ANZSOG releases First Peoples strategy to incorporate Indigenous knowledge and culture into our work

ANZSOG has released its first organisation-wide First Peoples Strategy to recognise the measures we are taking to incorporate First Peoples knowledge and culture into our everyday work, and to provide a blueprint for building on this work in the future.

Indigenous models of governance and political organisation are some of the oldest and longest-continuing in the world and are a foundation for our understanding of distinctly Australian and Aotearoa-New Zealand governance models.

Find ANZSOG’s First Peoples Strategy on ANZSOG’s Corporate publications page

Efforts by governments to develop effective policies that meet the needs and aspirations of First Peoples will not succeed without understanding and including First Peoples knowledge and culture, and working in partnership with First Peoples communities.

Developing a First Peoples strategy recognises the impact of colonisation on Indigenous peoples, and the long history of government policies and actions that have disadvantaged and discriminated against First Peoples in both Australia and New Zealand.

The ANZSOG First Peoples Strategy has three objectives. We want to help build a future where:

First Peoples have increased success at all levels of the public sector
Public services are increasingly culturally competent as a result of ANZSOG’s programs
ANZSOG is a culturally confident organisation supporting the Australian and New Zealand governments

ANZSOG Dean and CEO Ken Smith said that its First Peoples Strategy was an essential part of fulfilling ANZSOG’s mission to lift the quality of public service leadership in Australia and New Zealand

“While First Peoples have participated in ANZSOG programs for many years as students and guest speakers, we have only recently begun incorporating First Peoples knowledge and culture into all our activities. This strategy consolidates our achievements to date and outlines the significant work we have ahead of us,” he said.

“In order to deliver effective public policy and better outcomes for First Peoples, and progressively repair the impact of colonisation, our public services need to continuously change and adapt. ANZSOG will contribute to that change in understanding and approach.

“Efforts to improve policy outcomes for First Peoples that centre on self-determination, will not succeed unless public services recognise the need to work with First Peoples communities as equals, and to incorporate First Peoples ways of being and knowing, across policy and program design and delivery.

“Public services must work to recruit and retain First Peoples staff at all levels, foster First Peoples leadership inside and outside public services, and recognise and respect the existing strengths of First Peoples communities and styles of leadership.”

The First Peoples Strategy was drafted in partnership with ANZSOG First Peoples staff and the executive and academic leadership, using information from surveys and interviews with ANZSOG staff, and across Australian and Aotearoa-New Zealand governments and our university partners.

ANZSOG will report progress on actions to the Board every 12 months, and will publish progress in ANZSOG’s annual Impact Snapshot. The First Peoples Strategy will be reviewed in 2022, with a continuous quality improvement (CQI) goal of producing a further strategy encompassing 2023-2025, complementing the remaining Strategy 2025 reporting period.

Initiatives ANZSOG is currently undertaking to implement the strategy include the Proud Partnerships First Peoples Conference, a recently announced First Peoples Scholarship and the Indigenous Public Servant Forum.

The First Peoples Strategy can be downloaded via ANZSOG’s Corporate publications page.

Follow @ANZSOG