Notes on Educator Perspectives on Embedding Acknowledgement to Country in Australian Early Learning Centres

This Land on Which We Play

Acknowledgement to Country is context-specific and tied to the local land and Country; it involves seeking out and honouring local Aboriginal knowledge, language, stories, nature, and songs. It is not merely a daily routine but is embedded in each centre’s place and programming.
Centre practices include visual Acknowledgement in craft displays, flags, posters, and artwork; outdoor spaces redesigned with bush tucker gardens, natural materials, and local plants to strengthen the link to the land.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander songs, including local language, are woven into the program; telling Aboriginal stories spurs conversations about Aboriginal ways of seeing the world.
Relevance to place is linked to nature-based play and outdoor learning, with comments such as the outdoor environment acting as a “third teacher.”
Acknowledgement practices are adapted to children’s developmental stages (e.g., babies and toddlers have Acknowledgement baskets with artefacts).
Challenges include finding resources that are local to the Centre’s specific Country and language; resources often come from broad sources (e.g., ABC Playschool, Narragunnawali) rather than local Country.
Acknowledgement is seen within a broader project of Indigenous knowledge restoration post-colonisation and ongoing global/national dialogues about Indigenous ways of knowing and being.
Practical example: educators explain Aboriginal stewardship and contemporary know-how (e.g., community fire management) to connect current events to indigenous expertise and land protection.
The practice is intended to be meaningful learning opportunities rather than token gestures.

Confidence and Foundational Attitudes

Many educators reported uncertainty about what to do and fear of offending Aboriginal people, including mispronunciations, using the wrong totems, or choosing arts styles from other parts of Australia.
Confidence often increased with training, but training can also heighten anxiety about getting it right.
The critical ingredient identified by participants is the intention: acting from the heart with respect to Country and its knowledge systems.
Guiding belief: as long as educators are trying to acknowledge Aboriginal cultures genuinely, their actions are respectful, even if inaccuracies occur.
The emphasis is on taking the first step and then continuing to learn and improve; “start small and grow” was a common sentiment.
Reflection is essential: educators connect practice to the EYLF and use reflective cycles to adjust approaches after missteps or uncertainties.
Conceptual frame: questions about cultural identity, historical context, and strength of Aboriginal cultures underpin self-reflection (Proud & Morgan, 2021).

The Collective Journey of Knowledge Seeking

A strong distributed pedagogical leadership culture supports educators to take small, incremental steps toward embedding Aboriginal knowledge.
Collaboration is key: working with a colleague, then expanding to the whole team, helps plan, act, and reflect more effectively.
Unified team involvement prevents practices from fading when individuals leave and supports continuity (risk of losing momentum with turnover).
The journey is ongoing and context-dependent; progress ebbs and flows (e.g., some centres regain momentum after a lapse).
Centre-level resources (e.g., a mural by an Aboriginal artist, guidebooks on Aboriginal pedagogy) can serve as catalysts for learning but require ongoing engagement to be useful.
External factors influencing the journey include staff turnover, COVID-19 disruptions, and aging cohorts moving to school.
Educators acknowledge there is no single right way and emphasize a learning mindset that accepts mistakes as part of transformational practice.
The EYLF provides a familiar framework for reflection and adaptation, highlighting reflective practice as central to embedding Indigenous knowledges in a strength-based way.

Someone to Ask: Knowledgeable Support and Advisory Networks

Access to someone knowledgeable (from Indigenous culture, elders, family, or external professionals) helps determine what is appropriate and what is not.
The relationship is often with non-Aboriginal staff seeking guidance, but Aboriginal educators should be recognized as experts whose knowledge must be respected and whose leadership is essential.
Co-construction of learning experiences with Elders, community members, children, and families is a strengths-based approach that helps avoid misinterpretations of Aboriginal knowledge.
Building reciprocal relationships with Aboriginal families strengthens trust and engagement, and can lead to more authentic family input into programming.
Challenges include the high demand on Elders’ time; suggestions include broadening relationships with multiple Aboriginal voices (staff connections, professional advisors, families) to avoid overburdening any single Elder.
Urban or mixed-context settings may lack a single local Aboriginal community, requiring a networked approach to identifying knowledge holders and authorities.
Family engagement is seen as essential for cultural knowledge transmission and for embedding Aboriginal perspectives more deeply into curriculum.
The role of Aboriginal educators should be collaborative rather than the sole responsibility of Indigenous staff; reciprocal collaboration with non-Aboriginal colleagues strengthens pedagogy and community trust.

Methodology and Ethical Considerations (contextual overview)

The study adopts an Indigenous relational approach, guided by Moreton-Robinson’s relationality framework: social research should begin with proper relationships and be conducted with respect, responsibility, generosity, obligation, and reciprocity.
Six centres participated, with a total of 20 educators, across six campuses; data collected via sixteen interviews conducted face-to-face or via Zoom.
The research team included six non-Indigenous scholars and one Aboriginal scholar as part of a steering committee; an Aboriginal author participated as a steering committee member.
Ethics approval was obtained from Western Sydney University (H14181).
Data handling: interviews were transcribed and coded (NVivo). Initial themes were identified via mind-maps and refined through team review; Aboriginal voices were included in consultation, though the primary analysis was conducted by non-Aboriginal researchers.
Confidentiality: participants labelled as Centre A, B, etc., with Educator numbers; where necessary, Aboriginal voices were identified as such without naming individuals or centres.
Limitations acknowledged: COVID restrictions limited children’s voices and Elder engagement; all participating centres belonged to the same group, potentially limiting generalizability.

Practical and Theoretical Implications

Embedding Acknowledgement to Country is a process that involves practical changes (outdoor spaces, language resources, local songs, and stories) and shifts in pedagogical thinking toward culturally responsive practices.
Centres are encouraged to invest in relational approaches, including building sustained relationships with Elders and Aboriginal families, to ensure local relevance and accuracy.
The shift from cultural competence to cultural responsiveness is highlighted, with an emphasis on ongoing reflexivity and the co-construction of knowledge.
Acknowledgement practices can contribute to social justice by educating non-Aboriginal families and staff about Aboriginal worldviews and by fostering welcoming centres for Aboriginal families.
The Narragunnawali RAP framework is identified as a practical resource that links Acknowledgement activities to EYLF outcomes and pedagogies.
Potential tensions between urban settings and the concept of Country are acknowledged; practitioners are urged to centre Country and place while negotiating complex local knowledge networks.

Limitations and Directions for Future Research

COVID-19 restrictions limited inclusion of children’s voices and Elder perspectives in this study.
All centres were part of the same university network; broader studies across different groups could illuminate variation in practice.
Future research could involve Elders directly to explore their priorities and how they want to engage with ECEC, including governance of knowledge sharing and responsibilities.
Greater emphasis on family engagement and capturing children’s voices would enrich understanding of how young children experience Acknowledgement practices.

Key Concepts and Definitions (glossary)

Acknowledgement to Country: A non-Indigenous person’s expression of respect and recognition of local Aboriginal custodianship and Aboriginal knowledge systems on a particular place; acknowledges traditional owners and their ongoing connection to Country.
Country: The local place and its people, language, languages, stories, resources, and responsibilities; a central frame for Indigenous pedagogies and place-based learning.
EYLF: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia; emphasizes Belonging, Being, and Becoming as core outcomes and provides a structure for embedding Indigenous perspectives in practice.
Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) / Narragunnawali: Frameworks and resources to guide schools and early learning centres in implementing reconciliation activities and linking them to EYLF outcomes.
Culturally responsive pedagogy: Pedagogies that are grounded in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander epistemologies and designed to be contextually meaningful, relational, and justice-oriented.
Epistemology vs. Ontology: Indigenous ways of knowing (epistemology) and being (ontologies) may differ from Western frameworks; integrating these requires reflexivity and diversity of knowledge systems.
Relationality: An Indigenous research paradigm emphasizing connectedness and responsibility among all beings (people, land, and living systems); central to ethical research practice.
Indigenous leadership in ECEC: Aboriginal educators’ expertise is essential but should be supported through collaborative and reciprocal partnerships with non-Aboriginal staff.
Critical ambivalence: The tension between needing to act and not knowing the right way to act; a common dynamic in reconciliation pedagogies that requires reflective practice and institutional support.

Reflections for Exam Preparation

Remember the four themes as the backbone of the findings: This Land on Which We Play; Confidence; The Collective Journey of Knowledge Seeking; Someone to Ask.
Be able to articulate differences between Acknowledgement to Country and Welcome to Country, and why Acknowledgement to Country is’s a collective, learning-oriented practice in non-Indigenous settings.
Understand how EYLF, cultural responsiveness, and RAP/Narragunnawali resources intersect to support embedding Indigenous knowledges in ECEC.
Reflect on the practical implications for centres: sustaining relationships with Elders and families, balancing local relevance with accessible resources, and fostering an environment where it is acceptable to make mistakes during a learning journey.
Consider the methodological approach: Indigenous relationality, ethics, and collaborative analysis; benefits and limitations of this approach for understanding educator experiences.