I hear whispers of change in school staff rooms across the country

The culture wars of the “us vs them” mentality was recently underway again. The dominant voices clinging to the hegemony they have inherited and benefited from, crafted yet another unsurprising narrative. This narrative once again erodes the efforts of a progressive and truthful society. The fear of the hegemonic drift is palpable in their responses, through their arrogance and sheer clumsiness in being unable to mount any logical, academic argument.

Imagine a classroom where all students across the continent have the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of the world’s first physicists, biologists, astronomers, geologists and chemists, albeit through a western lens. Our First Nations students have the opportunity to proudly see their heritage and strong enduring practices reflected in the learning activities presented to them. Non-Indigenous students can learn about the strengths and in depth knowledges of their country’s First Nations peoples. Together, these students move into a future that acknowledges the sophisticated and enduring scientific knowledge of all First Nations communities.

How could this possibly be construed as a negative? If you haven’t been given the opportunity to explore the resilient and complex knowledge systems of First Nations communities the globe over, your education system has done you a disservice.

Culturally responsive pedagogies and curriculum provide an opportunity for a strength based discourse. But what we hear from those in power – successful recipients of the current education system – is victim blaming and punitive responses. Punishing a child who has disengaged from school and then carrying this retribution through to the family, is a response that stems from a bygone era. The era of ”get in line, native!” or be prepared to deal with the consequences. Throughout history our elders and ancestors have rallied against this type of treatment, cried for the acknowledgement of their knowledge systems and their place in the world. To sit by and not challenge this archaic response from the establishment would be a disservice to those who have fought and given their lives, so we too, can be included in the great Australian myth of a “fair go”.

A fair go? Fair enough. But by whose terms? Certainly not the ones of conservative armchair ideologists who have benefited from this exclusive and divisive rhetoric. We are fed up with what you consider fair. We will decide what is fair for us. Progressive educational strategies that deal with the root cause of these issues – student engagement – will help all Australians to understand what we mean by a fair go.

I have delivered professional development on how to implement this into science classrooms across four states. For every principal and head of department who shut their door because “we really don’t have that many Indigenous students”, or “we already have a range of VET offerings”, there were 50 teachers asking “why was I never taught this at school?”. Exclusion used to be a concerted effort to justify land grabs and genocide. Well, we are here and we are just as alive as before. With shared technologies and processes all Australians can address the exclusions of the past together.

It’s not only Indigenous students who should be taught using this remarkable body of work from more than 65,000 years of ingenuity, problem solving and innovation. These knowledges are for all students – the child of the farmer, the refugee, and especially the inner city private school kid. We are teaching about other cultures. Why not the oldest living ones on Earth?

I can already hear the whispers around the staff rooms across the country. The teachers who want to dive head first into this exciting, engaging way of teaching. The teachers who are unsure, and the teachers who have the blinkers on. This is the age old change train coming down the track. The early innovators will try something new, the fence sitters will wait and see what happens and the ones with their blinkers on will not change anything until it becomes the new normal. We need to make this the new normal. But it needs to happen in a culturally responsive way.

Schools need to look beyond the school gates.

First Nations communities around Australia are resilient and sophisticated custodians of knowledge. Families who have lobbied for more equitable representation of our knowledges in the curriculum have now been provided with another tool to communicate this message.

Historically, our education system has struggled to find space for First Nations peoples’ perspective and cultural sophistication. Now we have clear direction in how to do this. Parents and communities should be setting appointments with principals around the country and ask, how is my school incorporating these elaborations? And if you are not doing it – when?

In a world where diversity of thought is at the forefront of every buzzword-ridden strategy, it is time to focus on how we are curating the next generation of diverse, intercultural thinkers within our education system.

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We are fed up with what you consider fair. We will decide what is fair for us

Photograph: Jesse King ‘A fair go? Fair enough. But by whose terms? Certainly not the ones of conservative armchair ideologists who have benefited from thisexclusive and divisive rhetoric’