Between 'lifting off the labels' and 'hearing it in their voices' : revealing dilemmas and transformation in postgraduate students of Aboriginal health and wellbeing

![CDATA[This paper outlines the learning trajectories of mature-age students as they negotiate the complex spaces of Aboriginal health and wellbeing through participation in a postgraduate public health program provided by a small, dedicated First Peoples’ health and wellbeing unit in an Australian university. Importantly this program occurs within the broader context of continuing colonialism and racism, and a raft of health and social inequalities experienced by Australia’s First Peoples. Students bring intense discomfort at the legacy of our shared history and are aware of their society’s resistant assumptions and beliefs that change is simply not possible. Our approach to address this systemic nation-wide challenge has been to provide a learning environment, in particular an innovative group-based scenario planning assessment, that aims to enable students to reframe their beliefs, feelings and practices towards personal and social transformation. The research presented here draws on a longitudinal multiple methods study tracing the experiences of our students. Using qualitative analysis underpinned by theoretical frameworks including Honig (1994), Mezirow (2000), Lawrence and Cranton (2015), Hoggan (2016) and Cheers, Darracott, & Lonne (2005), we examine how our pedagogical approach has fostered students’ transformative learning and empowering change in their own personal and professional lives. Preliminary findings of data collected over a two-year period with 28 students and focus on a case study of a six students revealed evidence and descriptions of emerging dilemmas, insights, impacts and the nature of empowerment and transformation in this specific context. Two areas where significant growth and empowerment was measured and discussed were enhanced understanding of self and gaining voice. Our preliminary findings raise important questions about how and where we might usefully employ the term ‘disorienting dilemma’ within higher educational contexts. Catalysts for growth associated with critical self-awareness and empowerment are linked to students’ expressions of new capacities to join the national dialogue and contribute to social justice through personal and professional practices that we contend will contribute to First People’s health and wellbeing.]]