Kathryn is a Lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland in the College of Indigenous Studies, Education and Research. She has worked in the higher education sector for approximately 15 years and during this time has been able to establish strong professional networks across the nation. She came to higher education after working as an Artistic Director for Aboriginal Youth Arts in Adelaide, South Australia. She has carried her passion for teaching into the university where her work has primarily concentrated in the field of Aboriginal education. She applies her knowledge to think creatively about the ways in which a university education is to be framed within Aboriginal ways of knowing and doing and being to have meaning for Indigenous students. Additionally her interests extend to how Aboriginal practices can be expressed within the creative arts and how this maintains and represents customs and traditions.  In particular, Kathryn is interested in the way in which narrative as a theoretical tool connects to Aboriginal storying to tell about country (understood as home from which Aboriginal identification is derived), people and events. She sees this work as critically important given that the Aboriginal voice is rarely heard and largely ignored in mainstream Australian dialogue.  Kathryn ‘s work at USQ and at Bachelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education has and continues to focus on engagements with Aboriginal communities. Kathryn importantly embodies this engagement through her identification as a descendant of the Alyawarre nation. Through her teachings the concepts of pride and the sharing of space come to be understood as essential requirements for Aboriginal voice and speaking back to power. Kathryn’s passion is infectious and her work is solid, shining back on the glory of Aboriginal peoples and communities.
The Fulbright scholarship allows Kathryn to develop collaborations between Aboriginal women in Australia and Chicana women from California who share experiences of settler colonialism and though different is felt and lived in many similar ways. A key aspiration of this collaboration is to unite and bring to the fore the voices of radical women of colour across the Pacific in the production and sharing of narrative work forms. A further aspiration is based on sharing knowledge on how representation within a university can happen effectively for First Nations Peoples. Kathryn will teach Indigenous knowledges through structured conversations, lectures and workshops.