my values align, alongside people who are supportive, kind and extremely generous with their knowledge. I believe I am the last person who should be doing the work, I am very well aware that no matter how much I do, my lens on the world has been heavily colonised. My family are migrants to Australia, and let go of their own cultural identities as part of a very successful assimilation. Whilst I continue to reconnect to my family's culture and understand the impact of colonisation on my own identity, I have not experienced the violence that our First Nations people have experienced historically and continue to experience to this day.
As an non-Indigenous person to Australia, I am deeply grateful to be invited to work alongside, and learn from, First Nations people and I feel a strong sense of alignment when working in ways that are place-based, narrative, relational and culturally responsive – and learning and sharing knowledge that is grounded in the context of people's experiences. This is an approach that I have been working towards bringing into practice across all my work, inclusive of all people and communities. Learn more about my methodology.
In all my work, I hold genuine intent to work in line with my principles. These include:
Deep respect of community knowledge
In relationship - Mutuality and reciprocity
Collaborative - Making and creating together
In context of people and place
In practice
Navigating conflicting priorities between different ways of working
Despite genuine intent to do work aligned with best ways of working, I am constantly faced with constrictions put upon the work I do, and that is because working with respect, in relationship, collaboratively with people and place is currently not the ‘norm’. In Australia the system we have come to rely on (government and services) has been developed on the foundations of inequity and a Western colonised lens. In the work that I do I find myself in partnership with others learning as we go, and at times making sacrifices for how we would ideally like to do the work. This is an ongoing challenge.
I am currently working alongside First Nations consultants at IPS, and Marlon Motlop. Working across diverse projects my role can be many things, however you most often will find me bringing forward my skills and knowledge in community engagements and gathering and documenting knowledge, and doing that aligned with these methodologies and principles. None of this work is possible without the relationships that are wrapped around the work, and in particular the work I do in partnership with Marlon.
About Marlon Motlop
Marlon is a Larrakia, Kungarakany and Torres Strait Islander man. His work is grounded in his love of Country – sustaining it, activating it to create economic opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and advocating self-determination for the original Custodians of the land. People who have cared for it for over 65,000 years.
Across native farming, food security, governance and strategic planning, Marlon works to shift away from colonial structures and designs, and back to the ways Aboriginal people have always operated and communicated. His approach to engaging with community is thoughtful, truthful, grounded, approachable, informed and respectful.
Marlon held a strong and successful career in the AFL, has been involved in native food and agriculture and developed a career in music. In 2023, Marlon was named Australian Young Grower of the Year for his work in native farming. His research was also awarded the Lord Nuffield Agriculture and Farming Scholarship, becoming the first Aboriginal scholar in its 150-year history.
Our work
We work in community, and in organisations. Work that we currently do includes:
Working with community-controlled organisations to develop governance and strategy
Engaging community to define priorities
Documenting and reporting community knowledge
Working in Western-made organisations to build understanding and capabilities in Indigenous ways of working
Designing community-led impact frameworks, measuring and evaluating impact
Engagements and evaluations that aim to understand benefits and impact in First Nations communities
Transforming government
Building the community controlled sector
Other work that is responsive to needs of people we work with
Working across this intersection of Indigenous and Western contexts is often referred to as ‘two ways’ or ‘two worlds’. These terms aim to explain the work being done in the “gap” and within this gap is shared knowledge and relationship building.
A foundational part of my role is making sure that all the work that Marlon, I and the team do is to respect the knowledge that is being shared that informs our work. Often we are working in community, engaging, learning, documenting cultural knowledge (and language). With such easy and fast knowledge sharing happening, especially when using common tools in consulting, our work demands us to slow down, and really think about the process of what it means to hold this knowledge. This includes very careful use of sensitive data, online documentation and use of AI. I take intense pride in being part of this process.
Responsibilities
Reflecting on my responsibilities as a knowledge gatherer
I am extremely strict about how I listen, document and share knowledge, and I am always thinking about who it is for and what it is being used for. This shows up tremendously when I work with First Nations communities and engage in conversations. It is a huge part of what people value about my approach to knowledge gathering and sharing. I make sure it is always aligned with communities having sovereignty over their knowledge and being acknowledged for their own community intelligence.
Even when it comes to gathering knowledge and data, unlike Western approaches that often maintain a "container" around what we can and cannot talk about, this is just not how it works when you are working in relationship. Conversations are deep, relational and often go beyond the scope of the project. Because of that, I have learnt that it is just as important to know what is not for the project as it is to know what is. If knowledge is used, I am always thinking about why it is being used, how it will be protected, and how it can be interpreted in a way that maintains the truth and integrity of how it was shared.
I am genuinely proud to be part of that process. It has reinforced that gathering knowledge is not about extracting information or documenting everything that is said. It is about listening with care, building trust, respecting relationships, and making sure people and communities remain in control of their own knowledge. That responsibility sits with me in every conversation I have, and it shapes the way I approach every piece of data or knowledge that I am trusted to hold.
Learning
Resources
Being able to do First Nations work in partnership has been an ongoing learning journey. At this point in my career, much of the way I engage in this work feels instinctual. However, those instincts have been built over time through my career working with people—as a nurse, in community, and now as a researcher.
In saying that, there is no doubt that this work feels more comfortable because of my personal commitment to ongoing learning and reflection. Much of that foundation began during my nursing degree, which I proudly completed at Charles Darwin University, including a clinical placement in Alice Springs. This was my first real exposure to working in culturally responsive ways and challenged me to think differently about relationships, communication and the importance of learning from community.
While the greatest learning has always come through working alongside communities and listening to the people I have had the privilege to learn from, there are also several resources that have shaped my thinking and continue to inform my practice beyond those community conversations:
Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples by Linda Tuhiwai Smith
Defending the Defenceless: Indigenous Self-Determination and Legal Services in Australia by Eddie Cubilo
True Tracks: Respecting Indigenous Knowledge and Culture by Terri Janke
Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property (ICIP)
Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)
Indigenous Data Sovereignty
Dhawura Ngilan Principles
Get in Touch
Let's talk about your next project
If you are looking to embed CEnR-P in practice, in a project or part of your role in an organisation, reach out!