Forced University First Nations Cultural Appreciation

As part of my work agreement at one of the universities I work for, I must participate in this so-called First Nations Cultural Capabilities Training. Just as this guy is blowing some smoke in this smoking ceremony, someone was blowing some smoke when designing this training material.

Understanding the Importance of First Nations Cultural Capabilities at Uni. Of course, they do the obligatory acknowledgement of the traditional custodians. The module is approximately sixty minutes in duration – It took me at least that long, mainly because I was taking all these screenshots to share with you in this video. It is designed to inform and empower you towards: Culturally appropriate work practices; and Building and maintaining respectful relationships and partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders, peoples and communities. 

My first thought is why does the university think that only Aboriginal culture needs a special explanation about it? If I was Aboriginal, I’d be insulted by all this. Not only do they think I need a special module about me, they also need to force everyone in the university to participate. They feel the need to teach non-Indigenous people how to approach me, how to talk to me, how to not offend me, like I’m some sort of creature from another world. It’s a divisive joke, but the university keep pushing this garbage. To be clear, I’m not calling traditional Aboriginal culture garbage, just this forced Cultural Capabilities training about our fellow Australians.

Anyway, let’s see a sample of some of the “training”. First of all, you need to know the difference between Acknowledgement of Country and Welcome to Country, you know, all the stuff Aussies love to hear constantly. I don’t know about you, but I love being welcomed to my own country at every possible opportunity.

They go on about how we have to engage with Aboriginal people differently. There are social and political barriers which have marginalised Indigenous groups throughout history. There’s other lesser known barriers such as inter-generational traumas, and traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander speech patterns known as Aboriginal English (AE).

The training tells us to consider our own bias. It is important to always reflect on our own cultural biases and standpoints before we engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities. Again, it’s as if Aboriginal people are so different from the rest of us that we have to take special steps before engaging with them. It’s very disparaging I think.

They talk about Aboriginal Law, and how these Laws have functioned to inform Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people about how to live sustainably on the land. Non-Indigenous law operates differently in that it shifts to suit the interests of humans.

As part of the training, there was also significant dates we had to learn. Survival day, you know the day formally known as Australia Day: Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander peoples choose to mark Australia Day as a day to highlight the invasion of Australia by Europeans and to acknowledge the survival of their cultural heritage. I like how they lump all Aboriginal people into one basket. They are all against Australia Day and see it as an invasion. What a load of crap! Apology Anniversary, National Close the Gap Day, Mabo Day, NAIDOC Week, just to name a few more.

But the biggest one that I love the most, and perhaps the most divisive of all: Cultural and Ceremonial Leave. Isn’t this discrimination? Only people of a certain ancestry are entitled to certain entitlements. As I said earlier, equality is no longer the goal. That was already attained. They’re pushing this as far as they can now, elevating Indigenous Australians above everyone else, which as I said, will create resentment, and is a disaster just waiting to happen. This won’t bring unity. This will bring the opposite.

This one was funny: Never make eye contact with Indigenous people because it’s disrespectful. This obviously was one of the incorrect answers, but it’s funny that they included it. Again, they’re making Indigenous people sound like some kind of foreign being that we have to take special precautions around. It’s very disparaging to Indigenous people.

One thing I quickly realised about this “training”, is that it’s not training at all. It’s propaganda! Since the Voice defeat, they’re pushing this more than ever. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’d be fired from the university for talking about this publicly like I’m doing now. We supposedly live in a free country, but you can’t talk badly about First Nations training modules.

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn