Abstract:
This paper is one in a series of papers from the Developing Indigenous Early Career Researchers Project. It is a three-year longitudinal study funded by the Australian Research Council investigating the experiences and perspectives of Indigenous early career researchers working in universities across Australia. The findings in this paper firstly present four attributes identified by Indigenous early career researchers as necessary to creating culturally safe spaces within institutions. Through engagement with the work of Indigenous scholars who advocate for the recognition of Indigenous peoples and our knowledges as unique and valuable to education and research, the paper proposes that in order for these attributes to be effectively implemented across the higher education sector institutional discourse needs to change from the inclusion of Indigenous Peoples and Knowledges to recognising Indigenous Peoples as sovereign.