Global Indigenous Doctoral Futures

The Research problem
Across settler-colonial higher education systems, Indigenous doctoral students continue to face systemic barriers that affect access, supervision quality, retention, and completion. While universities have introduced localised support initiatives, these are often fragmented, short-term, and disconnected from Indigenous knowledge systems and relational ways of working. There is limited international coordination between Indigenous doctoral students and Indigenous supervisors, despite shared histories of colonisation and common structural challenges across countries such as Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, and Canada.

This project responds to these inequities by addressing doctoral education not simply as an individual academic journey, but as a collective, intergenerational responsibility for thriving Indigenous futures. This seeding initiative recognises that strengthening Indigenous doctoral success requires strengthening Indigenous supervisory practice, leadership pathways, and international solidarity among Indigenous scholars.

Research Design
The initiative seeds an international Indigenous doctoral student and supervisor network drawing on the long-standing success of Te Kupenga o MAI (the Māori and Indigenous doctoral network) model in Aotearoa New Zealand, alongside successful Indigenous doctoral initiatives in Australia and Canada. The research is grounded in Indigenous methodologies that centre relationality, reciprocity, accountability, and collective knowledge-making.

The project will operate across three stages over 12 months:

1. Relational foundations– a series of online gatherings that build connection, share doctoral experiences, and establish mentoring relationships across countries.
2. Intensive in-person gathering– a three-day gathering hosted by the Indigenous Futures Centre at the University of Queensland, bringing together Indigenous doctoral students, supervisors, and senior research leaders for mentorship circles, student-led workshops, supervisor roundtables, and collaborative planning.
3. Knowledge mobilisation and sustainability– post-event virtual seminars, collaborative writing, and planning for future joint funding and publications.

The partnership involves Indigenous scholars from the University of Queensland, the University of Auckland, and the University of Alberta, each contributing distinct cultural, institutional, and geographic perspectives.

Project Objectives
The project aims to:

• seed a sustainable international Indigenous doctoral student and supervisor network;
• strengthen Indigenous doctoral education experiences and outcomes;
• enhance supervisory practice through peer-to-peer learning across national systems;
• support emerging Indigenous research leaders through international supervision mentoring;
• generate collaborative publications and a comparative policy brief on Indigenous doctoral education; and
• lay foundations for future WUN-supported grants and long-term collaboration.

WUN support is critical in enabling this cross-regional collaboration, leveraging its global network to foster Indigenous-led research futures grounded in equity, sustainability, and shared responsibility.