Cultural Capital: Towards Enlightenment

Cultural competency is a concept some may have heard but are still getting used to. It is part of a broader interconnected framework of cultural capabilities, which includes cultural awareness, cultural competency and cultural safety. Although these concepts seem similar, each is quite different. Attaining a high level of cultural competency is a long journey filled with many lessons in humility and deep listening. At its core, Indigenous Australian cultural competency is the applied understanding of First Nations peoples’ histories, experiences, cultures and traditions. No mean feat, right? Don’t worry too much, as few could ever achieve full cultural competency. That would be like achieving enlightenment. We aren’t asking for that, but increasing our collective cultural competency harms nobody and will create a space of greater cultural safety in which First Nations people can exist, engage, share and lead.

In an everyday setting, cultural competency is about the ways you interact and act with and around First Nations people…