RMIT University has partnered with First Nations community members and organisations to launch Rethinking Criminal Record Checks (RCRC), a new suite of resources that aims to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with criminal records navigate record checks and employment pathways.
Funded by the Victorian Legal Services Board and delivered through a long-term research and partnership process, the project has brought together RMIT researchers, First Nations community contributors, the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, Woor-Dungin, Winda-Mara Aboriginal Corporation and other partners to create practical resources grounded in community experience and knowledge.
According to the Australian Human Rights Commission, First Nations people are unfairly overrepresented in prisons and youth detention, and are more likely to have a criminal record than non-Indigenous Australians.
RCRC hopes to assist employers, employment services and community organisations better understand how criminal record checks can be approached in a fair, culturally informed and careful way.
The language, messages and practical information developed for the resources was shaped by First Nations community members and project participants as the knowledge holders and authority on their own experiences.
Uncle Wenzel Carter and Uncle Ricky Morris, Woor-Dungin and Willan Foundation. Image credit: Amanda Pejoski, RMIT University Project lead and chief investigator RMIT Professor Georgina Heydon highlighted the barriers criminal record checks can create during employment processes when applied without context, cultural knowledge or recognition of rehabilitation.
"This is a huge barrier to employment, and the stigma surrounding a criminal record will often lead to people self-excluding from the process," she said.
"This project is so important in providing information on careful conversations and decision-making about criminal records, and the importance of looking at the whole person rather than a single police check outcome.
"We are incredibly proud to have reached this stage of the project and to be launching the website and resources developed through this important work."
The Rethinking Criminal Record Checks project will launch the new website and suite of free community-informed resources at a special event at Melbourne Museum on Monday 24 August 2026.
