Reclaiming eldership in the academy: an examination of the elders in residence roles in Australian higher education

Indigenous Australian Elders are key cultural authorities in higher education, with their presence expanding through Elders in Residence programs over the past two decades. While government reports, sector-wide reviews and institutional strategies recognise the value of Elders in Residence roles, research on the scope, efficacy and integration of such roles into institutional governance remains limited. Reporting on findings from an Australian Research Council-funded study, this paper centres the voices of six Elders in Residence through in-depth qualitative interviews and examines their positioning within complex, nuanced ecosystems of university governance, Indigenous leadership and community engagement. This paper presents the first sector-wide examination of Elders in Residence programs across Australian higher education institutions since the Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, which offered only limited discussion of Elders in Residence roles (Behrendt et al., 2012). Drawing on Moodie’s (2018) decolonising race theory, we analyse Elders’ contributions across fragmented webs of institutional power and accountability. Conceptually, the paper introduces the Dhurrun model to illuminate the layered, relational and adaptive nature of Elders’ roles within higher education ecosystems. Our findings reveal that Elders’ roles are often misunderstood, inconsistently supported, and at risk of being reduced to symbolic gestures, rather than recognised as vital agents of reform and relational governance. This paper identifies uneven patterns of recognition, participation and authority across institutional governance processes, exposing a fragmented and fragile ecology that undermines Indigenous sovereignty. We argue that (re)claiming Eldership within universities is essential to restoring Indigenous authority and embedding relational accountability at the centre of higher education ecosystems.