University psychology students will benefit from Australia’s first Indigenous-edited undergraduate textbook, which privileges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, cultures and contexts.

The Australian Indigenous Psychology Education Project at The University of Western Australia has partnered with Pearson Australia to launch a new edition of Psychology: from Inquiry to Understanding.

Bardi woman, Professor Pat Dudgeon AM, from UWA’s School of Indigenous Studies, Chief Investigator of Transforming Indigenous Mental Health and Wellbeing and Director of The Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention, is the executive editor of the fourth edition.

UWA researchers, Noongar woman and clinical psychologist, Ms Belle Selkirk, and Dr Joanna Alexi, were leads and assistant editors.

They focused on privileging Indigenous content, strengthening Indigenous authorship and resources, and greater emphasis on the diversity of peoples, cultures, and contexts in psychology.

“The new chapter on Indigenous psychology provides essential knowledges all psychologists, psychology educators and psychology students need to know,” Ms Selkirk said.

“The Indigenous governance and oversight have created a new era for university psychology textbooks — we encourage everyone in this discipline to read it.”

Professor Dudgeon’s Indigenous governance of the text makes it an Australian first for university students studying psychology.

“Indigenous knowledges have equal value to western knowledges and psychology education and textbooks must reflect this,” Professor Dudgeon said.

“Not only will this textbook support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander psychology students, but it will also enrich all psychology students’ learnings in cultural responsiveness.”
 
Psychology: from Inquiry to Understanding is now available as an eBook and in print via Pearson Australia.

Image above: Professor Pat Dudgeon, Ms Belle Selkirk and Dr Joanna Alexi.