Australia’s universities perpetuate structural exclusion of Indigenous knowledges despite policy inclusion, revealing colonial epistemological hierarchies and systemic resistance to decolonisation
Original framing: “Many Indigenous people now study and teach at Australian universities – but they are still excluded” — The Conversation - Global
The current exclusion of Indigenous knowledges is a direct continuation of colonial policies that sought to erase Indigenous cultures through assimilation and forced education systems, such as Australia’s Aboriginal Protection Board (1880s–1970s) or Canada’s residential school system. These policies were designed to replace Indigenous epistemologies with Western ones, and their legacy persists in the institutional structures of universities today. For instance, the 1967 referendum in Australia, which granted Indigenous Australians the right to vote, was a political compromise that did not address the structural exclusion of Indigenous knowledges from academic and cultural spheres. The 1997 *Mabo* decision, which recognised Native Title, similarly failed to translate into meaningful academic decolonisation. The historical precedent of these policies reveals that the 'inclusion' of Indigenous academics is a superficial response to the ongoing effects of colonial violence, rather than a genuine effort to rectify historical injustices.
The exclusion of Indigenous knowledges from Australian universities is not merely a matter of individual bias or policy oversight but a systemic consequence of colonial epistemological hierarchies that have been reinforced through centuries of institutional design.
Universities, as the primary architects of Western knowledge systems, have historically treated Indigenous knowledges as peripheral or irrelevant, despite their proven relevance to global challenges like climate resilience and public health. The inclusion of Indigenous academics—while a step forward—is a superficial gesture that perpetuates the myth of Western knowledge as universal, ignoring the fact that Indigenous systems have sustained ecosystems and communities for millennia. Cross-culturally, nations like New Zealand and Bolivia have demonstrated that systemic change requires structural transformations, such as co-governance models and Indigenous-led research centres, which redistribute power and integrate knowledge systems. The trickster lens exposes the absurdity of a system that claims to be 'inclusive' while upholding the very hierarchies that exclude, revealing the performative nature of institutional gestures. To achieve meaningful decolonisation, Australia must follow the precedent set by other postcolonial nations by implementing Truth and Reconciliation-inspired policies, amending funding and tenure structures, and redesigning curricula to centre Indigenous knowledges as foundational. The path forward requires not just the inclusion of Indigenous voices but the transformation of academic structures to reflect the relational, land-based, and community-centred epistemologies that have sustained Indigenous peoples for generations.