Teaching and learning strategies

Back to Country

In 2019, Dr. Tamara Power (USyd), Dr. Daniéle Hromek and Gabriel Clark (UTS) developed and launched Back to Country:  A Guided Reflection on Sovereignty, a 10-minute audio experience that uses mindfulness and visualisation techniques to ground people in space and time.

The listener is guided to reflect on the deep history of the land they are on, Aboriginal land. Back to Country is available freely online (with appropriate acknowledgement of the team) and in the UTS Data Arena as an immersive sound experience.

This work was developed iteratively over several years funded by a UTS Vice Chancellors Learning and Teaching Grant 2018 and a UTS First Year Experience Grant 2016 (original script development). In 2020 the team were the recipients of the UTS 2020 Inaugural Learning and Teaching Integration of Indigenous Professional Capabilities into Curriculum Award for facilitating institutional reflection on Aboriginal sovereignty.

WRAP Toolkit

In other interdisciplinary work, Dr. Cherie Lucas (UTS), A.Prof Megan Williams (USyd), Sally Fitzpatrick (WSU) and Dr. Tamara Power (USyd) have developed the Working Respectfully with Aboriginal People (WRAP) Toolkit (PDF, 16.3MB).

Financed by the Maridulu Budyari Gumal: Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing Stream: SPHERE (The Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research and Enterprise) Small Grant Program, the Toolkit is intended to allow student’s reflect on their own values and beliefs and are  prepared to  work in a culturally safe manner in Aboriginal communities. 

An example of the resources in the WRAP Toolkit include Pharmacist counselling videos that explore some of the cultural considerations around supplying medications for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Professional development

Staff can develop their cultural awareness and safety through workshops and training courses, such as the Indigenous Cultural Awareness workshop at UTS.

The Indigenous Health InfoNet has more information about a variety of training courses.

Indigenous artwork by Lucy Simpson

Artwork by Lucy Simpson, Gaawaa Miyay Designs, gaawaamiyay.co.

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.