This report has been produced for Catholic Education South Australia (CESA), as part of a research-consultancy entitled Re-imagining Catholic Education for First Nations Sovereignty. It provides findings and recommendations for developing a 10-year Aboriginal Education Strategy. 

CESA commissioned the authors (Indigenous and non-Indigenous academics and educators with extensive experience in First Nations Education) to help develop their Draft Aboriginal Education Strategy, with input from Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge holders and stakeholders connected to Catholic South Australian schools and centres.

The research-consultancy was carried out during 2022 using methods that are intellectually rigorous and culturally appropriate. It involved several main phases, starting with a robust literature review of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education in Australia. The literature review serves as a framework for contextualising subsequent phases of the study: Roundtable discussions with members of CESA’s institutional leadership; Yarning Circles with First Nations peoples connected to Catholic South Australian schools and centres; Surveys with staff from across CESA sites; and Surveys with parents/caregivers of First Nations young people in Catholic South Australian schools and centres.

The report centres Aboriginal voices that have been silenced for too long in the broader context of Australia. It floodlights that which CESA is achieving which warrants recognition and expansion. And it highlights clear steps for growth, which are achievable within a system where a groundswell of goodwill and ethical commitments are already established.