Building Indigenous perspectives into curriculum requires specialist academic skills and structured support. The Indigenous Voice Assistant (IVA), developed by the Oorala Aboriginal Centre on the Madgwick platform, offers a guided approach grounded in local context rather than generic responses.
Reflection first, answers second
IVA guides educators through considering how Indigenous perspectives might fit within their discipline. It suggests relevant Indigenous scholars, contemporary published work and local community connections, and prompts reflection on appropriate approaches.
Kate Carter, Academic Programs Co-ordinator at Oorala, who developed IVA with Dr Vanessa Sewell and Guido Posthausen, explains: "It's more about how you might start that process of self-education" and implementation within units.
IVA deliberately avoids providing ready-made answers. When asked to simply "indigenise" content, it responds: "Sorry, that's not my role." Instead, it directs educators to contemporary work by Indigenous authors and encourages local community engagement.
A rights-based quality standard
IVA is built on Professor Peter Anderson's rights-based educational framework and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This approach distinguishes between students' right to, in, and through education – framing indigenisation as institutional accountability rather than individual initiative.
Building professional agency
"The Indigenous Voice Assistant is an engine for professional agency."
The assistant provides scaffolding for educators to develop genuine curriculum design expertise. This reduces reliance on Indigenous academics for informal cultural consultation, recognising their research and career development needs.
Dr Sewell notes the tool's flexibility: "It would leave slots of where we could include Indigenous perspectives" in lesson planning.
Fourteen months of testing
Development began in April 2025 as part of a HEPPP project, followed by fourteen months of testing in which Indigenous academics, including Dr Sewell, systematically probed the assistant's boundaries. The tool was refined to prevent homogenising responses, and consistently directs users to specific local contexts.
What comes next
IVA is in active use ahead of a formal launch. The team is exploring integration with the Madgwick dashboard, and applying its design principles to other curriculum tools. Interest from other universities has been strong.
Try the Indigenous Voice Assistant
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