Elite sport plays a crucial role in the socialisation of young people not only in terms of the values attributed to high achievers in sport but also in terms of the role of sport as a medium for generating within marginalised communities. Participation in sports enables indigenous young people, males especially, to put aside the pressures of the classroom and to show competence in ways other through formal curriculum. This is significant given that role models from sport convey cress to young people in the context where few indigenous peoples enjoy success in the ream generally. The easy acceptance of high achieving athletes as cultural icons and role models invokes romantic notions about sport as an alternative to education and about the capacity role models to positively influence young people. In light of this, the positioning of the Indigenous athlete as role model is indicative of the need to understand the significance of sport identifications to role modelling and, by implication, to indigenous learning since indigenous role programs based on sport target young people in schools. Whilst the attention given to celebrity athletes can be explained in part by the popularity of sport, the emergence of the Indigenous role model and indigenous role model programs are less well explained. The central objective in this thesis is to examine the relevance of indigenous role modelling, utilising elite athletes, to indigenous education policy. The research is grounded in interviews and conversations with indigenous policy makers involved in the administration of indigenous role model programs, the purpose of which is to gather insights into the values informing indigenous model policy and practice. The research is also grounded in observations of the dynamic of Indigenous athletes engaging as role models to young people in terms of what they do and say and the responses they elicit from young people. The thesis draws on critical race scholarship to e the contradictions and silences of race and to argue that the appearance of liberal values in obscures the persistence of race hegemony. The thesis finds that indigenous role model policies and practice reflect values in indigenous learning consistent with cultural difference.