Reflection on a collaborative journey to embed an Indigenous graduate attribute in social marketing curricula Open Access

The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) requires all graduates to achieve an Indigenous Graduate Attribute (IGA) focused on professional capabilities to work with and for Indigenous Australians. This integration, led by the Indigenous Teaching and Learning Team (ITLT), is embedded across UTS courses through the UTS IGA Curriculum Framework (Gainsford and Attree, 2025).

Social marketing applies marketing principles to influence behavioural change in individuals and communities for greater social good (Kubacki and Szablewska, 2019). In an Australian context, the Closing the Gap strategy is a collaborative national approach aimed at reducing disparities between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous peoples in Australia. In response, numerous social marketing campaigns have been developed aimed at improving the health and social outcomes of Indigenous Australians. Examples include Aboriginal Quitline, Aboriginal Heart Health and No Germs on me (George et al., 2024). To enhance the effectiveness of these campaigns it is important that social marketing professionals engage Indigenous Australian ^[1] communities in the entire process from ideation to execution and evaluation (George et al., 2024).

For social marketing professionals to engage ethically and effectively with Indigenous Australians to improve the success of such campaigns, there is a corresponding need for Australian universities to equip their graduates with these capabilities. Analysis of the educational literature reveals that there is a lack of studies examining how Indigenous graduate capabilities can be embedded in business disciplines generally and in marketing disciplines specifically. Furthermore, while industry and professional bodies in disciplines such as health, education and architecture ^[2] have worked with Indigenous communities and organisations to develop professional capabilities and standards relevant to engaging with Indigenous Australians, this has not been the case in business professions. Accordingly, marketing academics have been unable to draw on established frameworks to guide their work (Chan et al., 2023).

This research aims to address this gap. Accordingly, we detail our experiences designing and delivering Indigenous perspectives in a postgraduate social marketing subject with the aim of developing graduate skills to work effectively for and with Indigenous Australian contexts as ethical marketing practitioners. Importantly, this work is underpinned by an Indigenous-led framework and process.

The rest of this article is organised as follows. Firstly, we begin with a positionality statement from each author. Next, we synthesise the literature on Indigenous perspectives in curricula and provide an evaluation of the competence and capability frameworks of key professional marketing bodies, industry organisations and other relevant entities to determine their expectations regarding graduates’ abilities to work effectively for and with Indigenous Australians. This analysis is further enriched by an examination of the scholarly marketing literature for information on requisite capabilities. Following this, we detail the methodology used for data collection and analysis. Finally, we discuss the findings, limitations of the study and directions for further research.

Annette: I am a proud Wiradjuri woman, born, raised and still residing on Wiradjuri Country, deeply connected to my family’s stories and history. I acknowledge the Gadigal people and their enduring connection to the lands where UTS is situated and where this work took place. With extensive experience as an Indigenous educator across the tertiary education sector, I have led significant initiatives to integrate Indigenous perspectives into curricula. My work is dedicated to fostering collaborative and supportive environments where Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators can share and enhance Indigenous curriculum practices.

Kath: I am a first-generation Australian descendant of British parents, living on the unceded lands of the Wiradjuri people. I am still on my journey of learning in the Indigenous space. As Senior Lecturer – Curriculum Design and non-Indigenous member of Indigenous Teaching and Learning team – I believe that, as educators, we have a responsibility to listen to, take the lead from and work collaboratively with our Indigenous colleagues to try to rebalance history, redress some of the past wrongs of this country and graduate professionals who can work effectively and consultatively with and for Indigenous Australians, and for a more socially just society.

Kaye: I am a researcher and educator of British descent and am committed to my own learning and growth in this space to redress historical injustices. As a Senior Lecturer and Associate Head (Education) in Marketing, I have experience teaching in specialised Indigenous-focused programmes and developing the IGA across various programmes. I work closely with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous colleagues to support students to become graduates who can effectively work with and for Indigenous Australians.

David: I am a non-Indigenous researcher and educator of Euro-Western descent. As a Professor in Marketing, I have experience in teaching students in specialised Indigenous-focused programmes and was Head of Department when developing a degree programme with an embedded IGA.

Discussion of the literature is divided into three sections. The first section underscores the critical importance of developing marketing graduates who possess the capability to work with and for Indigenous Australians. The second section examines the competency frameworks put forward by marketing professional bodies and associated entities for guidance on graduate skill requirements. Finally, the social marketing literature is examined to identify existing theoretical frameworks or models that can guide social marketers in the development of these capabilities.

As noted by Raciti (2022), calls to embed Indigenous perspectives in Australian university curricula date back decades, beginning in the 1990s. These calls continued through the early 2000s with the work of the Indigenous Higher Education and Advisory Council and were reinforced by Bradley et al.’s (2008) Review of Higher Education. Universities Australia (2011) followed with the release of their comprehensive National Best Practice Framework for Indigenous Cultural Competency, providing a model for higher education institutions to support reconciliation by valuing Indigenous cultures, knowledge and peoples. A key component of this framework was embedding Indigenous perspectives in curricula. These recommendations were reinforced in Universities Australia’s (2017, 2022) Indigenous strategy documents. Most recently, the Universities Accord Final Report (O’Kane et al., 2024) has reiterated the need for Australian universities to introduce a First Nations graduate attribute.

These sectoral calls echo the voices of Indigenous scholars who have emphasised the importance of enhancing the competence of the Australian workforce to work more effectively for and with Indigenous Australian peoples and communities (Behrendt et al., 2012) to combat prejudice and discrimination, and to advance reconciliation (Burns, 2013; Gainsford and Evans, 2017).

Institutions have responded to these calls in various ways (Rigney, 2011). In disciplines such as health and education, mandatory Indigenous professional capability standards that graduates must evidence have led to the creation of specific curriculum units focused on Indigenous content and perspectives (Burgess et al., 2022; Delbridge et al., 2022). In addition, some institutions have adopted a whole-of-institution approach by developing an IGA whereby all students, regardless of discipline, acquire knowledge of Indigenous Australian contexts and critically examine the nature of the profession to develop professional capabilities to work for and with Indigenous Australians (Attree et al., 2023; Gainsford and Attree, 2025).

From an employability perspective, the ability to work effectively for and with Indigenous peoples is increasingly an expectation of many organisations, industry bodies and professional standards agencies (Gainsford and Attree, 2025; Gainsford and Evans, 2017). However, no such standards or guidance frameworks have been offered by industry bodies in the field of marketing (Chan et al., 2023). Moreover, the academic social marketing literature provides limited guidance on Indigenous perspectives.

Impediments to implementing Indigenous perspectives in curricula include the small number of Indigenous academics employed in the sector (Delbridge et al., 2022) who may not always have specialist curriculum skills. For these academics, this work is often an additional cultural load (or tax) layered on top of their existing workload (Page et al., 2016; Raciti, 2022). Hesitancy on behalf of non-Indigenous staff who often feel ill-prepared or unqualified to teach Indigenous perspectives is another barrier (Gainsford and Attree, 2025; McPhail et al., 2025; Raciti, 2022). In response to this, Raciti (2022, 2023) has challenged non-Indigenous academics to step up, unpack their attitudes, power, practices and positionality, educate themselves about Indigenous histories, cultures and worldviews, engage scholarly with Indigenous principles of self-determination and relationality, learn about Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing, take action to embed Australian Indigenous perspectives into marketing courses, and to collaborate, co-design and co-publish teaching resources and tools. To date, only one study could be found responding to this call (Lambert et al., 2024).

There are several Australian marketing bodies that inform professional capabilities. These include the professional body, the Australian Marketing Institute (AMI) (2024); the academic body, Australia and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC); and industry associations such as the Australian Association of Social Marketers (AASM). Ancillary bodies include The Market Research Society and the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC).

An analysis of the capabilities outlined by these bodies reveals a lack of specificity regarding professional capabilities to work for and with Indigenous peoples, communities and organisations. For instance, the recently developed AMI competency framework outlines four key skill and capability components: core, technical, business and people. While ethical conduct and professional integrity are emphasised, there is no direct mention of an “Indigenous” professional capability.

The ABDC serves as the collective voice of Australian business schools and aims to promote excellence in business education. In 2012, the ABDC published threshold standards for key business disciplines, including accounting, marketing, finance, economics and management (ABDC, 2012). These standards provide clear benchmarks for what students should know and be able to do upon graduation. Similar to the AMI capabilities, the ABDC marketing capabilities refer to ethics and integrity, but lack specific reference to working for and with Indigenous peoples in a professional context. Examination of the ABDC website indicates that the main focus of their activities in relation to Indigenous Australians is on initiatives to attract more Indigenous students into business schools. Indigenous perspectives in curriculum and requirements for all graduates to work effectively for and with Indigenous Australians appear to be overlooked.

Social marketing strategic planning models provide structured approaches to designing and implementing social marketing campaigns. These models are used in teaching contexts to provide students with guidance regarding the process of social marketing in practice. George et al. (2024) argued that decolonised approaches to social marketing promote Indigenous self-determination, authentic engagement, open dialogue and transparent processes. However, examination of the social marketing literature revealed that, in the majority, these models lack explicit communication of Indigenous self-determination and autonomy, instead reflecting a Euro-Western perspective that assumes problems and solutions without community consultation and validation. This presents notable complexities for non-Indigenous academics engaging with this content and may have implications for the effectiveness of social marketing initiatives aimed at supporting behavioural change within Indigenous communities (Akbar et al., 2021; Millard and Akbar, 2024).

Given the importance of authentic engagement to social marketing involving Indigenous peoples (George et al., 2024), the various scholarly models were examined to determine the importance each placed on stakeholder engagement (e.g. Van Hierden et al., 2022; Roemer et al., 2025). While some authors include stakeholder involvement as an important step in the social marketing planning process (Luca, 2021; McHugh et al., 2018; Rundle-Thiele et al., 2019), it often only occurs after problem identification and planning has taken place. A notable exception is the recent model proposed by Cateriano-Arévalo et al. (2025) which shifts this paradigm by placing a strong emphasis on Indigenous leadership or co-development, key principles for working for and with Indigenous peoples and communities.

In summary, calls from sectoral bodies and Indigenous scholars requiring universities to produce graduates capable of working effectively for and with Indigenous Australians have been ongoing. While some industries have responded by developing frameworks and guidelines to enhance professional capabilities in students, this has not been the case in business disciplines. Despite the emphasis by Australian marketing bodies on ethical conduct and professional integrity as important graduate skills, there remains a notable gap in capabilities aligned to working effectively with Indigenous stakeholders. As mentioned, academic social marketing planning frameworks frequently reflect Euro-Western paradigms, highlighting the need for more appropriate and genuinely decolonised approaches. This lack of guidance presents a challenge to educators when integrating Indigenous perspectives in curricula, as will be discussed below.

UTS is a large metropolitan university in Sydney located on the ancestral lands of the Gadigal of the Eora Nation and the Boorooberongal of the Dharug Nation. UTS has adopted a whole-of-institution approach to embedding Indigenous perspectives in curriculum and requires all graduates from its 500+ onshore programmes to attain an IGA. The IGA has a professional practice focus. Rather than “looking through the window” at Indigenous Australians, students are required to “look in the mirror” to identify and acquire the skills knowledge and capability that they need to work with and for Indigenous Australians. Under the leadership of the Associate Dean Indigenous Teaching and Learning, staff in the ITLT work collaboratively with discipline-based course teams to embed the IGA across UTS’ programs (Gainsford and Attree, 2025).

As part of a reaccreditation process for the Master of Marketing programme, subjects were revised or redeveloped in response to feedback from various stakeholders. The integration of Indigenous perspectives in the programme was an important component of this reaccreditation. While the IGA perspectives are embedded and assessed in a number of subjects, the final assurance of the IGA is attained in a new subject. Developed to align and integrate United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and global social concerns including the rights of Indigenous peoples, this new subject aims to provide students with a foundation of social marketing theories and strategies to drive social good.

Discussion between the marketing course team academics and ITLT identified that stakeholder engagement was an important professional capability for social marketers. Key to the learning was student awareness that Indigenous Australians are not a homogenous group (George et al., 2024) and thus skills in identifying which stakeholders to contact, as well as knowledge of appropriate ethical practice for engagement such as trust, reciprocity and Indigenous self-determination was central (George et al., 2024). Application of the skills and knowledge for the IGA was assessed via a report which required the students to:

An important part of this collaborative process to embed the IGA was the opportunity to review the delivery following implementation.

The method of inquiry used for this study was collaborative critical reflection. Critical reflection is a qualitative research approach that encourages participants to scrutinise their own subjective interpretations and teaching assumptions. It is defined by Fook (2011, p. 56), as “a way of learning from and re-working experience”. By critically reflecting on their practice, academics can explore the complexities of teaching and learning, the student experience, their own beliefs and biases, institutional norms, power relations and systemic barriers and respond by developing new approaches to the scholarship of teaching and learning (Brookfield, 2017; Healey et al., 2020). Reflection is particularly beneficial for examining unusual, complex or perplexing situations or experiences (Rodgers, 2002). Bodkin-Andrews et al. (2022) suggested that implementation of IGA into curricula requires careful reflection on teaching and learning practices, while Raciti (2021) challenged marketing academics to “turn the mirror onto ourselves” and engage in critical reflection to examine our intersectionality, privilege, guilt and reluctance to embed Indigenous perspectives in marketing courses (p. 210). Through critical reflection “the presuppositions on which our beliefs have been built” are critiqued and learning occurs through the “process of making new or revised interpretation of an experience” (Mezirow, 1990, p. 90).

When undertaken collaboratively critical reflection allows us to detail our experience, examine it dialogically from a range of perspectives and integrate theory into practice (Fook, 2011; Rodgers, 2002; Thompson and Pascal, 2012). Fook (2011) argued that because new meaning is jointly crafted through this process of critical reflection, the collaborators are essentially co-researchers. The four co-researchers in this study were all engaged in in the process of designing, delivering and reviewing the implementation of an IGA into the Master of Marketing programme and came together after delivery to critically reflect on the learnings from this initiative and the implications for our practice. This approach has been used effectively elsewhere by Indigenous and non-Indigenous teaching teams to examine learnings (Attree et al., 2023). In addition to being part of the process of reviewing and reflecting, each researcher had a different role in the process as shown in Table 1 below.

Brookfield (2017) recommended that educators draw on different lenses to critically evaluate their practice. The three lenses used in this study focused on colleagues, personal and theoretical. Formal collaborative reflections were conducted across a series of six meetings representing the collegial lens. The first two of these meetings were recorded, transcribed and uploaded to NVivo. Two researchers coded the transcripts into themes for analysis. These themes were reviewed by all four researchers and the names of the themes were collaboratively determined.

The initial recorded meeting focused primarily on Kaye’s personal teaching experience and her recollection of conversations with her teaching team. The second recorded meeting focused on our responses to the coded data from feedback on assessments, discussions on the students learning and reflections on changes or improvements for the next iteration.

Following the meetings, various team members wrote individual reflections (the personal lens) documenting their thoughts on the meeting discussions. All this data, i.e. the meeting transcriptions, and our individual reflections formed the basis of our collaborative reflections in later meetings and our analysis and thematic coding progressed in an iterative and ongoing process.

These collaborative and individual reflections were wide ranging covering many aspects including our own positionality, personal feelings of discomfort, anxiety and hesitation in delivering Indigenous perspectives, adaptations made in delivery to address these feelings, and our thoughts on the students’ assessments and their learning journey. The advantage of having both Indigenous and non-Indigenous team members was that we could share perspectives and examine the situation from multiple viewpoints, thus deepening our learning.

Our discussions were also informed by members’ knowledge of scholarly literature, with each member drawing on their particular area of expertise to make comparisons, interpret and add nuance to the conversation.

Alongside the overarching concept of a journey, three key areas emerged from our collaborative reflections:

1. adaptations made by the non-Indigenous teaching team during delivery to address their challenges and hesitations;

2. support, guidance and professional frameworks; and

3. positionality and transferability of the learning.

Each of these themes are discussed below.

An early topic in our collaborative reflections was the challenges and hesitations the non-Indigenous teaching team faced in delivering the Indigenous perspectives and assessing student work. From the lecturer’s perspective there was a feeling of being ill equipped, nervous and uncertain as illustrated by Kaye: I was really scared and nervous …

To prepare herself before delivery Kaye reached out to the ITLT staff and to Indigenous colleagues for support and advice. She described how these people empowered her to keep going, reinforced the importance of allyship and noted the shortage of Indigenous academics to do the work. Nevertheless, she recalls:

This challenge was further amplified as staff approached the workshop where students presented their plan and received direct feedback from teaching staff. This feedback would then be used by students to build their individual reflections. Before this class occurring, the tutor – a white Anglo-Saxon from Northern England – began to feel really uncomfortable. Kaye explained it as follows:

To address this hesitation and support the tutor, Kaye attended the student workshop and provided the feedback to students. To address her own hesitations, Kaye adapted her feedback to verbal:

The approach proved to be a valuable learning tool for all involved. Kaye recalled:

Thus, it became evident to staff that the real learning for students was not necessarily in the stakeholder engagement plan, rather in the feedback on that plan and the ability for students to take that feedback forward into their reflections and discuss how the learning influenced their thinking about their own professional practice to work for and with Indigenous Australians as future marketers.

In our meetings, the four of us reflected that the opportunity to discuss and dissect the delivery enabled us as Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff in our roles as curriculum designers, subject coordinators and lecturers to learn from this process, e.g.:

In responding to the teaching teams’ hesitations and concerns regarding teaching Indigenous perspectives, Annette commented that it was common for people to express the opinion that “non-Indigenous people shouldn’t teach Indigenous knowledges, which is true” but that there was “a misunderstanding between Indigenous knowledges and professional capability” which anyone can teach.

Annette was keen to emphasise the professional practice focus of the IGA at [institution], e.g.:

In internal training sessions provided to academic staff led by Annette, the ITLT emphasised that staff should curate not create resources, preferably using resources developed by or in conjunction with Indigenous peoples and communities. We reflected that the challenge for the marketing discipline was that there is a lack of academic or industry literature. The team suggested that there was a distinct need for academics, industry, community groups and professional bodies to work collaboratively and proactively to develop guidelines, frameworks and case studies for use in teaching. Such resources would aid academics to embed Indigenous perspectives in curriculum and better equip our graduates to work with and for Indigenous Australians.

Through the reflective process, the importance of positionality was also highlighted. The Master of Marketing programme attracts a high number of international students, many from mainland China who “struggled to take it in.” Although staff had discussed their own positionality in relation to Indigenous Australia in class, students themselves had not been encouraged to think about themselves. Our collaborative reflection highlighted the opportunity to add further discussion on positionality in closer proximity to the delivery of the topic on stakeholder engagement with Indigenous Australians, e.g.:

We also acknowledged that “change is slow”, noting that:

This discussion on positionality brought home to Annette and Kath the importance of including positionality in the internal training and support that the ITLT provide to academic staff. Helping academics to understand their own positionality in relation to Indigenous Australia, and in being able to recognise that they don’t need to be an expert, that they can acknowledge their own journey as incomplete, may help staff increase their confidence to teach Indigenous perspectives.

The team also discussed the transferability of the learning for the international students. For example, Annette highlighted how developing knowledge and skills for engagement and communication with Indigenous Australians could be useful in other contexts:

We discussed how many nations contained Indigenous populations and diverse cultural groups and many had experienced colonisation. Kaye reflected that the teaching team could emphasise the transferability of the learning more in future iterations, noting “that this skill is important, no matter where you’re working.”

Our personal reflections provide a viewpoint from four different areas of teaching and learning, i.e. those involved in the student interface, an academic manager (Head of Department) at the school level, an individual engaged in Indigenous curriculum design and development, and the Indigenous curriculum expert operating at the macro (University) level responsible for the implementation and management of the IGA. Each paragraph below is a summary of the individual notes, reflections, thoughts and musings each of us engaged in during the data collection and analysis.

David: As part of the reaccreditation of the Master of Marketing, the development of the IGA was incorporated. The reaccreditation working group met regularly as part of the process and attended IGA implementation workshops and training. The team worked collaboratively with ITLT on drafts to identify subjects, content and assessments. It was decided that Indigenous aspects would be introduced and developed in an early subject. Further development of the IGA would then be assured in a later subject. To address staff concerns about how they would teach content relevant to the IGA, staff were asked to complete a training course. It was made clear that the staff were not teaching Indigenous knowledge, but how business can take into account their own actions when working with and for Indigenous peoples and communities.

Kaye: Firstly, through the process of reflection, the focus on development of professional capabilities and the building of confidence around this educational initiative was clearer to me. This focus on capabilities would address the hesitation and feelings of my inadequacy for both me and the tutor. My self-efficacy has been enhanced building on this lived experience and the reflective process and open discussion.

Secondly, synthesising the body of literature, which is not explicit in the important role of stakeholder engagement was challenging. It helped me understand that I was not presenting Indigenous knowledges and enabled me to hone in on the importance of ensuring that Indigenous rights to self-determination and autonomy are appropriately addressed in marketing contexts.

Building frameworks and guidelines within our social marketing academy to enhance the scaffolding of education of these capabilities will further enhance educators’ skills, knowledge and confidence in the development of our student’s capabilities.

Support is key to strengthening our comfort zone and areas of teaching and learning. This journey was fully supported from its initiation by the ITLT, our Business School Learning and Teaching team and marketing department leadership. This support enabled the academic teaching team to demonstrate vulnerability to students which highlighted the importance of the journey we are on together.

My concluding reflection of this journey of learning, relates to being openly vulnerable to students about the journey I was on and being willing to self-correct language and approach this openly and honestly. This requires safety within a classroom environment to be established, and therefore, it is important that this content is taught in the middle of a subject, versus earlier when classroom safety is still being developed and demonstrated in discussions on other topics. This also highlights the importance of university, faculty and department leadership support as academics embark on a journey of educating students about working with and for Indigenous peoples and the development of our students’ professional capabilities. Furthermore, the teaching team’s confidence in building student professional capabilities was highlighted, and it clearly differentiated professional capabilities from Indigenous knowledge.

Kath: Usually when ITLT staff begin working with course teams on embedding the IGA, we first check professional standards or guidelines to ascertain whether they identify capabilities needed to work for and with Indigenous Australians. For marketing we could not find any. In talking to Kaye about the intersection of the profession with Indigenous Australians in social marketing it became apparent that for campaign work to be effective it requires Indigenous consultation. Therefore, we decided on stakeholder engagement as the professional capability. In the absence of professional frameworks ITLT staff looked to other disciplines for guidance, e.g. health. However, the problem with this is that students (and academics) turn off when the resources are not from their discipline – “that’s health, not marketing” is how they perceive it.

In our reflections with the teaching team on the delivery of IGA content, it became apparent that we needed to consider the student cohort when engaging in curriculum design. In this case, with a predominantly international cohort, still undergoing cultural adaptation to Australia and a new learning environment, we needed to modify our expectations for learning and change. Change is gradual; we can’t expect drastic shifts in one 12-week session. To engage students with the content, we need to build touchpoints across the course and emphasise that this learning builds their professional capability for work contexts. For this cohort also, the opportunity to talk about transferability of the learning presents another engagement touchpoint.

This collaborative reflection has also highlighted to me the importance of the training and support delivered by ITLT in scaffolding staff capabilities and building confidence. The other aspect that I have thought about is how we are all on a journey. We are all learning and need to work together and support each other. We should allow ourselves to make mistakes and learn from these, just as we expect our students to make mistakes and learn.

Annette: As the Associate Dean of Indigenous Teaching and Learning, I provide leadership for the University’s IGA. In addition, I lead the ITLT, which assists course directors and subject academics in designing, developing and delivering the IGA in the curriculum.

My role in the marketing course, as in others across the university, involved ensuring the framework was embedded, including the integration of professional capabilities into discipline-specific content.

Reflecting on my learnings from this collaborative critical reflection, several key factors emerged: the goodwill of academics in embracing the IGA, their commitment to creating a quality student experience and their dedication to bringing other academics on the learning journey. Discussions with the course team indicated that the IGA Curriculum Framework is a robust tool for academics to effectively develop students’ professional capabilities related to stakeholder engagement in social marketing. However, it was evident that the ITLT played a crucial collaborative role in supporting academics to apply the framework and facilitate the professional development needed at different stages of the process.

Another insight was the willingness and vulnerability of the academics involved to share their IGA learning journey. Even when challenges were identified, they readily engaged in problem-solving, reflection and sought support and advice from each other and direction from the ITLT. This openness demonstrates their dedication to building capacity to enhance the IGA experience for students and to provide valuable insights for other academics. This emphasises the value of two-way learning and sharing that prioritises critical reflection as a central component of the IGA teaching and learning process. These actions indicate that listening to academic experiences is crucial for improving IGA practice which produces a positive IGA experience for students to work with and for Indigenous Australians across their chosen profession.

Collectively, these reflections underscore the importance of collaboration, vulnerability and ongoing support in embedding Indigenous perspectives meaningfully within the curriculum. This reflective process also revealed how critical it is to examine our own assumptions, positionalities and teaching practices, setting the stage for deeper engagement with the principles of collective critical reflection, as will be discussed in the next section.

Brookfield suggests “critical reflection is best practiced as a collective endeavour, a collaborative process in which people gather to ferret out assumptions, challenge groupthink and consider multiple perspectives on common experiences. (2017, p. 116). In turning the mirror on ourselves (Raciti, 2021), our reflective review of the implementation of an Indigenous graduate attribute into a postgraduate marketing subject has led to the critical evaluation of ourselves as educators, our processes, our assumptions, the positionality we bring to the work, the support we provide and seek, and the tools that we draw on to situate the learning in an authentic context, namely, the discipline theory and frameworks we are scaffolding the professional capability within.

Non-Indigenous staff hesitation towards teaching Indigenous perspectives is well noted in the literature (Delbridge et al., 2022). For instance, Raciti describes a Hesitant Hugh, a new lecturer who is unclear about the importance of Indigenous perspectives in curricula, unaware of the supportive training available within his institution, feels unprepared, unsupported, concerned about saying the wrong thing, and therefore decides not to act (Raciti et al., 2018; Raciti, 2022). By contrast, our staff were aware of the institutional commitment to the IGA, worked actively and collaboratively with staff in the ITLT to ensure the IGA was embedded in their course, attended the various support workshops on offer to build their own skills and capabilities. Nevertheless, similar to findings from McPhail et al. (2025), this study likewise found that even in a supported environment where staff are committed to embedding Indigenous perspectives in curriculum, feelings of nervousness and concerns over misappropriation or misrepresentation can persist leaving staff feeling uncomfortable, inadequate or lacking in confidence to deliver and facilitate Indigenous perspectives.

Our staff made adjustments in the delivery process to accommodate these feelings. As a more experienced educator, Kaye stepped up and took the leadership in the classroom. Her account of her teaching adaptations and her willingness to reveal her own positionality to the students and to describe the learning as a journey on which they were all teacher and learner alike travelling together, provided a model approach for her tutors which could then be used in future delivery. Her reflections on this process provided valuable insights for Annette and Kath, which could be fed into future Indigenous capability training and, as a result of these discussions, ITLT support is now available to teaching staff pre-, during and post-delivery. Teaching context, i.e. the background and characteristics of the learners was identified as important in the design process with this learning being fed reflectively into our own future practice, particularly if designing the IGA for a predominantly international cohort.

In addition to training and support, access to “tools” to guide and develop learning is critical for both staff and students. In academia, there has been long been a reliance on the textbook which draws together the seminal frameworks and models of leading scholars. These models and frameworks are then introduced to the students as guides for their future practice in industry. However, academic staff in this study struggled due to a lack of industry and professional guidance frameworks and a dearth of scholarly resources either developed by or with Indigenous Australians offering professional practice guidelines in [social] marketing.

In other academic fields, such as psychology and law, there has been a call for allyship (Gainsford et al., 2025; Selkirk et al., 2025). This requires all parties – the profession, higher education – to decolonise the academy. We argue that this need for allyship applies equally in marketing. We, therefore, echo Raciti’s (2021) call for all stakeholders, i.e. ANZMAC, AMI and AASM, to collaborate with Indigenous Australians to progress the development of capability frameworks, guidelines and other resources to support the development of graduate capabilities aligned to this important need within our profession.

Recently the ABDC showed remarkable leadership by consulting with peak industry bodies to understand how they are preparing their members for climate action. The resultant report (ABDC, 2025) details the technical and transferable skills required by business school graduates to transition the Australian and the global economy to net zero. Given the substantial work already carried out by similar industry peak bodies (e.g. Responsible Investment Australia, Business Council of Australia, Business Council of Cooperative and Mutuals and International Council on Mining and Metals) in developing toolkits, frameworks and best practice guidelines for their members to follow when doing business with Indigenous (Australian) peoples and in Indigenous communities, we suggest the focus of the next ABDC paper be on the capabilities required of Australian graduates to work effectively and ethically with Indigenous Australians.

In engaging in this reflection, we have responded to Raciti’s challenge to “turn the mirror onto ourselves” (2021, p. 210) and we have examined our intersectionality, positionality and reluctance to embed Indigenous perspectives in marketing courses. Our collaborative and collegial approach to reflection enabled vulnerability to be demonstrated, which humanised the learning and enhanced all educator’s understanding and capabilities (Mangione and Norton, 2023; Christodoulidi, 2024).

Building on the discussion, more explicit actions for social marketing from this work are outlined below.

As previously highlighted, social marketing models, whilst incorporating stakeholder engagement, are not explicit in leading with “a peripheral, consultative, ‘bottom-up’ model” (Chan et al., 2023, p. 803). Whilst “co-creation ensures that social marketing programmes are designed by, and not for, people” (Rundle-Thiele et al., 2021, p. 180), the focus of this step is on the programme. A self-determined and self-governing approach would lead with the need and outcome of the programme being decided by, and not for, people (in this case Indigenous Australians). Therefore, it is recommended that social marketers incorporate “flipping” the behavioural outcome before the initial step of co-creation. This would involve working directly with the community to identify the intended outcome and then proceeding with a social marketing model, such as co-create, build, engage (CBE) (Rundle-Thiele et al., 2021) or creating collective solutions process (Roemer et al., 2025). The flipping and circular approach would transition social marketing from not just being “centred on the needs of the target community” (Khan and Rundle-Thiele, 2024, p. 145) to being owned by the target community - enabling respect, reciprocity and self-determination. An example of the adaptation of the CBE model is provided in Figure 1.

Endorsement of such a model would enable incorporation of working for and with Indigenous people within social marketing education and practice and further support the futureproofing of the marketing academy through the appropriate education of today’s students. This bridges the gap between educator, learning models and professional capabilities to work with and for Indigenous Australians.

The importance of the support of non-Indigenous academics not just in introducing and incorporating professional capabilities but as they proceed through the journey of teaching with their students is reinforced in this paper.

As highlighted in this study, and in previous studies (McPhail et al., 2025; Raciti, 2022), feelings of inadequacy and apprehension in delivering Indigenous perspectives are felt by academics. This suggests attention should be paid not just to the delivery of preliminary capability training but also to the provision of ongoing support of academics – particularly non-Indigenous – as they teach Indigenous perspectives and develop the professional capabilities in students.

Figure 2 illustrates the importance of a collaborative approach involving marketing scholars, the broader marketing academy, higher education institutions (HEIs) and industry. Successfully developing Australian social marketing graduates to practice as ethical professionals working with Indigenous Australians in industry requires robust social marketing models, identification of key requisite professional capabilities, and ongoing dialogue, support and collaboration among educators and stakeholders.

This paper highlights the important relationship between the educator, Indigenous perspectives in curriculum and learning/teaching expertise and support for this work. Through this triad, we highlight the challenges, and opportunities, of implementing an IGA focused on graduate capabilities to work with and for Indigenous Australians in [social] marketing.

It is recommended that marketing societies and bodies seek advice from Indigenous Australian key organisations and bodies to develop comprehensive guidance and frameworks focusing on appropriate professional capabilities in [social] marketing.

Furthermore, the paper demonstrates the importance of Indigenous-led, University-driven support and resources and highlights that graduate professional capabilities can be built from Indigenous perspectives that can lead to a future based on reconciliation and recognition of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. This paper proposes models for both social marketing and HEI support of academics, which could be further explored and evaluated in future research.

The limitations of this paper include its specific focus on the Australian context and the absence of student voices and broader staff perspectives. Future research could address these gaps by using alternative qualitative methods, such as interviews or focus groups, to capture these viewpoints. In addition, investigating the impact of an IGA in the curriculum on graduates as they transition into the workplace would provide valuable insights. In conclusion, it is important to acknowledge that this reflective practice approach highlighted the journey that we are all on together. Through this journey the support of community to learn, adapt and encourage was demonstrated.