Remote Australia Online

Objective To examine tobacco knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of community members in Central Australia and to compare these by participant's location (town or remote community). Design Community-based survey of 165 smokers and recent ex-smokers. Outcome measures Knowledge was assessed using responses to questions on the health risk of smoking (e.g. lung cancer) and knowledge of quit support services. Attitudes towards smoking were assessed using statements that asked participant whether they agreed or disagreed. Smoking behaviours were assessed by asking participants about quit attempts, cigarettes per day and time to first cigarette (used to calculate the heaviness of smoking index). Results There were high levels of knowledge about most common diseases associated with smoking, including cancer (93%) and heart disease (89%). There was less knowledge about quit support services that are available through telephone (69%), online (27%) and apps (32%). Responses to attitude statements were suggestive of the normalised practices towards smoking in town and remote participants, with remote participants more likely to disagree that ‘ok to smoke close to a building’ and to disagree ‘if I had my time over again I would not have started’. Over 75% of the participants had attempted to quit smoking and 55% had a sustained quit attempt (>1 month). Conclusion There are greater challenges to reduce smoking in remote areas due to the social and communal practices of smoking and in providing service needs that encourage quit attempts. This supports the need for continued and increased investment for targeted tobacco control by remote health services.

Context The Australian Nurse-Family Partnership Program is a home visiting program for Aboriginal mothers and infants (pregnancy to child's second birthday) adapted from the US Nurse Family Partnership program. It aims to improve outcomes for Australian Aboriginal mothers and babies, and disrupt intergenerational cycles of poor health and social and economic disadvantage. The aim of this study was to describe the complexity of Program clients in the Central Australian family partnership program, understand how client complexity affects program delivery and the implications for desirable program modification. Methods Australian Nurse-Family Partnership Program data collected using standardised data forms by nurses during pregnancy home visits (n = 276 clients from 2009 to 2015) were used to describe client complexity and adversity in relation to demographic and economic characteristics, mental health and personal safety. Semi-structured interviews with 11 Australian Nurse-Family Partnership Program staff and key stakeholders explored in more depth the nature of client adversity and how this affected Program delivery. Findings Most clients were described as “complicated” being exposed to extreme poverty (66% on welfare), living with insecure housing, many experiencing domestic violence (almost one third experiencing 2 + episodes of violence in 12 months). Sixty-six percent of clients had experienced four or more adversities. These adversities were found challenging for Program delivery. For example, housing conditions mean that around half of all ‘home visits’ could not be conducted in the home (held instead in staff cars or community locations) and together with exposure to violence undermined client capacity to translate program learnings into action. Crises with the basics of living regularly intruded into the delivery of program content, and low client literacy meant written hand-outs were unhelpful for many, requiring the development of pictorial-based program materials. Adversity increased the time needed to deliver program content. Conclusions Modifications to the Australian Nurse-Family Partnership Program model to reflect the specific complexities and adversities faced by the client populations is important for effective service delivery and to maximise the chance of meeting program goals of improving the health and well-being of Australian Aboriginal mothers and their infants.

This paper reports on the findings of research which investigated RATEP Diploma of Education (ATSI) students' opinions, attitudes and perceptions of flexible delivery strategies. The three students who participated in this qualitative research studied the Diploma of Education (ATSI) between 2003 and 2004. Data was collected via semi-structured, open ended interviews and presented as case studies. The research findings highlight the complexities of student-centred flexible delivery. This study found that all participants needed regular interaction, support and feedback from peers and teaching staff, however, the focus on self paced, independent learning inhibited this. Each case highlighted a preference for different delivery modes and strategies, however, participants could cope with delivery modes and strategies that did not match their preferred way of learning if there were high levels of support, convenience and flexibility. Conversely, timelines for participation were necessary in order for participants to develop independent learning skills. In conclusion, recommendations for practice are suggested. These include increased group paced delivery in order facilitate regular interaction, support and feedback. Strategies include more face to face block delivery and the facilitation of an online community of learners. Production of a student handbook containing course information, delivery plans and due dates for assessment needs would assist students to develop independent learning skills.

The South Australia Police Future Directions Strategy, published in 2003, committed its members to maximizing participation of diverse community groups in policing programs and strategies. To that end, South Australia Police have introduced a unique police diversionary strategy for young Indigenous offenders that has been implemented in two remote regions of South Australia. This paper begins by surveying the current landscape of relationships between policing and Indigenous Australians. It then introduces the novel diversionary strategy and makes a preliminary assessment of the ability of rural and remote police to enter into professional partnerships with existing community and legal networks.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the success of strategies--including replacing petrol with aviation gasoline (avgas) in the fuel supply, and employment and skills-training programs targeting young people--in reducing petrol sniffing at Maningrida, an isolated Aboriginal community in northern Australia. METHODS: A follow-up study of 13 Aboriginals who were non-sniffers, 15 who were ex-sniffers and 27 who were petrol sniffers in 1992 was conducted by questionnaire in 1994, 20 months after intervention strategies were commenced; 11 non-sniffers, 11 ex-sniffers and 18 petrol sniffers, respectively, participated. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Petrol-sniffing status, changes in employment status, blood lead levels of the participants, and community crime statistics. RESULTS: After intervention strategies in Maningrida, petrol sniffing ceased, with related crime falling markedly. Employment increased significantly among petrol sniffers, from 7% to 63% (chi 2 = 11.53; df = 1; P < 0.001). Only two petrol sniffers were reported to have continued petrol sniffing elsewhere. Apart from one of these individuals, who had recently returned to Maningrida, blood lead levels fell significantly in those with a history of petrol sniffing, indicating they had not continued to sniff avgas, which contains lead additives (0.8 g/L). CONCLUSIONS: While avgas introduction was a key element in eliminating petrol sniffing, its apparent lack of success as a single intervention elsewhere indicates the importance of widespread community resolve against petrol sniffing and the development of coordinated employment strategies in successfully eliminating the practice and reducing associated social disruption.

For many years there has been a call for research institutions to deliver on the key elements of what has recently been referred to as the Indigenous Research Reform Agenda. Underlying this call is the active participation of Aboriginal communities in the design, implementation, dissemination and evaluation of research. This requires specific action by research institutions to support the adoption of collaborative and participatory approaches. This paper outlines the ways in which the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (BIITE) and the Australian Catholic University (ACU) attempted to answer this call as they planned for an Australian Research Council Linkage Projects grant on educational leadership.

Safe, clean and secure housing is fundamental to the wellbeing of all Australians and is a key element of the Commonwealth Government’s priority of Closing the Gap on the significant disadvantage that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people often face in terms of health, education and employment. In 2008 the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed the $5.4 billion National Partnership Agreement for Remote Indigenous Housing (NPARIH), which was replaced by the Remote Housing Strategy (the Strategy) in 2016, and a set of objectives which aimed to reduce significant overcrowding, poor housing conditions and severe housing shortages. This Review has been established to assess the outcomes of the NPARIH and the Strategy and in doing so has examined the state of remote Indigenous housing across Australia. The Review Panel (the Panel) has inspected housing and talked with tenants and community leaders in remote communities across Australia, while also examining a wide range of available data. The Panel has identified significant progress in the provision of remote housing, but also a range of ongoing issues that must be addressed in order to reduce the continuing unacceptable levels of overcrowding and to sustain the reasonable housing quality achieved for a large number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.

While many school systems are exploring the potential of new technologies, the reality for many rural and remote students in Australia is that they still rely upon High Frequency (HF) Radio as their main form of communication with teachers. After using HF Radio for several decades, the Charleville School of Distance Education (CSDE) in Queensland has commenced using telephone teaching with the aim of improving the delivery of education for its rural and remote students. This study investigated the central research question - has the replacement of HF Radio with the telephone for teaching contributed to the development of a constructivist teaching and learning environment? The theoretical framework for this study was based on Garrison's (1993) theory of transactional constructivism. Findings strongly indicated that the telephone teaching and learning environment at the CSDE were substantially constructivist in nature. The findings reported have implications for initiatives aimed at improving the education of rural and remote students. Furthermore, the study suggests that future research needs to be directed towards investigating a broad range of new technologies, which build upon the platform of telephone teaching to enhance the delivery of educational programs to rural and remote students.

Much has been made about the sustainability of youth and other educational policy beyond the initial period of government program funding. Problems of sustainability are most at issue in country towns and districts which are "rural and remote", or distant from coastal cities and regional towns. In this paper we argue that problems of keeping policy and programs alive should be seen in the conditions in which they have to be conceived and set in place. Included here are: the social conditions in which a policy and ways to implement it are accepted as a 'common wisdom'; and, the match or mismatch they have with the economic and social conditions across urban and rural locations. Brief case studies, based on demographic information about three rural towns, are then used to document difficulties for policy implementation that matters for people in a rural and remote community. Much of the analysis is based on Sher and Sher's (1994) reference to making policy "as if rural people and communities really mattered". This is revisited to examine the different relations between the three rural transition programs and the towns they serve.

This discussion paper presents a scan of the current status of water, sanitation and hygiene services and challenges in remote Australian Indigenous communities. It was conducted to make explicit the challenges requiring attention and to propose questions to stimulate discussion as to how various stakeholders can respond to these challenges. It was guided by examples of initiatives that have improved WASH services and behaviours.

The meanings people make of their lives is more than a product of their material circumstances (e.g. class and gender). They are also significantly influenced by the meanings they made of their place. This paper has its origins in the growing, though disputed terrain of post-modern social theory. Its specific focus is on the relationships between distance, isolation and place and their impact on the lives of young people growing up on the geographical and social margins. Using data collected using semi-structured interviews and photographs this paper explores how young people living in a remote mining town organise place to form both the material and mental structures of their lives. Major findings include:The young people's knowledge and understanding of other places, especially cities, is partial. Common threads of uncertainty about using public transport (i.e. a fear of moving around) and a fear of violence are appearing. Decisions to leave the town are difficult. Mining is a gender-specific activity. Women are excluded from every aspect of the industry. Women and especially young women are doubly disadvantaged by the powerful oppressions of gender and geographical isolation.

A small exploratory study was conducted over a school term in three primary schools in the Northern Territory to determine the effectiveness of a web-based literacy intervention, ABRACADBRA. Our purpose is to inform others of the challenges encountered while implementing and evaluating the effectiveness this new literacy intervention. Researchers were confronted with several ongoing obstacles during the data collection process. Using standardised testing with children who had never been exposed to this type of assessment; working with teachers with very little teaching experience and poor attendance all added to the difficulty of conducting rigorous research. Tests that were designed for whole class administration had to be given one-on-one or to small groups of no more than three. Teacher turnover was an issue as was the fact that most teachers were early in their careers, still developing knowledge and skills. While many of the teachers were eager to learn and responsive to professional development, their overall lack of training in explicit early literacy instruction at times negatively impacted the program's delivery. Greater teacher support is suggested to increase overall teacher effectiveness while providing much needed professional development. Sporadic attendance among many of the participants resulted in the study losing 22 of its original 97 students over a ten week period. Computer assisted learning programmes such as ABRACADABRA, which allows students to pick up where they left off is one way of addressing the issue of transient students. ABRACADABRA, with its multiple levels and variety of activities allows teachers to differentiate lessons according to student needs. Recommendations for other educational researchers working within this or a similar context are given throughout the article.

Geographic and professional isolation take their toll amongst professionals, particularly within the first five years of practice in regional, rural and remote areas of Australia. The attraction and retention of human service professionals and para-professionals in regional Australia is a significant problem affecting the sustainability and social cohesion of these communities. This paper reviews the literature on induction of professionals in isolated situations, particularly in the health and education areas, and proposes methods of support based on the use of the Internet. Samples of website designs are provided, together with an example of a site that would be appropriate for neophyte teachers. The site, entitled Mathematics Education on the Web, provides communication technologies for discussion, resources and exemplary teaching videos, and provides an example of how the Internet can be used to support isolated teachers in the critical first few years of teaching.

The leadership culture in Indigenous remote community schools is gradually changing as education executives in the Northern Territory in Australia are increasingly aware of the relevance of bridging the cultural-gap between Indigenous and contemporary leadership in the administration of these schools. Through professional development programs, Indigenous female school principals in the NT participate in leadership training programs to progress leadership capacity and foster effective school community partnerships. These programs generally emphasise the acquisition of conventional leadership constructs that are characteristic of systemic (Eurocentric) leadership frameworks on the assumption that they have the potential to bring about effective accomplishment of educational outcomes. Hence, Indigenous school principals are encouraged to integrate such frameworks that are culturally appropriate in their schools. Yet there is no agreed understanding among education executives, Indigenous school principals and community leaders about how such integration should occur; degree of integration in specific leadership tasks; or whether such integration could be aligned with school community partnerships. This paper will explore emerging questions on educational change and transformational leadership in Indigenous community schools; and drawing on Hofstede's analysis of cultural disparity, consider implication for Indigenous female principals and school community partnerships in the evolving leadership culture in Indigenous remote community schools.

The Housing for Health Incubator aims to research and critically intervene in housing and infrastructure policies that contribute to unjust housing and health outcomes for Indigenous and other marginalised people, in Australia and elsewhere. Taking policy worlds, rather than householders, as its central object of analysis, the Incubator investigates the political and policy obstacles to instituting systemic change in housing provision. In partnership with Healthabitat, a not-for-profit company focused on improvements in the material conditions of housing for Indigenous and other disadvantaged groups, the Incubator is committed to increasing the quantity, quality, and accessibility of secure housing as a human right, through working on practical improvements in housing fix-work and exploring wider contributors and potential solutions to infrastructural inequality. Located at the University of Sydney, the Incubator is funded by the Henry Halloran Trust, the University of Sydney Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the University of Sydney Medical School, the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, and The Fred Hollows Foundation. This Issues Paper describes the political and policy context in which the Incubator has been established and outlines its planned program of research.

In 2001-2002, an innovative project entitled Reach In-Reach Out has been conducted in Far North Queensland. Its aim was to use telecommunications and Internet tools to facilitate communication between the children of Lockhart River who attend secondary school in such centres as Cairns, Townsville and Herberton and their families. This study was the first (of three) to investigate the impact of this project. Its focus is on the teachers of Lockart River State School and the changes made to their practice by the implementation of the project. The study described in this paper was conducted in Lockhart River which is situated on Kanthanumpu (Southern Kuuku Ya'u) land in Far North Queensland. The current population is estimated between 650 (Education Queensland, 2001a) and 800 (Lockhart River Land and Sea Management Agency, 2001) residents. The student population of Lockhart River State School in 2001was 26 (Kindy), 105 (Primary) and 30 (Alternate secondary/VET) programs) (Education Queensland, 2001a). At the end of 1999, the secondary school of Lockhart River was closed following a community decision to do so. This necessitated the majority of post-primary students having to leave Lockhart River to continue their education at boarding school. At the beginning of 2002, 38 students left the Lockhart River Community to attend boarding schools (and 8 remained to take part in the Alternate Secondary/VET program offered at the school). Table 1 details the secondary enrolments of Lockhart River students from 1998 to 2001, including the period covered by this study (2001).

Having rapport with and being valued by others within their learning cohort is a critical motivational element for many students. To achieve that while being geographically separated from others in their cohort presents particular challenges for educators. This paper explores the need for educators to develop strategies that can build personal bridges with their remote students. A case study dramatically illustrates the positive effects that can be achieved by utilising technology for such purposes. The findings from this case study have wide applicability as they suggest that students are more likely to complete their studies if they have a sense of commitment to others with whom they have bonded throughout the course of their learning experience.

In October 2017, Australia was elected for the first time to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to serve a three-year term that will span from 2018 to 2020. In its new role, Australia will be tasked with promoting international human rights, acting on human rights violations by UN Member States and developing international human rights standards.

In the context of the policy priority to enhance engagement and retention in South Australia, attention is being given to the wide range of innovative programs emerging from schools in rural and remote areas. Contrasting with the state-wide, departmentally designed and funded interventions which are the subject of another paper in this symposium, these are school-based and school-designed. Targeting at risk students, they aim to design a relevant and engaging curricular response to the many complexities of these students' lives and the reality that the role of and identity as a 'student' is only one of many, and often the least meaningful to them. Some are highly case-specific, others are cohort-specific, such as pre-industry, young mums programs and those designed for indigenous young people. This paper will report the findings from an analysis of a selection of such school-based curricula interventions in order to explore the intersections with the analyses and findings of part-time study from the wider research project, focussing in particular on schools in rural and remote locations, including Coober Pedy Area School, Port Augusta Secondary School, Carlton School, Leigh Creek Area School and Edward John Eyre High School in Whyalla.

The learning styles of external students in remote areas differ from the pedagogy surrounding the modes of study offered by mainstream universities throughout Australia. For many students there are no alternatives for study other than the external mode, due to isolation, ties to the family community and land and the sheer expense of relocating. For many Aboriginal students the difficulties of interpreting external course work is compounded by the lack of culturally appropriate materials and little acknowledgment that Standard Australian English is not their first language. This paper investigates the learning styles of a group of Aboriginal students completing an external mainstream course in a remote enclave situation. Class room practices have been modified to accommodate the shortcomings of the mainstream curricula. This was to encourage a dynamic interactive cross cultural exchange between the students and their non-Indigenous teachers. The acknowledgment of cultural diversity and dialogue is highly valued. As a result, the students' learning styles, their retention and success rates are positively affected. This method of teaching lends itself to a two way cultural learning exchange based on attitude and awareness. The recognition that 'incidental learning' takes place has implications for non-Indigenous teachers instructing Indigenous students from a variety of backgrounds. This paper examines the intricacies of such student teacher relationships and how it impinges upon positive student outcomes.

Few issues raise problems as complex as the inadequacy of housing for Aboriginal people who live in remote communities in the Northern Territory (‘NT’). Chronic overcrowding, poor quality housing and geographical and cultural issues all contribute to the complexity of the situation. In this article we outline the recent history of Aboriginal community housing in the Top End, identifying some of the policy issues we have observed in delivering legal services across the region. There is a clear need for further discussion of an appropriate tenancy model for remote Aboriginal communities.

This paper outlines a number of programs that are run by Commonwealth, state and territory governments. The Commonwealth and each state and territory government has completed a survey of the specific courts for Indigenous offenders in each jurisdiction; non custodial sentencing options; custodial rehabilitation and therapeutic correctional programs and post release programs for Indigenous offenders. These programs are examples of current initiatives on the ground. However, there is a lack of research into and evaluation of programs for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people alike. Many programs are designed overseas and are yet to be trialled and/or evaluated for Indigenous offenders. Many of the programs being run by state and territories suffer from lack of a continuous funding source and/or proper evaluation.

While petrol sniffing amonge Australian Aboriginal youth has received significant public and academic attention, the experience of petrol sniffing as articulated by sniffers themselves and community's perceptions of petrol sniffing have been underexplored. Through an ethnographic analysis of a remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory Australia, a range of perspectives on petrol sniffing are elucidated in order to understand both the experiences associated with sniffing and non-sniffers’ perceptions of the activity. We argue that contextualizing sniffing within the community is essential to understanding petrol sniffing, and hence to providing appropriate health interventions. It would be incorrect to presume a causal connection between the introduction of a petrol sniffing intervention, described in this article, and the sudden cessation of all petrol sniffing activities in late 2005. Rather, a number of factors and occurrences within the community combined with the effects of the intervention were associated with a significant decrease in petrol sniffing.

At the time of its inception in 2008, the Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program (SIHIP) was the largest indigenous housing program in Australia's history. SIHIP represented a $672million investment by the Australian and Northern Territory governments to improve housing in 73 remote and widely scattered indigenous communities in the Territory. Emerging at a time when indigenous issues shot to the forefront of national politics, SIHIP was billed as a response to the widespread overcrowding, poor housing quality, and lack of job opportunities that has come to define many remote communities in the Territory. Faltering out of the gate, SIHIP quickly came under criticism and became a symbol of government excess and ineptitude. A review of the program refocused SIHIP, which has since met its housing and employment targets. However, this thesis will demonstrate that these targets do not reflect the overall impact of SIHIP on target communities. This thesis will look at SIHIP in a new light and illustrate that, beneath a seemingly straightforward construction project, are tremendous underlying forces of distance and control. SIHIP's legacy will not be reduced overcrowding and improved housing outcomes, rather, it will be the reshaping and condensing of indigenous settlement patterns and an unprecedented increase in government control over indigenous housing. Not only is it a break with indigenous housing policy over the last 40 years, SIHIP also follows the larger historic pattern of providing housing and services as a means to control indigenous settlement. This thesis will tell the story of SIHIP through the two lenses of distance and control and analyze the role of these forces in shaping SIHIP, its impact on the ground, and its legacy. Through reframing the debate around SIHIP, this thesis will draw broader planning lessons about the challenges of planning across distance and the complex dynamics that influence large, government-driven initiatives. Furthermore, it will illuminate key opportunities that have emerged through SIHIP, many of which have received little public attention. Through this analysis the core assumption of SIHIP is challenged, leaving the question: is housing provision the best way to improve living conditions for Australia's indigenous population?

It is widely accepted that teaching should build on what students already know and understand. In this study, 42 Aboriginal children in Grades 3 to 6 were posed a series of related questions on addition and subtraction. The question items were posed in a one-on-one interview situation both in the context of money and with just numbers. The data revealed an alignment between the students’ capacity to work with money and to work with numbers. This implies that money may be a useful context for beginning the development of number understanding and fluency in remote Indigenous contexts.