Embedding Indigenous pedagogy in professional learning for the University of Sydney

The challenge

The University wanted professional learning that addressed architects' responsibilities to Country, Community, Culture and Indigenous cultural knowledge. A compliance-led module could have repeated required statements without creating a respectful or meaningful learning experience.

The work needed to reflect extensive community consultation and avoid forcing Indigenous perspectives into a conventional linear course structure.

The approach

Curio worked from three years of consultation and designed around three relevant performance criteria: the implications of project work on Country, reciprocity with Community and Culture, and legal and ethical obligations relating to cultural knowledge.

Storytelling through filmed yarning circles became central to the experience. Circular navigation supported exploration and connection rather than presenting knowledge as a fixed sequence of topics. The module also connected into a wider community of practice.

What Curio delivered

• Learning design aligned to three professional performance criteria
• Filmed yarning-circle content
• A circular, non-linear digital course structure
• Activities connecting professional obligations with practice
• Extension into a community-of-practice model
• A design grounded in prior community consultation

The result

The University gained a professional learning module in which the form of the experience supported its purpose. Indigenous perspectives weren't treated as an additional content block; storytelling, navigation and connection shaped how professionals engaged with the learning.