Indigenous-led institution seeking to lead First Nations research

Batchelor Institute’s ‘both-ways’ approach blends Indigenous traditions with western academic norms

In the tropical north of Australia, a revolution is underway that has been tens of thousands of years in the making. The old ways are informing an entirely new way of approaching higher education and research in the same lands that gave birth to the planet’s most ancient continuous culture.

The Northern Territory-based Batchelor Institute is Australia’s only First Nations-led, dual-sector tertiary education facility— conducting both vocational training and academic activities. For more than 40 years, its foundational philosophy has been what it calls a “both-ways” approach.