Remote Australia Online

This chapter draws on Australian and Canadian Indigenous frameworks to explore the relationship between arts activities and the social determinants of health (SDOH). It grounds these explorations in insights from two arts-based projects called Living Cultures and the Desert Harmony Festival in a remote part of Central Australia, both of which are powerful case studies for considering the ways in which arts participation can promote Indigenous SDOH and well-being. It focuses on two key social determinants that were strongly present in the Living Cultures project and the Desert Harmony Festival: Employment and Language, Heritage and Strong Cultural Identity. This chapter then unpacks two of the resulting components of social capital that stem from these broader determinants (Bonding: Relations within the Community and Bridging: Relations with Other Communities), in order to further illustrate how Indigenous SDOH can be used in community arts work.

Boarding schools have been increasingly championed in strategies to move closer to educational equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. However, there is a significant lack of research and evidence on the implications of the boarding environment for Aboriginal students, families and communities. This paper presents a study of an Aboriginal residential program in South Australia. Semi-structured and narrative interviews with 55 participants (including residence staff, family, and past students) reveal the centrality of rules and relationships within this setting. A consideration of these themes from a Critical Race Theory perspective provides a socio-cultural basis to analyse the implications of race, racism and power. In doing so, underlying implications of the boarding model that should be acknowledged, explored and applied in this setting are identified. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Evaluation of the Flexible Literacy for Remote Schools Program: Main Report

This paper explores issues around the representation of Indigenous cultural property, voices and images in two books of Warlpiri women’s yawulyu song traditions that form part of a series published by Batchelor Press (Gallagher et al., 2014 & Warlpiri Women from Yuendumu, 2017). These publications stem from collaborations between Indigenous knowledge holders and non-Indigenous researchers and involve long-term relationships between the team members. We draw out discussion of the motivations for making these books and agency within these intercultural teams, considering the colonising impact of academic research, the intercultural dimensions to Indigenous identities and the role of publications such as these in repatriation and reparation efforts. We demonstrate how Warlpiri women have directed the production processes and surrounding events so that these books not only represent forms of Warlpiri cultural knowledge but also contribute to the dynamic forms of cultural reproduction that ensure continued engagement with these song traditions into the future. Note: The names of deceased Warlpiri women are used in this paper. With consideration to cultural sensitivities, family members wish for their names to be used so that they can be honoured for their knowledge and contributions to the continuation of the tradition of yawulyu through generations of Warlpiri women.

Education authorities in Australia are calling for valid tools to help assess prospective teachers’ non-academic attributes, with a particular need for identifying those attributes necessary for effective teaching in specific contexts. With the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education, we aimed to develop a scenario-based tool to help assess the non-academic attributes necessary for beginning teachers working in rural and remote settings. Using a situational judgement test (SJT) methodology, we worked with experienced teachers (n = 19) to develop scenario-based items, which were then reviewed by school principals (n = 13). The teachers also adapted items previously developed and piloted in the UK. Next, prospective NSW teachers (n = 99) tried 32 new and adapted items targeting four clusters of attributes: empathy and communication, resilience and adaptability, organisation and planning, and culture and context. Item quality analyses revealed 22 acceptable items. We conclude by suggesting SJTs for promoting non-academic growth of prospective and beginning teachers.

The study sought to draw new perspectives on how corporate social responsibility (CSR) is shaped and created within the resource sector. The study focused on examining the role of external stakeholders in influencing the CSR strategies implemented by Australian resource companies. Data were gathered by semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders involved with 25 resource companies located in South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory. Consistent with sociological theories of CSR, stakeholders such as business and community leaders, non-government organizations (NGOs), and government employees were able to influence CSR by empowering communities to participate in CSR, bridging cultural divides between companies and communities, and linking companies to key society standards. This was facilitated by the expression of personal ethical values and knowledge sets by stakeholders and where relevant those of their organization. A range of stakeholders were active agents of change, bringing in new ideology, skills, and expertise, and, at times, challenging existing corporate practice. This process was underlined by relationship building and trust. Stakeholders effectively introduced higher ethical values to concepts of public accountability, environmental sustainability, and social justice in line with personal and organizational ethics. The study also identified factors which promoted stakeholder influence and gave stakeholders power within CSR. This included a range of institutional-level factors such as regulatory and legal frameworks, company policy, and cultures, but also interpersonal skills and abilities of the individuals involved. The study highlights the strategic benefits of stakeholder involvement in CSR within the Australian resource sector and discusses implications for the broader resource industry.

For some time Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have been readily participating in [vocational education and training] VET certificate programs, above rates for non-Indigenous Australians (albeit at lower levels of attainment than non-Indigenous Australians). Relatively high participation rates are not however translating into higher levels of employment. Successive 'Closing the Gap' reports point to a widening gap in employment participation, particularly in remote areas. This suggests that the role of VET certificate courses in improving employability of participants is problematic. Compounding the problem of transition to employment is the problem of attrition. In remote parts of Australia, attrition rates for VET courses are very high, for example certificate I courses have attrition rates of more than 90 per cent. It would appear that on the whole, participants are not getting what is needed from their courses and they are dropping out as a result. However, this is not the case for all courses. To address these concerns a research project titled Enhancing Training Advantage for Remote Learners funded by [National Centre for Vocational Education Research] NCVER, is examining what makes programs more successful. The project, auspiced by Ninti One Limited with research partners from around Australia, will be conducting five case studies on successful programs in a variety of remote Australian contexts to determine what factors make them work well to achieve better retention and employability for participants. This paper and presentation will report on initial findings of the five case studies. It will also present an analysis of quantitative data from VOCSTATS and the five programs to illustrate the kinds of achievements that are possible in an efficient, and effective VET program for remote learners. Some formative implications from the findings will also be discussed. Published abstract.

The doctoral research that this paper is based on focused on the low number of young Aboriginal teachers currently undertaking and completing teacher education in remote communities in central Australia. What became clear from the research was that the biggest barrier to Aboriginal people becoming qualified teachers is the legacy of settler colonialism and the ongoing neo-colonial structures of education and knowledge systems. What also emerged is that there are powerful possibilities for co-creation of knowledge if we are willing to engage in a process of decolonising the knowledge work we do. The thesis is also a documentation of how the teacher participants in the research and I intentionally inhabited this decolonising way of working as we did the research together. Through this process we were able to discover ways of working together in what Verran (2013) calls ‘good faith’ that left us all with what the teacher participants referred to as that ‘right feeling’. The thesis pays attention to the knowledge intersections that are possible if we intentionally work in decolonising ways. It offers a number of ways of ‘being’ as we work together and a number of ‘tools’ that help us to work together in ways that allows knowledge systems to co-exist and co-create new knowledge without one blocking or erasing the other.

The experience of artistry and narrative in research is a key methodological concern of the artist and the researcher, whose work occurs in and beyond an intersection of educational and cultural narratives, in intercultural contexts. Through the management of multi-modal data this intersection has informed the design of a book that stands as one record of the artist’s work communicated through story, biography and painting about the Eastern Arrernte homelands, and her life lived there. In a separate process, the same data set is used in the design of a methodological framework for multi-modal data-driven research, presented in a PhD research format. Two of the trajectories that lead into and beyond this intersection include the Eastern Arrernte premise that maintaining public customary knowledge of the homelands is essential to sustain future generations, and the research premise that the role of artistry and narrative as pedagogy and as data is a compelling adjunct to educational inquiry.

A consistent correction procedure is used to determine improved, consistent estimates by sex of census age distributions, intercensal births, and intercensal deaths and net immigration by age for the Aboriginal populations of the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia during the period 1986-91. Undercount estimates for the censuses, registered births and registered deaths, and life tables derived from the results show the Aboriginal populations to have lower coverage of censuses and of vital events and much higher death risks than the total Australian population. Interregional net migration estimates show that component of change may no longer be ignored.

In Indigenous communities around the globe, the time and space needed for the learning of language, ways of being, cultural practices and beliefs, and local history have been limited by changes brought on by formal education, modernity and globalisation. However dynamic these factors and processes may be, introduced Western institutional practices, values and expectations have nonetheless eroded the learning that occurs in the everyday environment, and schooling has reduced the time spent acquiring culturally-specific knowledge systems, languages and world-views. Research has demonstrated that shared cultural practices and beliefs are vital for identity strengthening in Indigenous Australia. However, studies of the process of this learning and teaching remain few. Examined here are three learning events embedded in the everyday social context of a remote Aboriginal community in Australia. Based on an anthropological and art historical research project that investigated the creative, social and cultural world of an Aboriginal community, this paper focuses on community-based learning events in the quotidian environment. Revealed here are the immediate needs and desires of community members and the manner in which local-specific values, practices and knowledge are transmitted inter-generationally. We argue that these events are a key factor in identity strengthening, cultural continuity and cultural renewal.

Central Australia is widely characterised as a frontier, a familiar trope in literary constructions of Australian identity that divides black from white, ancient from modern. However, anthropological and literary evidence from the Northern Territory and Alice Springs suggests more nuanced ‘lifeworlds’ than a frontier binary can afford may better represent a contemporary lived experience of the region (Merlan 1998; Hinkson 2002; Ottosson 2010; Riphagen 2008; Finnane 2014b; Morrison 2017a). Using walking as a point of intersection between Aboriginal and settler Australian practices of placemaking, the paper summarises (and to an extent updates) doctoral research by the author (2011-15), which read six retold walking journeys of the region for representations of frontier and home (Morrison 2015, 2017a, 2017b). The methodology used for the comparative and cross-cultural analysis of the texts is described, and results briefly appraised for changes in the popular representation of Central Australia from the precolonial era to the early twenty-first century. The research speaks broadly to the reading of postcolonial literary geographies, and suggests that intercultural exchange and a surge in contemporary recognition of Aboriginal songlines through storytelling (alongside the more familiar colonial narratives of nation) may already be reshaping an Australian identity.

Given the well-established evidence of disproportionately high rates of substance-related morbidity and mortality after release from incarceration for Indigenous Australians, access to comprehensive, effective and culturally safe residential rehabilitation treatment will likely assist in reducing recidivism to both prison and substance dependence for this population. In the absence of methodologically rigorous evidence, the delivery of Indigenous drug and alcohol residential rehabilitation services vary widely, and divergent views exist regarding the appropriateness and efficacy of different potential treatment components. One way to increase the methodological quality of evaluations of Indigenous residential rehabilitation services is to develop partnerships with researchers to better align models of care with the client’s, and the community’s, needs. An emerging research paradigm to guide the development of high quality evidence through a number of sequential steps that equitably involves services, stakeholders and researchers is community-based participatory research (CBPR). The purpose of this study is to articulate an Indigenous drug and alcohol residential rehabilitation service model of care, developed in collaboration between clients, service providers and researchers using a CBPR approach.

This paper arises from PhD research on an Australian, Northern Territory (NT) language education policy, ‘Compulsory Teaching in English For the First Four Hours of Each School Day’, led to the synergy of research evidence from two knowledge systems. Initiated in response to local NT Indigenous concerns, the research explored these concerns in detail using qualitative critical case study ethnographic across-cultural research approaches. This paper describes how Indigenous knowledge in relation to policy effects not only informed methodology but confirmed regional, national and international research in the field of bilingual education. In contrast, a critical discourse analysis on policy texts and discourse exposed flawed rationality and fallacy. This latter analysis was informed by Fairclough (1989) and Reisigl and Wodak’s (2009) Historical Discourse Analysis, as well as the works of Foucault, Bourdieu, and others. As such, this paper explains how the research explored the issue of policy analysis and effects to afford a western explanation with Indigenous perspectives as the foundation of research that can help us travel the knowledge journey together.

The broad discipline of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) has become a global focus for education and employment. Currently, Indigenous students are less likely to engage in STEM programs and careers than in other disciplines such as education, health, social sciences and arts. In Australia, schools and tertiary institutions are investigating opportunities to increase Indigenous participation in STEM. In 2016, the XE Maths project documented a series of six case studies of diverse Australian tertiary programs focussed on increasing Indigenous participation in STEM (Paige, Hattam, Rigney, Osborne & Morrison, 2016). This paper documents Charles Darwin University’s initiatives, including the Whole of Community Engagement program, which provides pathways and enabling supports to potential university students across six very remote communities in the Northern Territory. Capacity within communities, a long-term commitment and vision, and culturally responsive approaches such as Both-ways STEM education are identified as central to increasing remote Indigenous community engagement with tertiary-level STEM.

Rural and remote areas of Queensland make a major contribution to the Queensland economy. The continuing strength of the rural economy depends on a vibrant, skilled workforce capable of sustaining rural development while at the same time embracing global trends. Since over half of all state schools in Queensland are located in rural and remote areas and cater for approximately one-third of all students enrolled in the state school system, quality education services in the bush are an important part of the future of the State. This framework for action in education for rural and remote areas focuses on continuing to refine and improve quality rural and remote education services, outlining a commitment to engaging with the key and emerging challenges of delivering education in the bush and achieving better learning outcomes for students living in rural and remote locations.

This framework for action in education for rural and remote areas of Queensland focuses on continuing to refine and improve quality rural and remote education services. It outlines the government’s commitment to addressing the key and emerging challenges of delivering education in the rural and remote areas of the state and achieving better learning outcomes for students living in these locations. It describes more than 60 key initiatives that are designed to facilitate continued excellence and improve education and training opportunities for students, educators and schools. The framework aligns with whole-of-government and departmental systemic reforms and programs, including ‘Blueprint for the bush’ and the ‘Education and training reforms for the future’ (indexed at TD/QLD 72.05). The contents are: Introduction: commitment to quality rural and remote education; Actions to meet the challenges and deliver results: relevant and engaged learning; respecting cultural diversity; ICT and multimodal delivery; personnel and workforce capability; environments and resourcing.

Introduction: As for many health professionals, distance presents an enormous challenge to pharmacists working in rural and remote Australia. Previous studies have identified issues relating to the size of the rural and remote pharmacist workforce, and a number of national initiatives have been implemented to promote the recruitment and retention of pharmacists in rural and remote locations. The aim of this study was to explore and describe the current rural and remote pharmacy workforce, and to identify barriers and drivers influencing rural and remote pharmacy practice. Methods: A mixed-methods approach was used, which comprised a qualitative national consultation and a quantitative rural and remote pharmacist workforce survey. Semi-structured interviews (n=83)and focus groups (n=143 participants) were conducted throughout Australia in 2009 with stakeholders with an interest in rural and remote pharmacy, practising rural/remote pharmacists and pharmacy educators, and as well as with peak pharmacy organisations, to explore the issues associated with rural/remote practice. Based on the findings of the qualitative work a 45-item survey was developed to further explore the relevance of the issues identified in the qualitative consultation. All registered Australian pharmacists practising in non-urban locations (RRMA 3-7, n=3,300) were identified and invited to participate in the study, with a response rate of 23.4 per cent. Results: The main themes identified from the qualitative consultation were the impact of national increases in the pharmacist workforce on rural/remote practice; the role of the regional pharmacy schools in contributing to the rural/remote workforce; and the perceptions of differences in pharmacist roles in rural/remote practice. The survey indicated that pharmacists practising in rural and remote locations were older than the national average (55.8 years versus 40 years). Differences in their professional role were seen in different pharmacy sectors, with hospital pharmacists spending significantly more time on the delivery of professional services and education and teaching, but less time on medication supply than community pharmacists. Rural/remote pharmacists were generally found to be satisfied with their current role. The main 'satisfiers' reported were task variety, customer appreciation, use of advanced skills, appropriate remuneration, happiness in their work location, sound relationships with other pharmacists, a happy team and relationships with other health professionals. Conclusion: This study described the distribution, roles and factors affecting rural and remote pharmacy practice. While the results presented provide an extensive overview of the rural/remote workforce, a comparable national study comparing rural/remote and urban pharmacists would further contribute to this discussion. Knowledge on why pharmacists chose to work in a particular geographical location, or why pharmacists chose to leave a location would further enrich our knowledge on what drives and sustains the rural/remote pharmacist workforce.

Resilience is central to helping teachers address the challenges of their profession. Most accounts, however, are limited by their uniform conceptualisation of resilience, failing to consider the impacts of context and culture. This paper explores what resilience means in the specific context of one Arrernte beginning teacher in central Australia. Using arts-based and narrative methods, we listen to his story, and follow the pathways he has taken across a landscape of resilience. Reflecting on his narrative offers us a new way of understanding the complexity of resilience and its function as it as a process rather than a phenomenon. Further, this reflection challenges the normative value judgements that arise from Western constructions of resilience. Following this teacher’s pathways helps us to re-map the landscape of resilience, so that the Western ‘highways’ that comprise conceptions of resilience as individualistic, value-laden and absolute are recognised as part of a broader landscape of resilience, one that is ecological, transactional and relative to time and place.

This paper reflects on my experience of intercultural collaboration in visual arts practice, during the last five years. This period includes doctoral research and three subsequent years of working on art projects around Alice Springs. Below I explore how each art project is itself a body of research. This exploration is woven around some key terms that have helped me reflect on collaboration as a cornerstone of visual arts research. These key terms are spectrum, emergence, fibres, relational aesthetics, known and secret practices, not knowing, bearing witness and taking action.

Over the past 10 years, tenancy management of housing across a number of Indigenous communities in Queensland has been transferred from local councils to the state government. This has enabled residents to receive a new housing specific occupational therapy service funded by the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing (NPARIH) now known as National Partnership on Remote Housing (NPRH). This agreement aims to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations by addressing housing-related issues. The primary goal of the occupational therapy service is to provide specialist housing support to community members so that they are able to remain healthy and safe within their homes. This paper focuses on how the occupational therapists providing this specialist support have identified the need to deliver a service that is responsive to the unique cultural needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Examples include the involvement of family members during the therapy process, utilising local translators, observing cultural practices (e.g. sorry business or gender protocols) and exploring housing solutions that enable clients to remain on their traditional land. These variations aim to acknowledge and address the strong cultural ties that influence the way clients will interact with others and their environment as well as the activities that they will undertake. This paper will provide an overview and examples of how occupational therapists have adapted their service delivery to meet the housing needs of Indigenous people residing in remote communities throughout Far North Queensland.

The organisation provides unique, flexible and culturally appropriate support options for indigenous Australians with a disability or who are frail aged and living in the Top End of the NT. Support is available in more than 33 remote communities. The Remote Respite Camp program, Troopy program, Wellbeing Troopy program and Urban Troopy program provide culturally respectful support on country. Camps are delivered in communities on request during the dry season and are aimed at low care, frail aged indigenous females. A local person from the community is engaged to work as a support worker on camps, utilising a brokerage model; the aim being to contribute to strengthening community capacity, employment opportunities and skills development. The camp setup is self-sufficient with solar power, tents, sleeping equipment and all food supplied for the duration of the camp. Participants assist in camp duties and all staff focus on wellness, reablement and restorative approaches aiming at improving quality of life. Activities are planned in consultation with the participants, often with an after-dinner movie under the stars! The Troopy program is delivered on request by, and in consultation with a community and is managed by local providers and their staff in the community. A Troopcarrier, fuel and a small budget for the outings is supplied. This provides the opportunity for carers and recipients in remote communities to access meaningful, on –country support, determined by them and delivered by familiar local people. Respite outings include fishing, hunting, gathering craft materials, funeral attendance, camping and visits to other communities to see family. The recent Aged Care reform has posed some particular challenges in the change in approaches to providing support for remote clients. All referrals must be made through the Federal government “My Aged Care” portal, by service providers or by self-referral. When a service provider initiates the referral My Aged Care then attempts to make contact with the client. This can prove difficult in remote communities. If contact isn’t able to be made after 2 phone calls the referral is closed and then becomes the responsibility of the client to make contact to complete an assessment. Our experience on community tells us that phones are often lost, out of credit, people mightn’t answer an unfamiliar number or they may have given their phone to another and no longer have phone access.

Rural and remote health managers encounter the same workforce challenges over and over again: the challenge of responding skilfully to high-risk disorders in areas of low population density; the difficulty of providing appropriate professional development and support for isolated clinicians; frustrations associated with high staff turnover. Perinatal mental health disorders, including anxiety and depression, can have enduring negative impacts on mothers, fathers, their infants, and the entire family. Suicide is a leading cause of death for mothers in the first year after the end of a pregnancy. Parental mental health issues, and/or problems in the parent-infant relationship, can have life-long adverse effects on the health, wellbeing and development of children. e-PIMH is a pilot project implemented by the Queensland Centre for Perinatal and Infant Mental Health (QCPIMH) from February to August 2016. The project operated in the four most rural Queensland Hospital and Health Services: South West, Central West, North West, and Torres and Cape. The project used a central point of contact (‘one stop shop’) to provide non-clinical advice and support, training, education and resources, for rural and remote practitioners working with parents, infants and families. The aim of this pilot project was to increase capacity within the existing rural and remote workforce to support perinatal and infant mental health, detect perinatal and/or infant mental health issues, and make early and appropriate referrals. Participating organisations included primary and secondary healthcare providers, along with early childhood services and young parents’ services, several of which were Indigenous-led organisations. Twelve training sessions were conducted with 172 participants, mostly front-line workers. Seventy-two meetings were held with 159 people, including medical staff and service managers. Most trainings and meetings were conducted face-to-face in regional centres, augmented by extensive use of videoconferencing, telephone and email contacts. A regular email was sent out, print and audio-visual resources were distributed, and staff were linked with other services for advice, referral information and supervision. A survey to evaluate the e-PIMH pilot garnered a 30% response rate. The paper will report on key findings including: participants’ self-reported benefits from participating in e-PIMH, for themselves and their clients; perceived strengths of the e-PIMH model for building capacity in the rural and remote workforce to respond early and effectively to high-risk disorders, support isolated staff, and reduce the negative impacts of staff turnover; suggested improvements to the e-PIMH model.

This NHMRC funded investigation began as an exercise in testing a Canadian developed maternity services planning tool for its utility and validity in Australia. Careful work with our statisticians and with around 170 rural and remote birthing facilities across Australia demonstrated that we can develop a mathematically valid planning tool for Australia. While this is useful we also learned that the application of this requires not only judgement but also contextual analysis. So we also developed, scrutinised and assisted by an expert group, a toolkit to apply this planning tool. What we found in our field work across four states and territories was surprising. This was not only an absence of evidence in relation to planning decisions about whether a service existed or not, but jurisdictional differences. Some states were more likely to have services than others. The ones that did had fewer services and did not appear to tie their decision making to “need”. This was also more surprising than we expected. Population vulnerability, that is sociodemographic or clinical need did not determine the existence of or nature of services. We learned about the challenges of applying and evidence based tool through fieldwork which also taught us lessons that were not necessarily anticipated. For example the struggle to get good clinical governance of rural and remote health services. The absence or poor quality of networking, in many cases, of regional services to small services or any networking at all; compounded the problem of clinical governance. The value of networks that reach out from regional hubs appear to be common sense and essential and their absence was surprising. Finally a fallacious sense of risk that often governed decisions that in and of themselves added risk.

Uncle Jimmy Thumbs Up! has been delivering nutrition and healthy lifestyle education since 2008. Using music and video as the engagement tools, the resulting “Good Tucker” songs and videos from the program delivery have been a catalyst for many residents in communities to take up healthy eating and lifestyle practices within the whole community. Thumbs up! enjoys continuing partnerships with major store groups who display Thumbs Up! signage including ALPA ( Arnhem land Progress Association) in the NT, Outback Stores in the NT and WA, Retail stores Group in FNQ and Cape York and several independent outlets. The signage placed in store reinforces the core message of “Good Tucker – Long Life” that is the subject of the songs and videos produced from structured workshops held at schools and in community. Thumbs Up! was successfully funded by the Federal Department of Health for six years and three successful evaluations showed that the program was indeed working. Unfortunately, Government funding for the core nutrition program, Uncle Jimmy Thumbs Up! was withdrawn under the Abbott Federal Government but the company has been able to diversify into other areas of health promotion while still delivering healthy lifestyle messages as they continue their work. Thumbs Up! is currently working in the APY lands of SA in partnership with the Indigenous Eye Health Unit of Melbourne University on a Trachoma awareness program the also combines elements of the nutrition program including “cook ups” and store appearances by Thumbs Up! facilitators, who are all entertainers in their own right. Other recent projects have included a suite of alcohol and other drugs and family and domestic violence awareness videos and messages for the NT Department of Heath and social inclusion and media and music training in the NT community of Wadeye (Port Keats). Thumbs Up ! also recently conducted a highly successful intensive workshop at Uluru with over 70 students from APY, NPY and WA border schools on the power of words and communication. Many teachers in schools across Australia continue to use the healthy lifestyle lesson plans and educational aids on the Thumbs Up ! website that have been recently mapped to the National curriculum. The lesson plans, healthy food songs, videos and AOD messages can be found on our website http://www.thumbsup.org.au