Murat Dizdar

Hello, colleagues, it's Murat Dizdar here, Secretary for the New South Wales Department of Education.

We're joining you from Matraville Sports High School, where Nerida Walker and the team do a fantastic job supporting every young learner in this community.

I’m joined by our colleague, Ray Ingrey, who’s the president of the mighty New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Group.

Ray and I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians from where we’re joining you from, recognise Aboriginal colleagues watching this recording, as well as the lands that you are on. And we want to pay our respects to Elders past and present across New South Wales.

We wanted to connect with you as we reach the midpoint in our current partnership agreement with the New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Group. I want to acknowledge the significant work in Aboriginal education across New South Wales and highlight some of the successes that we've achieved together so far, as well as the work that lies ahead for us.

From the very beginning of this partnership, our shared vision has been to build, the best possible public education system, where Aboriginal culture, identity and history are recognized as being fundamental to the learning experiences. Where Aboriginal voices are respected, embraced with guidance being central to how we shape and embed our collective work.

The AECG and the Department has worked very closely on this midpoint review and what came up from our collective work was four very important themes.

The first of these is to build genuine partnerships and collaboration, making sure that we create culturally responsive and inclusive spaces, supporting advocacy and self-determination, and maintaining strong accountability and monitoring.

By coming together, really listening and engaging openly, we’ve been able to check in on how things have been going across the state and work towards further strengthening the partnership.

We have held eight super regional meetings across the state, and I want to thank our AECG colleagues for making that happen. I'm proud that we had 845 people participating, either face to face or online, in the meetings that we conducted to get feedback and input from across New South Wales. There was also another 305 responses that came through on the survey.

I'm very fortunate that I was able to tap into one of these sessions at Bankstown Sports Club, and I found it educative to hear from our people inside schools, as well as our AECG colleagues, with what was working in that part of New South Wales.

Working closely with the New South Wales AECG, we've strengthened curriculum and that's really important here for the New South Wales Education Standards Authority and their new syllabus roll outs, to include Aboriginal histories, culture and contemporary issues.

This will also provide greater support for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students and it will promote cultural inclusivity and awareness in schools. I'm really proud of these achievements, which we've been able to build off the back of genuine listening and collaboration with community.

Let me bring in Ray, our President of the New South Wales AECG, to speak with us today about the importance of our partnership agreement. And I've personally had the privilege of working tightly with the AECG and witnessing the transformative impact that this partnership has had on our schools and communities. But I also want to be honest that there's more that we can do together.

Ray, can you tell us some insights that the AECG has gained from the process that we should be really across?

Ray Ingrey

Yeah, it was a unique situation to bring not only in New South Wales AECG members, but also department staff at all levels come together and give a true assessment on how we are progressing during this midpoint of our ten-year partnership agreement.

As Murat said, there was 845 people attended our consultations. That put tens of thousands of experiences in education in one snapshot on the history of New South Wales when it comes to Aboriginal education and training.

We heard from everybody involved that we were mostly on track. The review also told us in four themes that Murat mentioned, that three out of those four themes we were mostly on track to achieve those, with some work to still be done around accountability and monitoring. And I think that’s some work ahead that we would do together over the next five years.

Murat Dizdar

And in your role, you're traveling around the state a lot. Can you maybe for us call out some good examples where you're seeing the AECG and our local schools partnering strongly, and what advice have you got so that we can do that more consistently?

Ray Ingrey

There's a number of schools that really do it well. Really listen and respond to that local communities needs and really listen to what their aspirations are.

Those examples can be found all over the state where there's genuine partnership, a common goal and where you've got the Aboriginal community and the school working closely together to ensure that child gets the best experience through school.

Murat Dizdar

Ray, take us to the next area, because there's a lot of success that's called out in the report. But like you, I'm determined to lift from here across the next five years and make the next five years of our partnership agreement really count.

What advice do you have for us from the report that we should focus on?

Ray Ingrey

Yeah, the midpoint review saw New South Wales AECG members across the state and New South Wales Department of Education staff come together, identify what's working, but looking at areas that we can strengthen as well together.

There's a number of commitments that have been made by both the New South Wales Department of Education and the New South Wales AECG. And so, we'll focus on those areas over the next five years.

Accountability and monitoring is going to be a big one on how that can be done, not only at a state level, but down to local AECGs and public schools at the local level. We're also keen to look at what the foundations of the next partnership agreement will be.

Murat Dizdar

What stood out is, I wonder that we can work more assiduously together on the ground where we can grow the connections with local AECGs.

I would love for us to be able to grow our junior AECG networks. There's some powerhouses across the state, and I want those junior AECGs to be strong. We're also driving student voice in our schools, and this really empowers our Aboriginal learners to be in a place of voice and leadership. I wonder if we can do that even stronger.

Ray Ingrey

We're really keen to ensure that the hard work that happens here in New South Wales, and we are leading the way across the nation, that we're able to show the good work that has been done and the good work that we'll continue to do as well.

So, we're proud of our partnership agreement. We're proud of the history that we have here in New South Wales, and we look forward to progressing this current partnership and beyond.

Murat Dizdar

Colleagues, this mid-point review marks such an important milestone in our journey with the AECG and our Aboriginal community and students. It is a moment for us to reflect on how far we've come, and we must be optimistic with a steely determination to do better.

Ray, on behalf of the Department of Education, I do want to thank the New South Wales AECG. We really respect the partnership we have together and I want to thank every community member out there who gave their time, wisdom and experience to this process.

I do invite you to join me as we continue to create fantastic public schools in New South Wales where every Aboriginal person, student, community member is recognized, celebrated and embraced.

Where every student feels a sense of belonging, where they are heard, where they are encouraged to aspire for excellence through school and post-school.

Please reach out to your local AECG, make important connections. They're here to work with us and as we move into the next chapter, I'm excited to continue this work together.

Our goal is really simple, value and support every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student, their families and their communities right across New South Wales public education.

It's by walking together and working together that we can build on the successes we have, that we can put equity and inclusion at the forefront of all we do.

Ray Ingrey

So, as we come to the end of this one, we then need to open up dialog on what a partnership agreement between 2030 and 2040 looks like here in New South Wales.