https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaqmGBhgm6k&t=354s
In this video Nakata identifies work being done in Australia’s education systems to increase Indigenous student enrollment and achievement through K-12 to tertiary and beyond. Nakata identifies specific programs and initiatives that have been successful, and how these have additionally been able to shift the statistical academic profile of Indigenous students from majority BA students to STEM focused fields.
In terms of the Canadian Indigenous educational context, we may be able to glean some new tactics to improving the situation here. Dr. Nakata also presents frameworks that may prove useful in researching and framing the context in Canada.
When researching healthcare in relation to Indigeneity, I came across the concept of “cultural interface,” a concept elaborated by Dr. Martin Nakata. Although I have proven unable to integrate his work into my research, I have a better appreciation for the complexities of Indigenous Knowledge Systems as a result of the work I have read by Nakata.
“Professor Nakata is a Torres Strait Islander who graduated with a Bachelor of Education with honours from James Cook University where he subsequently was awarded his PhD in 1998. He is Chair of Australian Indigenous Education,and Director of Nura Gili at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). He is also a Board member of the Collections Councils of Australia Ltd. He has presented eighteen plenary and keynote addresses at national as well as international conferences in ten countries, and published over seventy articles on Indigenous Australians and education in various academic journals and books in Australia and abroad. He is a former member of the editorial board of The Australian Educational Researcher and current member of the editorial board of the Journal of Indigenous policy and Balayi” (http://www.maramatanga.co.nz/person/professor-martin-nakata)