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On 6 November 2025, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander high school students from across the region gathered at the University of Wollongong for a Social Work “Taster Session” as part of the My Future Matters on campus experience day. Designed to honour, affirm, and extend the caring knowledges these young people already carry, the session invited students to recognise the deep value of the everyday cultural work they do within their families, communities, and schools. Students were encouraged to identify the core social work values and skills they already practise—compassion, relational care, strength-based thinking, and the ability to hold space for culturally centred healing—while learning about UOW’s shift toward Country-centred curriculum design and the multiple culturally grounded pathways into the profession.
At the heart of the session was reciprocal storying. During a facilitated Yarn-up, which created space for two-way knowledge exchange that honoured how Australia’s First Peoples have long maintained the world’s oldest living cultures, students listened deeply and shared generously. The impact of Indigenous-led care, Indigenous collectivist care ethics, and Indigenous-led caring practices was explored. Conversations about how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have continuously protected, strengthened, and innovated diverse Indigenous Knowledge Systems flowed. Over three Yarn-up sessions, students highlighted the significant contributions young people make as they navigate “two-world walking”—learning in Indigenous communities informed by proper ways, while also meeting mainstream educational expectations —was a common thread throughout the yarns. Rather than simply outlining the Bachelor of Social Work or AASW-accredited pathways, the session respectfully recognised that all students were engaged in informal social work within their families and communities.
The session illuminated what mainstream narratives often overlook: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people perform sophisticated, culturally informed care work every day. They are already “Deadly Undercover Social Workers,” practising relational accountability, collective responsibility, conflict resolution, intergenerational care, and community advocacy. These capabilities are grounded in tacit cultural knowledge, informed by Indigenous care ethics that flow from Lore and Country-centred governance. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities continue to raise young people as future leaders and knowledge custodians whose strength, vision, and legacy sustain strong, resilient communities.
A particularly powerful moment occurred when a student—a young Yuin man—shared that he had never imagined university was “for him,” nor that Caring for Country could be a professional pathway. After the session, he shared that he now saw new possibilities for his future. A supporting teacher remarked they had “never seen him so still and engaged.” The UOW First Nations Social Work team affirmed that we have as much to learn from these young people as we have to teach. First Nations students are not only future leaders but collective rights holders who exercise self-determination every day as they defend and uphold cultural authority, practice resistance, and care for Country and Kin in proper ways.
Guided by the themes of radical reciprocity and working in proper ways, the session acknowledged that Indigenous-led social work extends far beyond Western professional frameworks. Whether university-qualified or community-taught, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples maintain reciprocal relationships with Country and kin, uphold collectivist ethics, and strengthen networks across communities and organisations. These longstanding practices continue to underpin Indigenous self-determination and community-led transformation.
Connecting with the young people who attended My Future Matters was a powerful reminder of the depth of leadership already flourishing within our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Their humour, insight, generosity, capability, and reflections of Indigenous care work show that the future of social justice, healing, and community wellbeing is in strong, capable hands.