Reconciliation Action Plan

Reconciliation Principles and Action Plan

This Reconciliation Principles and Action Plan aims to focus our organisation’s recognition and respect for the Indigenous peoples of Australia and Aotearoa / New Zealand and their sovereign connection to the land, their cultures, cultural knowledge and cultural processes within the organisation and our respective institutions.

ADSA’s vision for reconciliation is one in which Indigenous peoples are valued members of the creative, political and social fabric of these lands and their institutions. Our vision takes the form first and foremost of respecting Indigenous people’s right to self-determination, to create work on their own terms and create space for Indigenous knowledges within the academy. The intention of this document is to facilitate building relationships, building respect, and creating opportunities for Indigenous peoples and communities, both in the arts of performance itself, as well as in the discourse, scholarship and experience of these arts and other cultural forms within Australia and Aotearoa / New Zealand.


In order to achieve these aims we express our commitment to:

  • Finding appropriate ways of promoting and disseminating knowledge by and about these people’s cultures.
  • Setting and using ethical standards for scholarly engagement with research into Indigenous people’s performance culture including questions of treaties, cultural protocols, respect, consultation and collaboration.
  • Increasing the number of academics, undergraduate and postgraduate students identifying as Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Māori and other Indigenous peoples of the colonised lands such as the Moriori on which our institutions stand.
PRACTICAL STRATEGIES
To ensure respect for negotiated treaties and protocols in relation to research and teaching in our respective departments and the work published in the organisation’s journal Australasian Drama Studies.


To make inclusion of Indigenous peoples of the lands on which our institutions stand an integral part of conference planning as invited speakers, the focus of sessions and/or as practitioner participants and members of the organising committees.


To support policies and programs at our home institutions that increase employment of Indigenous peoples especially as academics.


To create and support programs that facilitate Indigenous student enrolments and completions.


To create a targeted Geoffrey Milne award to facilitate Indigenous postgraduates to actively participate in the annual conference.


To support the development of academic and performance work in Indigenous languages.


To facilitate Indigenous representation on the ADSA executive and the Editorial Board of ADS.


To review progress on these strategies annually at the ADSA Conference.