Working with First Nations: Delivering on the Priority Reforms
Overview
Build genuine partnerships. Deliver meaningful change.
The National Agreement on Closing the Gap calls for a fundamental shift in how governments work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, organisations and communities.
Working with First Nations: Delivering on the Priority Reforms is a practical professional learning program that helps you strengthen your understanding of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap and apply its Priority Reforms in your day-to-day work. Grounded in the four Priority Reforms, the program explores shared decision-making, community-controlled organisations, government transformation, and Indigenous data and information sharing. Using the Two-Eyed Seeing approach, you'll learn to draw on the strengths of both Indigenous and Western perspectives to support meaningful change.
Delivered online over six weeks, the program combines expert-led learning, real-world examples and cross-jurisdictional discussion. You will:
Understand the National Agreement and its four Priority Reforms.
Strengthen approaches to genuine partnership and shared decision-making.
Explore how government systems, structures and cultures can better support reform.
Identify practical actions you can take within your role and organisation.
For organisations, the program develops the capability needed to build stronger partnerships, support community-led outcomes and create more respectful, effective and accountable ways of working.
Who It's For
Designed for professionals working across government.
This program is for public sector professionals involved in policy, service delivery, reform and organisational practice affecting First Nations peoples. It is relevant to mid-level officers through to senior executives, including:
Policy and strategy professionals
Program and service delivery leaders
Human resources and organisational development practitioners
Procurement and commissioning specialists
Data, evaluation, planning and finance professionals
Managers, directors and senior executives
Learning and capability professionals
There are no entry requirements or formal application requirements.
Learning Outcomes
Build the confidence to contribute meaningfully.
This program helps you build the confidence and practical capability to apply the Closing the Gap Priority Reforms in your role and work more effectively with First Nations peoples, organisations and communities.
By the end of the program, you will be better equipped to:
Explain the significance of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap and its four Priority Reforms.
Recognise the continuing impacts of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Engage more effectively with First Nations peoples, organisations and communities, supporting genuine partnership and shared decision-making.
Apply Indigenous data principles and identify institutional racism and unconscious bias within workplace systems and practices and support reform and change within your own role and organisation.
Learning Experience
Learning designed for balance, focus and connection.
Learn through real-world application
Connect the Priority Reforms with challenges in your own role and identify practical opportunities for action.
Flexible design for real-world learning
Join a one-hour orientation and six live, 2.5-hour online sessions over six weeks, with 16 hours of learning in total.
Interactive, applied and fully supported
Take part in live presentations, facilitated conversations, breakout discussions and opportunities to ask questions.
Learn alongside public sector peers
Exchange perspectives with participants working across roles, agencies and jurisdictions.
Build capability you can use immediately
Apply your learning to partnership building, shared decision-making and the collection, storage and sharing of First Nations data.
Learning Approach
Grounded in expertise, built for performance.
Topics Covered
Key People
Faculty & Presenters.
The program is led by experienced practitioners and subject matter experts, including:
Geoff Richardson PSM - leader in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander engagement and cultural protocols.
Professor Catherine Althaus - expert in Indigenous public administration and leadership.
Participants also learn from guest presenters drawn from First Nations organisations, academia and the public sector, providing diverse perspectives and practical insights into delivering reform.
Success Stories
What participants say.
Catherine, Geoff, and the guest speakers, created this environment where you felt safe to ask questions that you might not otherwise have asked. They are very open about the difficulty of change, the size of the challenge, and the fact that it is alright to make mistakes.Nerida RixonAustralian Institute of Family Studies
For Organisations
Support emerging leaders across your jurisdiction.
How to Register
Ready to join the program?
October - November 2026
(6 x 2.5-hour sessions over 6 weeks)
Orientation: 13th October (2:00pm - 3:00pm AEDT)
Session 1: 15 October (2:00pm – 4:30pm AEDT)
Session 2: 22 October (2:00pm – 4:30pm AEDT)
Session 3: 29 October (2:00pm – 4:30pm AEDT)
Session 4: 5 November (2:00pm – 4:30pm AEDT)
Session 5: 12 November (2:00pm – 4:30pm AEDT)
Session 6: 19 November (2:00pm – 4:30pm AEDT)