Strengthening staff capacity and self-efficacy to embed Indigenous Australians' perspectives and pedagogies into University Curricula’: Area of Practice (AoP): University Content area: Indigenous Nutrition

Background: A landmark commitment was made as part of the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme Statement of Intent to ensure availability of culturally safe health services for Indigenous Australians. This will require graduates to be culturally safe when entering the workforce. This is consistent with the National Competency Standards for Australian dietitians. Aim: To collect baseline data from academics about the use of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander perspectives and pedagogies within the current health curricula. Method: Under the leadership of an Expert Advisory Group, all health academics (n=138) from an Australian University were emailed a research informed 21 question (18 closed; 3 open) purpose-built pilot-tested online survey covering participant demographics, educational practices, academic capability, implementation challenges and required resources. Results: Participants (n=52; response rate 38%) from 11 disciplines [including nutrition and dietetics (12%)] were mostly female (72%), non-Indigenous (96%) and experienced (professionally - 50% had >15 years; educationally - 52% > 5 years). Academics reported insufficient knowledge to select (48%) and deliver appropriate content (40%). Academics reported being unsure as to whether they in fact had the right to educate on Indigenous issues (33%) and some reported that they did not have the right at all (29%). Conclusion: These findings are consistent with previous studies indicating that academics with a lack of Indigenous knowledge require additional support from their Indigenous counterparts and the University (at an individual, discipline and institutional level).