A collective-reflective of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Degree Research (HDR) experiences in so-called Australia

My name is Emma Gavin, and I am a Garrwa Aboriginal scholar from the Gulf of Carpentaria in Australia's Northern Territory. This paper will discuss my doctoral journey and the journey of other Indigenous Higher Degree Research (HDR) students and academics, through a reflective and dialogic narrative, that highlights the systemic issues we face as Indigenous researchers and suggests ways to ameliorate these in the Academy. This will include my personal reflections of my HDR experience and consider these through a reflection on the Indigenous HDR journey, one that is shared with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander academics nationally. This will include looking at systemic and institutional racisms within the HDR space, especially those which inhibit Indigenous student success, such as appropriate supervision and the denial of Indigenous Elders and knowledge holders in these key roles. This paper will be structured in themes beginning with a brief overview of the landscape of Indigenous HDR in Australia, before discussing the realities of Indigenous HDR experiences, then discussing supervision of Indigenous HDR candidates, then looking at western academic frameworks that are incompatible with Indigenous practices, before suggesting a way forward.