Indigenous Game Changers

Enabling Indigenous Australians to flourish and thrive

- Professor Rhonda Craven, Director IPPE, 2025.

Led in partnership by the Wonnarua Nation Aboriginal Corporation (WNAC) and the Australian Catholic University, the Indigenous Game Changers (ICG) program brings together a powerful alliance of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers, community leaders, next-generation scholars, government, and industry partners. We are united by a shared commitment to closing the educational gap on Wonnarua Country and beyond, through innovative, strengths-based solutions grounded in culture, research excellence, and community.

Our Mission

The mission of the Indigenous Game Changers program is to transform and enrich Indigenous lives and futures, from pre-school to university, building the foundation for securing employment and leading productive and fulfilling lives. Through culturally grounded research and collaborative action, we aim to ensure that Indigenous Australians are equipped to not just succeed, but to flourish and thrive in their homes, schools and communities.

Indigenous Game Changers

- Productivity Commission Review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, 2023

There are plenty of examples of Indigenous success, yet there remains a limited understanding of:

• The key drivers of that success;
• How it can be replicated; and
• How it can be scaled more broadly.

The Indigenous Game Changers program identifies, replicates and upscales evidence-based drivers of success, to enable Indigenous children, youth and communities to flourish and thrive.

What We Will Deliver

The Indigenous Game Changers program drives transformative change, improving the lives and wellbeing of Indigenous children, youth and communities by:

• Boosting literacy and numeracy for deadly futures;
• Lifting school attendance, engagement, and achievement for a deadly start;
• Supporting seamless transitions to jobs and higher education for deadly careers;
• Empowering positive strengths-based deadly parenting to foster safe and responsible home environments where children can thrive;
• Strengthening deadly cultures by fostering cultural pride and affirming Indigenous identity and belonging;
• Enhancing physical activity and healthy lifestyle habits through deadly play, enabling children to get the most of life.

Register here to partner, participate, access resources or study with the ICG program.

Indigenous Game Changers (IGC) answers these needs and brings together a partnership of leading Australian and international Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers, next generation researchers, government, industry partners, and communities with a shared commitment to addressing Indigenous disadvantage as a critical issue of our time. IGC's purpose is to enable Indigenous children, youth, and communities to not just succeed but thrive with a focus on educational, physical, psychological, and family and community thriving. IGC employs:

• a positive psychology strengths-based approach founded upon identifying, building upon, and augmenting Indigenous success;
• excellence in research to integrate and leverage in new ways, Indigenous ways of knowing, doing, and being with advances in international research that are based on western scientific approaches that have benefitted disadvantaged populations globally; and
• prioritising the voices and agency of Indigenous children, youth, and communities and undertaking research in genuine partnership.

Indigenous Game Changers Program - current and planned projects

Sign up for our Indigenous Programs

Hey You Mob!

We are offering evidence-based programs to support the literacy, numeracy and well-being of Indigenous children across Australia.

If you are interested in signing up for one of these projects to give your kids a deadly start to life, please sign up via the links below.

If you have any questions, please get in touch via 02 9465 9577.

These programs are run by the Indigenous Game Changers program (ACU) and the Wonnarua Nation Aboriginal Community (WNAC).

Deadly Home Reading

Help your kids learn to read at home

Open to: Indigenous children in Kindergarten-Year 2 Australia-wide

Read more and sign up here for DEADLY HOME READING

Contact us: deadlyhomereading@acu.edu.au

Deadly Futures

Free online numeracy and literacy tutoring program

Open to: Indigenous children in Years 3-4 Australia-wide

Read more and sign up here for DEADLY FUTURES

Contact us: deadlyfutures@acu.edu.au

Deadly Start

Kindergarten numeracy and literacy program

Open to: Preschools in the Hunter region, NSW

Read more and sign up here for DEADLY START

Contact us: deadlystart@acu.edu.au

Program Leader

• Professor Rhonda Craven

Research Team

• Dr Anthony Dillon - Honorary Research Fellow
• Dr Mitch Rom - Lecturer
• Chris Duncan - Associate Lecturer

Research Program Managers

• Dr Alicia Egan
• Dr Jenny McMullan

Senior Research Project Officer

• Karen Ling

Research Project Officers

• Clare Clendinning
• Bronte Powell
• Jonathan Dekirmenjian