4 Engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

The ability to know how to appropriately engage is an important skill for developing genuine, positive and quality relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Colonisation and its continuing effects have adversely impacted on relationship-building between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous peoples. Positive engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples requires being aware of the history of colonial relations so that respectful relationships can be built from shared positions of power, understanding and responsibility. In this way, relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can maintain the cultural principle of reciprocity, whereby that which is given in an engagement is returned with equal value.

In the absence of such respect, relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous peoples are maintained as transactions in which the benefit of engagement favours non-Indigenous people and what they seek from the relationship. When relationships are continuously conducted in a transactional manner, engagements become exhausting for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples because there is an unspoken expectation that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples do the disproportionate amount of work in the engagement. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples constitute the minority within society and hold differential positions of power, usually having less authority than non-Indigenous peoples.

Transactional relationships that only benefit non-Indigenous peoples mean that non-Indigenous needs are always met. In addition, engagement practices that are dependent on meeting non-Indigenous outcomes deny the building of quality and respect in relationships. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are denied the ability to be truly human and equal to non-Indigenous people. These types of engagements are ultimately not beneficial for either group and replicate practices of colonisation in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples only exist to serve non-Indigenous peoples. It is critical that engagements move away from the transactional towards an understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ‘Ways of knowing, ways of being and ways of doing’  (Karen Martin, Noonuggal, Gwandamoopa and Pitjara, 2008, Please Knock Before You Enter). Developing such an understanding can allow relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous peoples to become more respectful and reciprocal so that Indigenous needs can also be met and quality relationships can be retained for the future. In this way, engagements move towards greater senses of reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous peoples.

In building stronger relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, it is important to understand your own beliefs, biases, stereotypes and views. Watch the two videos below to learn more about racism and bystander action against racism.

Sometimes the only evidence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples within an organisation is the prominent display of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, but no Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are employed by the organisation.  This practice can be understood as: ‘the only worthy engagement is with the aesthetics of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures’, while Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are not worthy to be employed by that organisation. In such situations, organisations can offer a seemingly ‘logical’ explanation that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people do not apply for advertised positions. As a ‘natural consequence’ of this explanation, the organisation cannot be at fault if there are no Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff.

Actions at the individual and organisational levels can powerfully transform engagements from the transactional to becoming respectful and applying the principle of reciprocity in relationships. When engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, it is important to remember that there may be a range of perspectives and views on what respect and reciprocity in relationships look like. In the following video, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people respond to some Frequently Asked Questions.