Meet Dr Candace Kruger: carrying knowledge through music, language and education.

This month’s Researcher Profile features Dr Candace Kruger from the School of Education and Professional Studies. A Yugambeh researcher, educator and musician, Candace’s work focuses on Indigenous Knowledges, language revitalisation and music education. She shares her journey into research, current projects, sources of inspiration, and advice for early career researchers. 

What inspired you to become a researcher and educator focused on Indigenous Knowledges, music, and culture? 

My pathway into research and education did not begin with academia. It began with (Aboriginal) community, language, music, and the responsibility I felt to keep Yugambeh knowledge active and visible. The Yugambeh Youth Choir became a major part of that journey. I founded the choir in 2014, then through the choir, I could see that language, song, identity, confidence and belonging were deeply connected, and that young people responded strongly when culture was not treated as something historical, but as something living and performed. 

That experience led me back to university in my forties, first through my Master of Arts Research and then my PhD. My research grew from questions I was already asking in practice: what happens when young Indigenous people sing Aboriginal language, how does cultural participation shape identity and connection, and how can education systems work more responsibly with Indigenous knowledge? 

Since then, my work has continued to sit between community and institutions.

‘I have never seen research, teaching, music and cultural practice as separate. They are all ways of carrying knowledge, building relationships and creating better educational futures.’ 

Image courtesy of Dr Candace Kruger

Can you tell us a bit about the projects you are currently working on? 

I am currently leading and contributing to several projects across Indigenous education, teacher education, pathways, language and community-based research. 

One major project is IITEACH, an Indigenous Initial Teacher Education initiative focused on strengthening Indigenous student recruitment, retention, progression, professional identity, mentoring and leadership within teacher education. I have also just completed a research project, as Chief Investigator for TAFE NSW, examining pathways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students into Higher Apprenticeships at AQF levels 5 to 7. 

I contribute Indigenous methodological and educational expertise to research with the Queensland Department of Education on Occupational Violence and Aggression arising from student behaviour. In 2015 spent three months as the first Indigenous Academic in Residence for Studio Schools Australia in the Kimberley’s in Western Australia, in a remote Indigenous Boarding School. I worked on curriculum development, Indigenous pedagogy, staff practice and the embedding of local Aboriginal knowledges for the Bunuba People. 

My work also continues through music and language. I am involved in the Australian Music Examinations Board First Nations Composer Project, international Indigenous collaborations with First Peoples in Canada and Mexico, and the International Society for Music Education Decolonising and Indigenising Music Education network. 

Who has inspired you? 

I have been inspired most strongly by community, Elders, young people and the people who keep turning up to do the work of culture. 

‘The young people in the Yugambeh Youth Choir have been a constant source of inspiration.’ 

Watching children and youth grow into confident young adults through language, song, performance and leadership has reinforced for me why this work matters. 

I have also been inspired by Indigenous scholars, educators, and Knowledge Keepers who have insisted that Indigenous knowledge does not need to be reshaped to fit conventional academic expectations. Their work has helped me understand that story, performance, Country, language, relationship and embodied practice are ways of knowing and researching. 

More broadly, I am inspired by people who build rather than simply critique. That has shaped much of my own work. Whether it is founding the Yugambeh Youth Choir, creating a Singing Indigenous Languages Collective, developing IITEACH, or building international Indigenous collaborations, I am drawn to the question: what can we create that actually works for community? 

What advice would you give to students or early career researchers interested in a research career? 

‘Do not begin by trying to sound like a researcher. Begin with a question that genuinely matters to you and to the people or communities connected to the work.’ 

Research careers can become very focused on outputs, grants, metrics and progression, but the strongest work usually begins with purpose. Know why you are doing the research, who it is for and what responsibility comes with it. 

I would also tell early career researchers to build relationships slowly and carefully. Good research is rarely produced alone, especially in Indigenous research contexts. Learn from others, find mentors, collaborate generously and understand that trust takes time. 

Finally, be prepared to create opportunities rather than wait for them. Some of the most important parts of my career began because there was a gap and I decided to build something: a choir, a collective, a research partnership a teaching initiative.                        

‘Research leadership often begins well before anyone gives you the title. It begins when you are willing to identify what is needed, do the work, and stay accountable to the people the work is meant to serve.’

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