Reflections in waterholes: Reconceptualising young Indigenous Australian success

Abstract

While there is a body of literature monitoring Indigenous Australian post-secondary school experiences, research investigating aspirational development in this life stage and Indigenous youth success as defined by Indigenous youth is severely lacking. Too often academic, government and public discourses portray Indigenous youth experiences through deficit frames of representation, completion and performance. By sharing the insights, reflections and aspirations of 15 young Indigenous Australian participants this paper calls for Indigeneity to be centred in ideations and indicators of Indigenous youth success. Findings confront institutionalised and hierarchical ideals of Indigenous Australian success premised on dominant neoliberal ideation and the accumulation of White cultural and social capital. Through an Indigenist Research lens this paper presents aspirational development and achievement as a complex and raced space where Indigenous Australian secondary school leavers articulate ambition and agency in developing successful careers, rich in cultural wealth and with their identity intact.