Sian Bennett and Athena Lee.
At Edith Cowan University (ECU), a groundbreaking enabling unit is turning traditional learning on its head.
BlaK Futurism: Indigenous Pop Culture for Tomorrow is a UniPrep unit that centres Indigenous ways of knowing and contemporary culture while giving students a strong foundation in academic writing, critical thinking, and media analysis.
Created by Sian Bennett (Gamilaroi), a Lecturer in Kurongkurl Katitjin, ECU's Centre for Indigenous Australian Education and Research, the unit was designed to give Indigenous students a culturally affirming learning space, while remaining open and enriching for all students.
"Kurongkurl Katitjin is always interested in looking at new ways to encourage and support Indigenous students coming to university," Bennett explained.
"Through surveys and conversations with Indigenous students, we found that while many of them enjoyed co-learning spaces, they also wanted spaces that spoke directly to their cultures and contemporary lived experiences."
BlaK Futurism became that space. The unit explores Aboriginal hip-hop, superheroes and comic books, social media influencers, fashion, comedy, film, literature and more. Key themes include cultural identity, storytelling, activism, and resistance.
"Any Indigenous student coming into that space is already a mini expert," Bennett explained.
"They already know more than most non-Indigenous students. It's about them and who they are, and that is an empowering position to be in when starting your university education."
The unit is coordinated by Athena Lee, a Parrdarrama woman and academic who has taken on the development of the course's interactive learning model.
At its heart is yarning pedagogy - a relational, circular, and inclusive approach to teaching that centres dialogue and lived experience.
"One of the things that I really enjoy about the unit, is that it predominantly focuses on futurism - what the future looks like for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people," said Lee.
"I think that is so powerful because so much focus in Indigenous units is often through the lens of colonisation.
It's great to be able to restructure the narrative of what it means to be an Aboriginal person in Australia in a modern context, what the future looks like, how we can regain control."
Dr Ange Jones, a Senior Lecturer within ECU's UniPrep program and Co-Coordinator of the BlaK Futurism unit.
Dr Ange Jones, a Senior Lecturer within ECU's UniPrep program and Co-Coordinator of the BlaK Futurism unit, attributes the unit's success to the leadership of her Aboriginal colleagues, noting her place as a non-Indigenous person co-teaching the unit.
"I'm really conscious of my positionality as a non-Indigenous person teaching in this space. From the start, I've always said this will be through my lens as an ally, someone holding space while centring Aboriginal voices," said Jones.
"When Athena joined, I told her, 'This is your space, not mine.' We're both coordinators, but you're up front, and I am here to support you.
It's not about stepping away from responsibility, but about knowing when to lead and when to step back, without shifting the cultural load."
As universities across Australia reckon with how to embed Indigenous knowledges in meaningful ways, ECU's BlaK Futurism offers one bold answer: honouring the cultural expertise students already carry and building futures together through collaboration and sharing.
Find out more about ECU's UniPrep courses.
Read more information about Kurongkurl Katitjin.
