NATSIEC delivers community-informed independent evidence-based advocacy and advice to Australian governments. We focus on education policies and programs of national importance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, across the lifelong learning cycle through early childhood education, primary and secondary schooling, skills, training and higher education sectors.

Our Story

NATSIEC evolved from the more than 40 years of continued educational sector engagement and collective leadership of the six state and two territory Indigenous Education Consultative Bodies (IECBs - sometimes also referred to as Aboriginal Education Consultative Groups).

We continue a tradition of strong community-based consultative voices to government from the legacy of the ground-breaking 1977 National Aboriginal Education Committee and the 1989 Aboriginal Education Policy that underpins education strategy to this day.

NATSIEC delivers community-informed independent evidence-based advocacy and advice to Australian governments. We focus on education policies and programs of national importance and ensure there is a national community controlled education voice in Closing the Gap efforts. Our engagement with the education sector spans across the lifelong learning cycle - through early childhood education, primary and secondary schooling, skills, training and higher education sectors.

In 2023 NATSIEC formally incorporated under the Office of the Registrar Indigenous Corporations ORIC and was provided with Membership on the Coalition of Peaks. In 2024 NATSIEC will enter into a formal Partnership Agreement, as the national peak Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education body, with the Education Ministers.

NATSIEC thanks the Australian Government Department of Education for its funding to support NATSIEC’s establishment.

Our Board

Professor Peter Buckskin, PSM FACE

Co-Chair

Professor Peter Buckskin is a Narungga man from the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. For over 40 years Professor Buckskin’s passion has been the pursuit of educational excellence for Aboriginal people.

Aunty Geraldine Atkinson

Co-Chair

Geraldine Atkinson is a proud Bangerang/Wiradjuri woman from North Eastern Victoria. She has been instrumental in driving government and policy reform in Aboriginal education.

Ray Ingrey

Director

Ray Ingrey is a Dharawal and Dunghutti man from the La Perouse Aboriginal community in Sydney, New South Wales. He has been involved in Aboriginal Education for over two decades.