Again, the research evidence reinforces what the Commission heard in its consultations, with a study with First Nations graduates finding: Danger and a lack of cultural safety can be found in classrooms when Indigenous students are called out as “experts”, when peers question their identity and ask culturally insensitive questions and when lecturers do not include “meaningful, appropriately developed and appropriately resourced” Indigenous content in curricula so that Indigenous students can see themselves in the curriculum. 40 (i) Cultural/colonial load In Commission consultations, First Nations academics also called out cultural load and/or colonial load in the context of experiences of racism. Cultural load is ‘the often invisible additional load borne by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People at work, where they are the only Indigenous person or one of a small number of Indigenous People. 41 This manifests in extra work demands, an expectation to educate others about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People and racism and an expectation to represent all Indigenous People. 42 For example, the Indigenous Law and Justice Hub at Melbourne University submitted to the Yoorrook Justice Commission that: There is a great risk that in working towards institutional change additional load is placed on the small numbers of First Nations People within law schools and that experiences of racism are exacerbated within the period of contestation that comes with organisational cultural change. 43 In Commission consultations, First Nations academics, and academic and nonacademic university staff from other negatively racialised backgrounds, noted that the burden of speaking up and educating falls on those who are most vulnerable. The initial First Nations Academics Roundtable shared that students are regularly ‘put on the spot to speak on behalf of all Aboriginal People… which is really unnerving and intimidatory.’ 44 The impact for First Nations academics and staff is also severe, resulting in additional workload: Most of us First Nations academics are regularly called in to provide lectures for faculties, and again, that just shows the laziness of our academic system that continues to think… we’ll just get that Aboriginal lecturer in and they can do this lecture. 45 Participants noted that this level of cultural/colonial load is not sustainable: We work with every single head of school, program convenor and course convenor and support them in embedding content into their courses. This 36