<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What does it mean to be included<\/em> in a workplace that was never designed for you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Make Us Count<\/em> report\u2014authored by Aboriginal scholars Debbie Bargallie, Bronwyn Carlson, and Madi Day\u2014offers a powerful, unflinching answer. Drawing on Indigenist and intersectional methodologies, the report centres the voices of Aboriginal women working in the Victorian public sector and exposes a stark truth: increased representation has not translated into justice, safety, or equity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite decades of diversity strategies, Aboriginal women continue to experience racism, misogyny, exploitation, and institutional indifference as everyday features of their working lives. The report makes clear that these are not isolated incidents or \u201cbad apples\u201d, but structural conditions produced by bureaucratic systems that reward compliance, silence dissent, and normalise racialised gendered harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the report\u2019s most damning insights is the way Aboriginal women are treated as numbers<\/em> rather thans(hohawnher than as workers with expertise, aspirations, and futures. Participants repeatedly describe being hired into precarious roles, stalled at the lowest rungs of organisational hierarchies, and denied pathways to progression\u2014while simultaneously being relied upon to carry the cultural, emotional, and political labour of \u201cIndigenous inclusion\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This unpaid labour\u2014organising NAIDOC events, advising on policy, educating colleagues about racism, mentoring others\u2014is not an unfortunate side\u2011effect of good intentions. It is a form of exploitation that allows institutions to perform reconciliation without redistributing power or resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A key intervention of Make Us Count<\/em> is its refusal to soften the language of harm. Rather than relying on terms like cultural load<\/em> or identity strain<\/em>, the authors name what is happening directly: racism, misogyny, and institutional violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report shows how complaint systems, cultural awareness training, and \u201ccultural safety\u201d initiatives often function as deflection strategies. Aboriginal women who report racism are routinely positioned as the problem\u2014too sensitive, too difficult, too political\u2014while perpetrators are protected and systems remain unchanged. In this way, inclusion becomes conditional on silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Jackie Huggins<\/strong> writes in the Foreword, there is a profound difference when research is conducted by<\/em> Aboriginal scholars rather than about<\/em> Aboriginal people. Make Us Count<\/em> demonstrates how Indigenous women\u2019s standpoint theory and Indigenist research methodologies reveal truths that dominant frameworks consistently miss or ignore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not simply about representation in research teams. It is about epistemic justice\u2014whose knowledge counts, whose experiences are believed, and whose analyses are taken seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report does not end with critique alone. It calls for concrete, systemic change: disaggregated data that makes Aboriginal women visible; secure employment and real career pathways; recognition and remuneration for unpaid labour; and a shift from performative \u201ccultural\u201d approaches to robust, Aboriginal\u2011led antiracism and racial literacy across institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The message is clear: if public sector workplaces are serious about gender equality and racial justice, they must stop congratulating themselves for inclusion and start dismantling the systems that continue to harm Aboriginal women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Make Us Count<\/strong><\/em> is not a comfortable read\u2014but it is an essential one. It asks institutions to move beyond counting Aboriginal women in the workforce, and instead to reckon with how, why, and for whom those workplaces continue to function.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCounting bodies, not valuing lives<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Racism rebranded as \u201cculture\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Why Aboriginal\u2011led research matters<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Beyond symbolism: a call to act<\/h3>\n\n\n\n