Cultural learning added to leaders scholarship programme for students at Adelaide colleges including Prince Alfred

Adelaide's Prince Alfred College, among colleges hosting students living in remote areas through the Indigenous Youth Leadership Program secondary education scholarships, was also being part of a trial of the Recognition of Aboriginal Cultural Knowledge and Learning programme to be included in the South Australian Certificate of Education course. 
Images courtesy Ben Lewis, Aboriginal programme coordinator, Prince Alfred College, Adelaide.

An extra dimension – Recognition of Aboriginal Cultural Knowledge and Learning – was being prepared in 2022 and 2023 to complement the Smith Family’s Indigenous Youth Leadership Program being hosted by Adelaide secondary schools.

Prince Alfred College was among the Adelaide colleges offering a place for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students living in remote areas of Australia via the the Indigenous Youth Leadership Program secondary education scholarships. The programme was funded by the National Indigenous Australians Agency and the Smith Family.

The programme supported scholarships for Indigenous students to attend approved secondary schools – day and boarding, government and non–government. It  aimed to develop a pool of positive role models and future leaders, to inspire other Indigenous students and illustrate the successes that could be achieved through education. To be eligible for the scholarship, applicants had to be young Indigenous Australians motivated and with high potential and committed to complete Year 12 and/or an undergraduate degree.

Besides Prince Alfred College at Adelaide's Kent Town, other Adelaide colleges taking part in the Indigenous Youth Leadership Program in 2024 were Concordia College at Highgate; Immanuel College at Novar Gardens; Loreto College at Marryatville; Pembroke School at Kensington Park; Rostrevor College at Woodforde; Sacred Heart College at  Somerton Park; St. Peter’s College at  St Peters: Westminster School at Marion; Wilderness School at Medindie; Xavier College at Gawler Belt; Walford Anglican School for Girls at Hyde Park. St Ann's College at North Adelaide arranged for with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander boarding students from Prince Alfred College to attend tutoring offered by university students. Navigator College at Port Lincoln was also part of the programme.

In 2022 and 2023, the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) board introduced a trial of its Recognition of Aboriginal Cultural Knowledge and Learning programme as central to its strategic Passport to Thrive vision. This programme – understood to be the only one of its kind in the world – empowered Aboriginal students to deepen their link to community, land and culture. It was piloted in 15 schools across South Australia and the Northern Territory, with 48 students receiving SACE certificate credits to recognised their cultural learning. 

As part of the program, students could engage in a cultural learning that was co developed, self directed or community-led. Students could also take part in spiritual and ceremonial practices such as ceremonial singing, including the use of song lines to map landscapes and ancestral journeys, or practise traditional methods of food and resource gathering, including hunting, fishing, and preparation, and investigate the complex social structures and kinship systems integral to Aboriginal culture.

Set to start across South Australia and the Northern Territory in 2025, the programme aimed to set a new benchmark for recognising and valuing Aboriginal cultural knowledge within senior secondary education. The Recognition of Aboriginal Cultural Knowledge and Learning programme offered Aboriginal students the opportunity to have their cultural knowledge and learning formally recognised within their SACE qualification