Remote Australia Online

Aboriginal children in remote Australia have high rates of complicated middle ear disease associated with Streptococcus pneumoniae and other pathogens. We assessed the effectiveness of pneumococcal vaccination for prevention of otitis media in this setting.

This chapter seeks to develop the conceptual terrain of these kinds of contemporary Indigenous labour mobilities in Australia by foregrounding the experiences and outcomes of one case study group of Indigenous mobile workers: fly-in fly-out (FIFO) mine employees based at Broome in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia. We make two central, but related, claims. First, there are important similarities and differences between contemporary Indigenous FIFO work and historical Indigenous labour mobility practices. We suggest that Indigenous FIFO mine work is simply a new(er) expression of well-established practices of labour mobility among Indigenous Australians prior to, and since, colonisation. Though, there are also important differences across time and space. Second, Indigenous FIFO workers occupy a unique position on the labour mobility spectrum. Though they often fill lower skilled roles in the sector and thus constitute a precariat of sorts, they do not face the same challenges with respect to exploitation and financial expropriation as many lower skilled transnational labour migrants, including the Pacific Islanders discussed by Stead, and Nishitani and Lee, in this volume.12However, neither are their labour mobilities characteristic of the privileged class of highly mobile professionals that Cresswell, Dorow and Roseman refer to as the ‘kenetic elite’.

This paper examines Indigenous water rights in rural and remote Australia and how water justice seems to be elusive in many of these spaces. The purpose of this literature review is to link water justice theory and practices to the way different water cultures are valued in Australia while simultaneously critiquing the water justice movement. This paper situates the notion of water justice as a specific kind of environmental justice to cater for the unique qualities that define this resource. In doing so, this paper draws on Schlosberg’s (2004) conception of environmental justice with its trivalent approach that describes the following three ‘circles of concern’: recognition of difference, plurality of participation, and finally equitable distribution of resources and costs and benefits. This framework provides that if the first two ‘circles of concern’ are not in existence in a natural resource management process, then inequitable distribution of that resource is a likely outcome. This paper presents two areas where water injustices exist in the context of Indigenous rural and remote Australia. The first relates to how Indigenous rights to water have been inadequately recognized and the second presents empirical data on water supply and sanitation in rural and remote Indigenous communities that demonstrates ongoing dilemmas around securing this basic human right. The undervaluing of cultural differences relating to water is argued to be antecedent to the injustice manifest in poor water supply and sanitation provision for Indigenous rural contexts. This paper does not attempt to survey the body of ethnographic work on society-water relations in rural and remote Indigenous Australian contexts but reviews the gaps in current mainstream acknowledgement of Indigenous water cultures. In exploring water justice in rural and remote Indigenous Australia, this paper offers a novel approach to a dilemma more frequently analysed solely as a health development issue.

Excess salt intake is a global issue. Effective salt-reduction strategies are needed, however, as salt is a vehicle for iodine fortification, these strategies may also reduce iodine intake. This study examines the case of the remote Indigenous Australian population; we employed an innovative, objective method to assess sodium and iodine intakes against requirements and modelled the potential effects of salt-reduction strategies on estimated sodium and iodine intakes.

The three-year research project into the implications of television and new electronic media's introduction to remote Aboriginal communities sponsored by the Australian institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) is nearing completion. By the end of 1985, the final project report will have been published But crucial questions regarding satellite-based television licensing, policy implementation and access in the outback are under review.

To respond to Professor Willmot's review of my work, I find it necessary to speak in the first person, as I did in my report, from a reflexive, authorial persona. The reasons are not simply the personal nature of the review (beginning, significantly, with the first paragraph's identification of me as American) but are those I explain in the report's introduction (xiv-xv); not to inscribe myself here but in fact to achieve transparency and deconstruct a myth of objectivity.

A very remote Hospital Pharmacy Department undertook a six month trial of an additional full time clinical pharmacist. The Pharmacy Department, historically staffed by a sole pharmacist and pharmacy technician, provides clinical pharmacy, stock distribution, and medication management services to a 32 bed hospital and 23 community health care providers. This trial aimed to demonstrate improvements aligned with the strategic and business priorities of the health service, and National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards. Clinical pharmacy interventions were recorded for a 4 week period and graded using a national risk classification tool. Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) interventions were recorded for 3 months and assessed against National Guidelines. The percentage of patients for whom a pharmacist generated a discharge medication information summary was recorded over a 4 week period, and retrospectively calculated for the same 4 week period in the previous year for comparison. The expanded Pharmacy team contributed to safety and quality initiatives including: providing education for medical and nursing staff, reviewing all reported medication incidents, participating in an organisation wide review of adverse drug reaction and allergy recording, redesigning freight arrangements, and driving a comprehensive review of medications on Emergency Response trolleys. A total of 83 clinical pharmacy interventions were recorded, including 9 rated as extreme. There were 93 recorded AMS interventions and antibiotic usage in the hospital was decreased. Communication at transitions of care improved, with 52% of discharged patients having a pharmacist-generated discharge medication information summary sent to their community health care provider during the trial compared to 13% in the sole pharmacist period. Financial sustainability was demonstrated by decreased freight costs, improved stock management, and decreased reliance on locums for leave cover and associated costs. Feedback from staff and management about the increase in Pharmacy services across the hospital and region was positive. The clinical pharmacist quickly became an integral part of the very remote hospital multidisciplinary team. Increased contributions by the expanded Pharmacy team were noticed across the health service, in areas including inpatient clinical care, governance, quality improvement, AMS, medication safety, and collaboration with community health care providers. The results of the trial were presented to senior management and the position has been made permanent. The isolation of the sole hospital pharmacist in this very remote part of Australia has ended, and the possibilities for collaborative health care have grown.

This paper will examine the introduction of BRACS to remote Aboriginal communities, and the potential that this scheme has for local Aboriginal radio and video production to counter the mainstream European programming received via AUSSAT.

Australians living in rural and remote communities experience relatively poor health status in comparison to the wider Australian population (Med J Aust 185:37-38, 2006). This can be attributed in part to issues of access to health services arising from difficulties in recruiting and retaining health professionals in these areas. The Rural Health Professionals Program is an initiative designed to increase the number of allied health and nursing professionals in rural and remote Australia by providing case managed recruitment and retention support services. This paper reports on early analysis of available programme data to build knowledge of factors related to the recruitment and distribution of health professionals in rural and remote Australia.

The particular abstractions represented by the terms population and house-hold are central categories in modern demographic analysis. They form the organizing principles of national censuses in Western liberal democracies such as Australia, and profoundly influence both the collection methodology and the content of the collection instrument. This paper argues that these categories are founded on a particular metaphor, the ‘bounded container’, that broadly reflects the population and household structures of sedentary societies such as mainstream Australia. Bounded discrete categories are conducive to the collection of reliable census data in such societies, since unbounded behaviours can be controlled for by statistical means. However, remote Abprogoma; populations behave in radically unbounded ways. This paper proposes that the dominant metaphor underlying Yolngu (and much remote Aboriginal) sociality is, instead, the nodal network. It then explores the consequences of attempting to capture nodal network societies in terms of models based on the bounded container.

Objectives: To evaluate three examples of Aboriginal, community-based drug and alcohol programs to better understand the mechanisms of partnerships between academics and Aboriginal communities. Study 1 examined the impact of a drug and alcohol radio advertising campaign in a remote setting. Study 2 evaluated community-led programs implemented across four rural Aboriginal communities from 2012-2015. Study 3 was a three-year community-based participatory research (CBPR) project with a remote Aboriginal drug and alcohol residential rehabilitation service. Methods: Study 1 used survey design; Study 2 adopted a multiple baseline design (MBD) analysis of routinely-collected crime data; Study 3 triangulated 5 years of service data and staff and clients interviews to develop a Healing Model of Care. Results: Study 1: The radio advertising campaign increased community awareness but had a limited impact on formal help-seeking. Study 2: The trends indicated that the programs did not consistently reduce alcohol-related crimes; however, the MBD methodology was identified to be a rigorous approach for future Aboriginal community research. Study 3: Residential rehabilitation clients tended to be older, Aboriginal, criminal justice-referred and have a mental health problem. Interviews identified culture was highly valued, with the location, or “country,” fundamental to the daily practice of, and access to, culture. The Healing Model of Care will help to strengthen future service-delivery in Australia and internationally. Conclusions: CBPR offers a culturally-acceptable model in which academics can work in partnership with, not for, Aboriginal communities, to strengthen the quality of the research and, importantly, improve health outcomes for Aboriginal Australians.

Following the previous chapter’s statistical analysis of court and police records, this chapter identifies and discusses four themes from interviews with domestic and family violence support workers and police prosecutors. The interviews sought to understand the higher rates of violence and recidivism for the Indigenous men and women, from the perspective of professionals on the ground in one or other of the two research sites in northern Queensland, Australia. The themes that emerged from the interviews were: fights, chaos, formulaic police response, and race relations. They are illustrated with commentary from those who were interviewed. The concept of “chaos” contributes to the framework for analysis of police reports and the development of a reconceptualised typology of intimate partner violence, discussed in Chapter 6.

Mental health nursing in remote Australian Aboriginal communities provides opportunities and challenges unique from other experiences of nursing. The purpose of this article was to explore how mental health nurses experience working in remote communities and how they developed relevant knowledge and skills. Six remote area mental health nurses participated in audiotaped conversational style interviews. Narratives were transcribed and analyzed thematically. Themes identified were being focused on relationships, adapting to the culture, struggling with two contexts, being enraptured by place, and being transformed. The participants adapted and developed ways of working at the interface of another culture and also derived personal and professional benefit from the experience.

Fostering social activities in rural areas is an on-going concern. Building on previous results showing the effectiveness of sport initiatives, there is a need for research to identify successful strategies that create communities in less-densely populated regions. This paper examines the successes and difficulties of state-level sport organisations when delivering services in regional Queensland. Using past research to inform the effort, an exploratory study involving two phases will be used. In the first phase, a content analysis of sport organisations' annual reports will be undertaken whereas in second, a series of semi-structured interview with key decision-makers involved in regional sport service delivery will be completed. It is expected the findings of this research can be used to assist in the development of government policies and state level organisation sport programs.

Education outcomes in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander schools remain well below the rest of Australia against current attainment measures. Recent policy focus and investment in pedagogical approaches has largely been limited to funding consultants to deliver Direct Instruction (DI), as well as Explicit Instruction (EI), a slight variation on the broader theme. This almost singular focus on English language instruction and the utilisation of non-local teachers to deliver this program extends a significant period of underinvestment in workforce development for local employees, local languages and the incorporation of local communities and knowledges within 'official knowledge' (curriculum). In 2017, a Commonwealth government review of Indigenous Education raised concerns about a lack of evidence for improved outcomes through current investments into pedagogy but fell short of proposing and resourcing an alternative approach to pedagogy in remote schools. The value of explicit instruction within a broader curriculum focus than DI currently offers is suggested but articulation of an alternative is needed. Direct Instruction has failed to Close the Gap on the Commonwealth Government’s national measures of school attendance and the acquisition of minimal benchmarks in standardised testing of English language literacy and numeracy (NAPLaN). Adopting a Culturally Responsive Pedagogies (CRP) lens, the need for national investment in local educators, local languages and a far broader, well-organised approach to curriculum and pedagogy is argued. This has implications for local and non-local teacher preparation programs, remote education pedagogical investment models, and the development of more appropriate and instructive measures of success in remote education contexts. This paper draws on current research projects including an ARC project working towards the articulation of an Australian Culturally Responsive Pedagogies approach, and research that documents the aspirations of remote Aboriginal communities and students for informing education design and strategic planning.

Partners in Health is about a collaborative relationship between the Country Primary Health Alliance (WAPHA) and Country Health Service (WACHS). It explores: how a learning gap in aged care become evident and the subsequent call to action from the two agencies to address this; where collective impact was demonstrated through the development of on-line learning modules with the in-kind expertise provided through WACHS and the input for community home care through the Primary Health Network. This journey began with a need being identified in 2017 for Aged Care Unregulated Health Workers(UHW) to obtain competency in medication management in community and residential aged care. WACHS as the largest providers of Aged Care within country WA approached the WA Primary Health Alliance (WAPHA) seeking funding to support the purchase of eLearn Australia and agreement to work collaboratively in customising the E learning modules for the aged care sector in rural and remote areas. Agreed contract deliverables included: support provided to facilitate the implementation of the UHW online module with interactive content and assessment in a safe learning environment; the improvement of UHW skills and competency when assisting with medication administration. Compliance being required with the National and Safety Quality in Healthcare Service Standard 4 and Aged Care Accreditation Standard 2.7. This agreement between WACHS and WAPHA was founded on the principle that the E-learning was available for all NGO aged care providers within WA and that there was the establishment of a working group (WACHS, WAPHA and NGO) to cover a trial period over three regions of Great Southern, Kimberley and Wheatbelt. These regions were chosen due to number of Multi-Propose Service (MPS) facilities (Great Southern), the number of small residential facilities both Government and NGO (Wheatbelt) and high degree of remoteness (Kimberley). The working group supporting the E Learning modules consisted at various stages of WACHS user experts within clinical nursing, allied health, staff development, community /hospital pharmacy with a balanced lens on community and residential care. Following the trial and satisfactory evaluation within these three regions it was agreed the E Learning would progress to all the seven regions across county WA. Further to be explored in the paper Partners in Health will be the collective learning around the valued resource of collaboration in creating a Better Together! culture in the system

Communication and information technologies can reduce the barriers of distance and space that disadvantage communities in Australia's underserved rural areas, where the health status of residents is often worse than that of their urban counterparts. ACROSSnet (Australians Creating Rural Online Support Systems) is a 3 year collaborative action research project that aims to design and develop an online support system that will assist rural communities in accessing information, education and support regarding suicide and its prevention, whilst considering the challenges of Internet speed, cost and availability that can impede the delivery of online services. The site provides three distinct levels of access: one level for community members, and two further levels for appropriately credentialled mental health workers. In creating this environment, the ACROSSnet team hopes that online communities of practice will develop, engaging participants of different ages, income and education levels, location, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) institutions are challenged with finding common ground as a basis for action among diverse resource users and stakeholders. Establishing and maintaining institutional credibility within their regions, catchments, communities and among their membership is fundamental to overcoming the challenge. So too is applying appropriate institutional and governance structures and appointing appropriate leaders. Drawing on triangulated case study data collected over a 12-month period using multiple methods, this paper examines the influence of institutional credibility and leadership on the functioning, decision-making and governance of two CBNRM institutions in Queensland, Australia. The paper shows that stakeholders have very different expectations of what makes a CBNRM institution credible. Satisfying the multiple expectations requires CBNRM institutions to incorporate diverse stakeholder representation, assert their legitimacy and demonstrate accountability, transparency, fairness and justice. The paper also draws attention to the value and importance of appointing inspirational leaders who focus on encouraging followers to pursue collective goals. Comparing the merits and constraints of appointing average Joes versus community elites to the Boards of CBNRM institutions, the paper highlights the urgent need for community-based natural resource governance and inspirational leadership education and training programs to improve the availability and quality of CBNRM leadership in rural Australia. Since combining credible CBNRM institutions with inspirational leaders does not necessarily equate to sustainable on-ground NRM outcomes, it is critical that the education and training programs emphasise the importance of monitoring and evaluating the improvements in decision-making processes and in decision outcomes.

The centring of Indigenous oral history is becoming an integral and powerful aspect of critical methodologies underpinning decolonisation, increasingly unsettling or dismantling what has been remembered, by whom and for what purpose. The focus of this paper is centre the lived experiences and perceptions of western education held by Aboriginal people who lived at Moola Bulla, Western Australia’s largest and most profitable ‘Native Cattle Station’, between 1910-1955. Of interest is an investigation into how government legislations and policies influenced these experiences and perceptions. In this way, the paper will honour the residents and families of those who once lived on Moola Bulla, many who are speaking back through the telling of their story. The research from which this paper is drawn moves away from colonial, paternalistic and racist interpretations of history; it is designed to decolonise the narrative of Aboriginal education in remote Western Australia. The research uses the wide and deep angle lens of qualitative historical research, filtered by decolonising methodologies (Kovach 2018; Smith 2012) and standpoint theory (Herbert 2017; Land 2015; Nakata 2007), exposing privileged and ‘othered’ positions (Nakata 2007; Sprague 2001; Walter and Anderson 2013). Preliminary findings from my PhD research suggest the narrative told by the residents who were educated at Moola Bulla, and by their children and their grandchildren, support a reframing of previous deficit misrepresentations of Indigeneity (Nakata 2006; Torres 1994) into strength-based narratives. These narratives, or ‘counter stories’, articulate resistance to colonial master narratives (Denzin 2008). This paper argues that by listening to Aboriginal lived experiences and perceptions of western education from the past we can learn lessons to better inform our engagement with the delivery of equitable educational opportunities for Aboriginal students in remote contexts in the future. Furthermore, the paper will support educators to be more responsive to the Aboriginal Cultural Standards Framework (Western Australian Department of Education, 2015) and other policy requirements.

Uneven distribution of resources and services based on geographical location (commonly referred to as spatial inequality) is likely to influence Indigenous Australian higher education outcomes. Online education could potentially resolve access to education, where distance is the primary barrier, by mitigating some of the impediments to Indigenous education such as travelling long distances or living away from home. Recent Indigenous higher education trends suggest that online courses are in fact succeeding in attracting and retaining Indigenous students, particularly in regional areas. However, little is known of how socio-technological barriers (such as Internet connectivity, ownership/sharing of devices and digital literacy) relate to and interact with other social and educational barriers. In this chapter we discuss online education in relation to digital literacy and related factors. We draw on evidence from Swinburne University of Technology’s Indigenous Futures Program, which is developing pathway programs for regional and remote Indigenous communities. The project is being conducted in partnership with not-for-profit organisations working with Indigenous individuals and communities in regional and remote areas.

INTRODUCTION: The burden of stroke for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia is significant. The National Stroke Foundation has identified that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are more likely to have a stroke at a younger age than the non-Indigenous population and are twice as likely for stroke to result in death, and that those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in rural and remote areas are less likely to have access to an acute stroke unit. The only acute stroke unit in Far North Queensland treats six times more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients than the Queensland average, a large proportion of whom reside in the rural and remote communities of the Cape and Torres Strait. This article describes part of the qualitative phase of a project titled 'Culturally appropriate stroke services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people', received Closing the Gap funding to identify the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stroke survivors in Far North Queensland and establish a model of care that is responsive to these needs. METHOD: Data were collected from 24 stroke survivors, 10 carers and 70 stakeholders through surveys. The surveys incorporated open-ended questions and were administered through face to face interviews with participants from across 18 diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities within Far North Queensland. Guided by the principles of thematic analysis the data were coded, categories created and themes and subthemes identified. RESULTS: This study emphasises the need for an inclusive coordinated and culturally responsive approach to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stroke care that values the role of the client, their family and community. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander liaison officer has a pivotal role within the multidisciplinary team. Resources specific to the language, literacy and cultural needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stroke survivors are required as is advocacy for the availability and use of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language interpreters. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stroke survivors have limited opportunity to fulfil their rehabilitation potential after hospital discharge. CONCLUSION: An integrated patient centred model of care that spans the care continuum and places value on an extended role for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health worker workforce is indicated, as is an increased utilisation of allied health and specialist follow-up close to home.

One great education concern in the Northern Territory (NT) is that there are very few Aboriginal teachers in schools, and even fewer accessing teacher training programs. Universities are well positioned to collaborate more closely with schools to increase the confidence of Aboriginal students in the relevance and attainability of higher education qualifications. A community-based teacher education program, Growing Our Own, enables Aboriginal Teacher Assistants currently working in remote NT schools to gain a relevant teaching qualification. This paper reports on the integration of both Tiwi and Western science knowledge traditions of an ethnologically designed program conducted on the Tiwi Islands as a collaboration between Batchelor Institute, NT Catholic Education Office and Charles Darwin University. The overarching aim of this study was to fully engage eight Aboriginal Tiwi pre-service teachers in learning the Western science and mathematics of the Australian curriculum by merging their prior cultural knowledge as well as their local context. This study incorporated Rigney's conceptual 'Indigenist research framework' that allowed a Both-Ways approach to teaching and learning to flourish. The study privileged the voices of local Tiwi people and drew on community members' knowledge and the languages of science and mathematics to strengthen the participants' learning. Using an open investigation format, the research covered theory and practical aspects of working scientifically and bridged it to Tiwi ways of knowing by integrating the study of the Pandanus tree (Pandanus spiralis), a local emblem; known in the Tiwi language as 'Miyarti'. Thematic analysis of the data revealed that sensitive Both-Ways planning or Tiwi and Western scientific language gave rise to a meaningful cultural contextualisation, heritage and learning. This delivery method generated more interest for constructing a locally designed Tiwi science teaching and learning model that responded to the desires of the participants while simultaneously using the 5e's pedagogical framework. Bridging local Aboriginal science, language and environment with Western mathematics and science strengthened the students' Aboriginal identity as well as their identity as science learners. Outcomes illustrated that local Aboriginal science can be significantly intertwined with the Euro-American science of the Australian curriculum to provide meaningful learning opportunities for students. In this way, students can identify their culture and ways of knowing as embedded in their teaching and learning and in the delivery of science units at the tertiary level, rather than seeing science as something that is separate from their culture.

This paper explores relationship between rural students knowledge of STEM in rural careers, their aspirations towards STEM careers, subject choices and university admission. Rural students often have less access to STEM subjects in senior secondary high school, a situation that in turn limits their ability to gain entry to university study. In this paper I report on a yearlong project exploring this relationship. Specifically the paper draws upon survey data, interviews and focus group data to outline the understandings of STEM subjects held by rural students, parents, community members and rural industries. The results also outline the relationship between students' understanding of the role of STEM subjects in rural careers, their aspirations for rural STEM careers, and how this influences senior school subject selection, which in turn impacts upon subsequent university study. Through understanding the needs of the rural sector related to STEM & innovation, and students' perceptions of rural industry, we are able to sketch the beginning of a strategy for highlighting the relevance of STEM to rural careers and innovation that can be used to encourage students to take relevant STEM subjects in their senior studies and subsequently university.

In this paper, we explore the association between remoteness and NAPLAN scores. Diverging from previous studies that have examined overall disadvantage, we model for the effect of remoteness above and beyond the contribution of several other variables that have also been linked to disadvantage. The paper explores two related questions. First, to what extent do two coding schemata-the 2006 Australian Remoteness Structure or its 2011 successor, Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) - correlate in their inclusion of schools into various geographic locale categories?. Second, to what extent do those coding schemata differ as approaches to modeling school-aggregated means of reading and numeracy NAPLAN scores? To address these exploratory questions, we examined 2011 academic year NAPLAN data in reading and numeracy from all New South Wales schools with grade spans that included Year 3 (N = 2,414). We incorporated nine school-level variables, including two criteria (i.e., reading and numeracy scores) and seven variables that facilitated between-school comparisons. Our predictor, geographic locale, was categorical, as was sector, one of six covariates we used in our models to address Research Question 2. We also included five continuous covariates: enrolment, attendance rate, full-time equivalent of working adults (FTE), proportion of students who were indigenous (indigenous%), and proportion of students who were from language backgrounds other than English (LBOTE%). This study revealed that in Model 1 (2006 schema): BOTH literacy AND numeracy scores associate significantly and negatively with the Provisional designation, significantly and positively with the remote designation, but not significantly with the very remote designation. In Model 2 (2011 schema): BOTH literacy AND numeracy scores associate significantly and negatively with the Inner Regional designation ONLY. Outer Regional associates with negative literacy scores, but only trends toward negative significance for numeracy scores. Meanwhile, literacy scores trend toward positive significance for literacy for Remote and Very Remote designations. By contrast, numeracy scores associate strongly and positively with Remote and Very Remote designations. We conclude the paper with implications for how policymakers and/or researchers define geographic locale using one schema or another.

Background: A lack of culturally appropriate tests hampers accurate assessment of cognition in remote Australian Aboriginal communities. In Arnhem Land, this study employed a community consultation process to evaluate commonly used Western tests of executive function, memory, attention, and visuospatial function. Methods: An initial consultation process and a follow-up pilot study resulted in the rejection of some common tests, the development of new tests, and culturally adapted versions of others. In the subsequent 30-person main trial, adult Aboriginal volunteers were examined on nine tests, plus the Kimberly Indigenous Cognitive Assessment screen, and a brief literacy test. Results: Executive function, memory, and attention tests were found to group separately after an exploratory principal components analysis. Correlations between new tests and similar Kimberly screen items were not significant, but ceiling effects may be relevant. Six of 13 test scores were found to correlate with the literacy measure. Conclusions: A selection of cognitive tests were identified that Aboriginal people found culturally acceptable and engaging. In particular, Self-Ordered Pointing, Trail-Making, a verbal-switching task, and a new test “Which car?” show promise for further development. This work may contribute to the need for culturally appropriate cognitive testing in Aboriginal communities.