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Australian higher education policy espouses the need to expose students to Indigenous knowledges, cultures and pedagogies by embedding appropriate content into the curriculum. One way to overcome the challenges of guest speakers, lack of capacity and a crowded curriculum is to use digital materials regularly during lectures and tutorials. Videos have been shown to create empathy and emotional connection between students and the storyteller. The Voices project consisted of 12 semi-structured conversations with local Indigenous people covering a range of topics, each of which was edited for particular topics and courses to avoid student resistance to difficult material and avoid homogenous representations of Indigenous peoples. The edited video clips were shown in class and evaluated. This research reports on formal anonymous student feedback on teaching, questionnaire responses from 115 students and 10 in-depth interviews. Findings include the authenticity, emotional connection and empathy the storytellers provide, and the need for cultural courage to reflect on one's own positionality and privilege. We argue that digital storytelling is an effective pedagogy that also engages the community and helps further the higher education agenda for culturally inclusive knowledges and perspectives.

IntroductionAttention to Aboriginal health has become mandatory in Australian medical education. In parallel, clinical management has increasingly used Aboriginality as an identifier in both decision making and reporting of morbidity and mortality. This focus is applauded in light of the gross inequalities in health outcomes between indigenous people and other Australians.MethodsA purposive survey of relevant Australian and international literature was conducted to map the current state of play and identify concerns with efforts to teach cultural competence with Aboriginal people in medical schools and to provide “culturally appropriate” clinical care. The authors critically analyzed this literature in light of their experiences in teaching Aboriginal studies over six decades in many universities to generate examples of iatrogenic effects and possible responses.Results and discussionUnderstanding how to most effectively embed Aboriginal content and perspectives in curriculum and how to best teach and assess these remains contested. This review canvasses these debates, arguing that well-intentioned efforts in medical education and clinical management can have iatrogenic impacts. Given the long history of racialization of Aboriginal people in Australian medicine and the relatively low levels of routine contact with Aboriginal people among students and clinicians, the review urges caution in compounding these iatrogenic effects and proposes strategies to combat or reduce them.ConclusionLong overdue efforts to recognize gaps and inadequacies in medical education about Aboriginal people and their health and to provide equitable health services and improved health outcomes are needed and welcome. Such efforts need to be critically examined and rigorously evaluated to avoid the reproduction of pathologizing stereotypes and reductionist explanations for persistent poor outcomes for Aboriginal people.