Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia

Dr Marnee Shay is an Aboriginal educator and researcher who is passionate about social justice, equity and community-driven research. Marnee’s maternal connections are to Wagiman country (Northern Territory) and she also has strong connections to Aboriginal communities in south east Queensland where she was raised.Marnee is an experienced secondary school teacher in flexischools – that offer a flexible curriculum for marginalised students – and has worked in diverse community school and TAFE settings with disenfranchised young people. Her academic teaching for pre-service teachers has included programs on Indigenous education and how to create positive learning environments for students.Marnee is a qualitative researcher who works with Indigenous peoples across urban, regional and remote communities, particularly in diverse school settings. She has developed a number of collaborative ‘yarning’ (story-telling) and creative methodologies for undertaking ethical research in Indigenous communities. This research has led to culturally and contextually relevant outputs developed by Indigenous young people including clothing items and text that creates voices on identity, health and wellbeing. Her research findings have resulted in school-wide reviews and changes to the way Indigenous education is undertaken, ensuring both suitability and sustainability of programs.Additionally, as a consultant, Marnee helps with genuine inclusion of Indigenous people and communities within schools, thereby building the capacity of the educators implementing Indigenous education strategies within the school environment. She also assists schools to develop relevant, collaborative and highly contextualised professional development programs relating to Indigenous education.