Leading for Reconciliation: Strategies for Decolonising Rural Educational Leadership

For 65,000 years, the indigenous peoples of what is now known as Australia, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, thrived on this continent by weaving Country, knowledge, and people into a vibrant social web. The invasion by English settlers began a crisis for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that continues today. The imposition of Anglo-Australian society across the continent required the depopulation and marginalisation of the indigenous peoples, and the trivialisation and exclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges and ways of knowing, being and doing, importantly in education. Education leaders in rural contexts are working in places that have great potential to reconcile Anglo-Australian and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, to enable educational success for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and to re-imagine education practices for Australia. This chapter provides insights into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing place and connections to Country to reconsider the concept of ‘rural’ and contextualises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education as an outcome of colonisation. Examples and strategies are provided for educational leaders in rural contexts to use in their practice and leadership, with a focus on working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to co-design curriculum and for First Languages revival.