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The purpose of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Action Plan (the Plan) is to assist education providers to accelerate improvements in the educational outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people. The Plan seeks to progress the goals of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy and the Melbourne Declaration on the Educational Goals of Young Australians and is part of a broader COAG reform agenda for school education that will contribute to closing the gap between the educational outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their peers. It outlines how MCEECDYA Ministers will work together to achieve the closing the gap targets. Non-government education providers have agreed to join with governments to achieve these targets and progress actions outlined in the Plan. It is acknowledged that this sector includes providers that operate autonomously as they are not part of a system authority and will therefore require a more flexible approach. The Plan reflects commitments by governments through COAG to introduce substantial structural and innovative reforms in early childhood education and schooling as outlined in national agreements between the Australian Government and State and Territory Governments. These reforms are designed to improve outcomes for all Australian students by increasing access to quality early childhood education, improving literacy and numeracy achievement, addressing disadvantage in low socio-economic status school communities, improving teacher quality and increasing the number of young people attaining a Year 12 or equivalent qualification. Reform directions are detailed in the National Indigenous Reform Agreement, the National Education Agreement, the Early Childhood Education National Partnership, the Indigenous Early Childhood Development National Partnership, Remote Service Delivery National Partnership, the Smarter Schools - Improving Teacher Quality National Partnership, the Smarter Schools - Low Socio-economic Status School Communities National Partnership and the Smarter Schools - Literacy and Numeracy National Partnership, the Youth Attainment and Transitions National Partnership and other agreements. Commitments made in these national partnerships and agreements are brought together in the Plan with a number of new and continuing complementary measures to close the gap between the educational outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and other students. The Plan builds upon Australian Directions in Indigenous Education 2005-2008 (MCEETYA, 2006), which focused national effort in improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educational outcomes. It is informed by a review of Australian Directions commissioned by MCEECDYA and undertaken by prominent Aboriginal academics from across Australia (University of SA, 2009).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education: An Introduction for the Teaching Profession prepares students for the classroom and community environments they will encounter when teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in urban, rural and remote schools at early childhood, primary and secondary levels. The book addresses many issues and challenges faced by teacher education students and assists them to understand the deeper social, cultural and historical context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education. This is a unique textbook written by a team of highly regarded Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander academics. Each chapter opens with an engaging anecdote from the author, connecting learning to real-world issues. This is also the first textbook to address Torres Strait Islander education. Written in an engaging and accessible style, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education is an essential resource for teacher education students."--publisher website. Contents 1. A brief history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education in Australia / Kaye Price 2. The solen generations: what does this mean for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people today? / John Williams-Mozley 3. Delivering the promise: empowering teachers to empower students / Jeannie Herbert 4. Your professional experience and becoming professioanl about working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and communities / Christine Evans 5. The 'silent apartheid' as the practioner's blindspot / Mark Rose 6. Better: A Torres Strait Islander's story of the struggle for a better education / Martin Nakata 7. Maths as storytelling: maths is beautiful / Christopher Matthews 8. Information and communication technologies in the classroom: implications and considerations / Peter Radoll 9. Language and literacy / Jacky Troy 10. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies in the classroom / Kaye Price 11. Engaging indigenous students: the important relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their teachers / Peter Buckskin

This article emerges from research conducted across Australia on Aboriginal self-policing initiatives, generically referred to as "Community Patrols", "Aboriginal Patrols" or "Night Patrols". The study was intended to produce a national profile of Patrols, and similar services, around Australia. Our research reveals that Aboriginal people are actively engaged in a diversity of self-policing practices in urban, rural and remote communities across Australia. These policing practices differ markedly from those offered by the mainstream police and the private security sector in a number of crucial respects: the most obvious being that they are largely staffed by volunteers, operate without an arsenal of formal powers, and do not offer a commodified security service. Aboriginal Community Patrols are local initiatives by Aboriginal people evolved to intervene in situations where Indigenous people are at risk of enmeshment in the criminal justice system, or where they face multiple hazards associated with community disorder, alcohol, drugs and violence. Recent theorizing on the nature of contemporary policing, stressing some of the benefits of becoming linked to local security networks, provides a useful conceptual space for exploring the potential role of Indigenous self-policing, providing that principles of self determination are not sacrificed in the process.

In December 2000, the Commission received a reference to ‘inquire into and report upon Aboriginal customary laws in Western Australia’ and consider whether, and if so how, Aboriginal customary laws should be recognised within the Western Australian legal system. The Commission’s terms of reference for this project were wide-ranging, giving the Commission the freedom to investigate all areas of Aboriginal customary laws in Western Australia other than native title issues and matters addressed under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA). This Final Report is intended to be read in conjunction with the Commission’s earlier Discussion Paper which provides greater detail in respect of the Commission’s initial consultation findings, its research and analysis. Departing somewhat from the Discussion Paper structure, the first four chapters of the Final Report are of a general nature. Chapter One addresses some of the misconceptions about the reference, and about Aboriginal customary law generally, that have featured in media debates since the release of the Commission’s Discussion Paper; Chapter Two outlines some guiding principles for reform that are applicable across all areas of the reference; Chapter Three summarises issues raised in the Discussion Paper about the state of Aboriginal disadvantage in Western Australia and the Commission’s consultation findings; and Chapter Four discusses methods of and barriers to recognition of Aboriginal customary laws in this state. These chapters are followed by specific chapters which address the interaction between Aboriginal law and culture and Western Australian law in defined areas: Chapter Five deals with the criminal justice system; Chapter Six with the civil law system; Chapter Seven with family law and family violence; Chapter Eight with customary harvesting of natural resources; Chapter Nine with evidence and court procedure; and Chapter Ten with Aboriginal community governance in Western Australia.

Compares and contrasts aspects of Aboriginal economy and society across seven different regions. It reconstructs and explores the relationships between land and technologies. Contents 1. Introduction. Part I: Ecology. 2. Environments and resources 3. Technology 4. The seasonal round: population, settlement, and mobility. Part II: Institutions. 5. Identities 6. Kinship and marriage 7. Cosmology and quasi-technology 8. Governance. Part III: Economy. 9. Control of the means of production 10. Organisation of production 11. Distribution and consumption 12. Exchange and trade 13. Conclusion.

Dr. Payi Linda Ford is a senior Rak Mak Mak Marranunggu woman whose country is Kurrindju in the Finniss River and Reynold River regions of the Northern Territory. Educated in an Aboriginal cultural context of Traditional knowledge and practices growing up with her Traditional mother, uncles, aunts, grandparents and extended family, she was authorised to use Rak Mak Mak Marranunggu epistomology and ontology by her Ah-la Ngulilkang Nancy Daiyi in her Doctoral studies at Deakin University and Charles Darwin University. Payi is currently Senior Lecturer with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Unit at the University of Queensland and a Board member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). As a mother, academic, researcher, educator and practitioner of Indigenous traditions, Payi Linda Ford possesses a unique experience that she now shares with those who wish to enhance their understanding of the Indigenous cross-cultural environment. The thesis on which this book is based is a culmination of my research which drew on tyangi wedi tjan Rak Mak Mak Marranunggu and Marrithiel knowledge systems. These awa mirr spiritual knowledge systems have guided our Pilu for millennium and have powerful spiritual affi liation to the land and our continued presences. The understandings of the spiritual connectedness and our practices of relatedness have drawn on Pulitj, our deep awa mirr spiritual philosophy that nourishes us on our country. This philosophy gave us our voice and our presence to act in our own ways of knowing and being on the landscapes created by the Western bureaucratic systems of higher education in Australia to bring forth our Tyikim knowledge systems to serve our own educational interests. From this spiritual ‘Puliyana kunun’ philosophical position the book examines colonising constructions of Tyikim peoples, Tyikim knowledge systems in education, Tyikim research and access to higher education for Tyikim students. From the research, it is argued that the paradigm, within which the enclave-derived approach to Indigenous higher education is located, is compatible with the normalising imperialistic ideology of higher education. The analysis of the Mirrwana/Wurrkama participatory action research project, central to the research, supported an argument for the Mirrwana/Wurrkama model of Indigenous higher education. Further analysis identifi ed fi ve key pedagogical principles embedded within this new model as metaphorically equivalent to wilan~bu of the pelangu. The book identifi es the elements of the spirituality of the narrative exposed in the research-in-action through the “Marri kubin mi thit wa!”. This is a new paradigm for Tyikim participation in higher education within which the Mirrwana/Wurrkama model is located. Finally, the book identifi es the scope for Tyikim knowledge use in the construction of contemporary ‘bureaucratic and institutionalised’ higher education ngun nimbil thit thit teaching and learning experiences of Tyikim for the advancement of Tyikim interests. Here the tyangi yigin tjan spiritual concepts of narrative and landscape are drawn upon both awa mirr metaphorically and in marri kubin mi thit wa Tyikim pedagogical practice.

According to Manovich (2001), the database and the narrative are natural enemies, each competing for the same territory of human culture. Aboriginal knowledge traditions depend upon narrative through storytelling and other shared performances. The database objectifies and commodifies distillations of such performances and absorbs them into data structures according to a priori assumptions of metadata; that is the data which describes the data to aid a search. In a conventional library for example, the metadata which helps you find a book may be title, author or topic. It is misleading and dangerous to say that these databases contain knowledge, because we lose sight of the embedded, situated, collaborative and performative nature of knowledge. For the assemblages of digital artefacts we find in an archive or database to be useful in the intergenerational transmission of living knowledge traditions, we need to rethink knowledge as performance and data as artefacts of prior knowledge production episodes. Through the metaphors of environment and journey we can explore ways to refigure the archive as a digital environment available as a resource to support the work of active, creative and collaborative knowledge production.

This research project investigates two questions and proposes two answers. The first question asks how teachers can engage with Aboriginal knowledge. The proposed solution involves applying a reconciling theory of Cultural Interface to staff development. The second question asks how teachers can use Aboriginal knowledge productively in schools. The proposed solution lies in the application of Aboriginal processes rather than content, specifically the application of Aboriginal pedagogies. In investigating these questions participants sought to incorporate authentic Aboriginal perspectives in the curriculum in ways that increased intellectual rigour and supported mainstream academic success for Aboriginal learners. I propose that this outcome is currently blocked by an oppositional framing of Aboriginal and western knowledge systems, caused by shallow perceptions of Indigenous knowledge as being limited to token cultural items. This tokenism serves only to highlight difference and marginalise Indigenous thought. I propose that these issues can be addressed by introducing a reconciling theory for working with multiple knowledge systems and by focusing on Aboriginal meta-knowledge, particularly native knowledge of pedagogy. So the dual aims of this thesis are to demonstrate how teachers can embrace deeper Aboriginal knowledge through reconciling processes, and how this knowledge can be integrated into daily classroom practice. This problem is explored in Aboriginal communities and their schools across Western New South Wales, Australia. A tool for integrating the common-ground pedagogies of multiple worldviews has been developed and incorporated into the regional education strategy as part of the study. Participating teachers engaged with this knowledge through training activities, planning days and trials, then reported on their activities via wiki, email, and informal interviews. The results of their work speak to the question of how to meet the New South Wales Department of Education and Training’s mandate of incorporating Aboriginal perspectives across the curriculum (DET, 2009). The reconciling principle that grounds the work is the theory of Cultural Interface, the dynamic overlap between systems previously defined as dichotomous and incompatible. The Aboriginal pedagogy framework used for the project is drawn from local language, stories and cultural experiences and supported by the literature about Aboriginal ways of learning. This is combined with the best available western models of pedagogy used in the region, with the overlap between the diverse systems determining the teaching and learning methods used in the study. The methodology employed in this work was an Indigenous standpoint methodology developed through a process of auto ethnography. This resulted in a methodology that was named ‘Research as Business’ grounded for the purposes of this study in a metaphorical framework of traditional carving processes. The sections of this thesis are also organised around the carving process: 1. Place, Story, Protocol and Wood 2. Bringing the Tools 3. Rough Cutting 4. Carving the Shape 5. Grinding 6. Smoothing

Within Australia's education revolution lies another, quieter revolution that attempts to raise the profile and status, and improve the learning outcomes, of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples: children, young adults, women, and men. Two Way Teaching and Learning addresses the interface where two cultures meet: in the classroom, in the school, and in the community. Most of the contributors are highly experienced Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners drawn from academia, the teaching profession, and the community. They put the spotlight on policies and processes that serve to either facilitate an informed respectful relationship in education, or to reinforce cultural inequity and inequality. The policy implications - which can either be liberating or devastating for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in Australian school systems - are exposed and explored with forensic care. Each contributor clearly articulates specific problems in complex areas - such as school retention, literacy and numeracy, self-concept and identity - and each offers practical strategies that address these issues. Written for teachers, policy-makers, academics, and administrators, Two Way Teaching and Learning works toward embedding a more culturally reflective, relevant, and inclusive agenda in places of learning for the benefit of all. At once confronting and uplifting, where there's an issue, there are also practical solutions and measurable outcomes.

Although this discussion paper has been developed for people working within health practice, as it explains, the wholistic philosophical basis of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture that encompasses wellbeing has applications in every area of engagement with Indigenous Australian people. It addresses both the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health’s (CRCAH) research outcome to ‘explore how spirituality/beliefs/systems of value contribute to Indigenous social and emotional wellbeing’, and the CRCAH’s stated goal of health outcomes through: Providing evidence that can be used by services and individual practitioners that address the social, emotional and cultural needs of Aboriginal communities, and which promote the resilience of children, youth and families. The evidence provided in this discussion paper is about the nature of Aboriginal Spirituality, its relationship to wellbeing, and the ramifications of this to the application of social and emotional wellbeing policy and programs in Australian Aboriginal communities. The literature review for this paper has been comprehensive, sourcing a range of literature across disciplines that are concerned with this phenomenon, including Aboriginal philosophy and the range of expressions and practices that occur in the lives of individuals—despite living in a colonial regime. Literature that assists us to understand the complex interplay of cultures within a settler colonial society has also been sourced, including history, anthropology and social theory. A background and understanding of Spirituality as the philosophical basis of Aboriginal wellbeing, as offered here, will be of assistance to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians alike in redressing the damage done to Aboriginal people under colonialism. Importantly, and as will become clear, any discussion of Aboriginal Spirituality has direct ramifications for understandings of wellbeing, including social and emotional wellbeing.

The purpose of this paper is to further investigate the usefulness of the concept of Aboriginal ways of learning, and learning styles, as one approach to improving educational opportunities for Aboriginal Australian students. We define 'ways of learning' as the mental processes and instructional settings which a student uses while learning, and we define 'learning style' as a way of learning in which the student has a strength. At conferences and seminars, Aboriginal people consistently raise their concerns that schooling outcomes for their children are woefully inadequate. Aboriginal cultural customs, values and codes of behaviour are an essential part of the lives of Aboriginal people. Yet they are obliged to send their children to mainstream schools where these customs, values and codes are usually ignored. Not only the teaching styles, but the very cultural basis and assumptions of the schooling is often inconsistent with their cultural background. Most educators agree that a major role for education is the transmission of a society's culture from one generation to the next. Many Aboriginal people are upset that this process is usually denied to them.

The National Accelerated Literacy Program (NALP) is an ambitious initiative that aims to develop the sustainable implementation of a successful and broadly based approach to achieving high level literacy outcomes for Indigenous and other educationally marginalised students. The development work carried out in the project will provide both resources and insight into appropriate strategies for managing the complex change and quality assurance processes that arise at departmental systems level when complex education program solutions are spread over a large number of schools. The NALP program is a joint program of the Northern Territory Department of Employment, Education and Training (NTDEET), Charles Darwin University, the Northern Territory Government and the Federal Governments Department of Employment, Science and Training.

Drawing on approaches used by Gillborn (2008), this article examines results from the most recent version of Australian national testing (NAPLAN) in Years 3, 5 and 9, operating since 2008. It analyses the inequality of achievement between indigenous and non-indigenous students in the States and Territories, with particular reference to New South Wales (NSW) and the Northern Territory (NT). It frames an analysis by using the concept of locked-in inequality, one element within Critical Race Theory (CRT) in education. Whilst there is an achievement gap between indigenous and non-indigenous students in all States, in the NT it is a staggering fifty percentage points or more in reading, writing and numeracy across all Year levels currently tested. This article argues that there has not been any significant change to indigenous education outcomes in comparison with their non-indigenous cohorts, since the introduction of government funded education in the NT. Locked-in inequality has been deep and long-lasting in the NT and unless significant changes take place, this is set to continue.

Funders (quite rightly) expect that the money invested in social programs will produce results. Further and increasingly, they are expecting that evidence of these outcomes is produced. However, these outcomes, sometimes described in terms of performance indicators, are often prescribed from a western frame of reference and consequently, there is an expectation that evidence is reported within the same frame of reference. This of course is not a problem when the funder, the service providers and the service users all have the same frame of reference, but what might happen when service users and service providers have a different frame of reference from the funder? Put another way, what happens when the social norms, values and expectations of service users differ so much from those of the funder that performance indicators determined by a funder are effectively meaningless to the program’s intended targets. Unfortunately what is likely to happen is that the outcomes expected of a program will not be achieved. This may not be because the program is not working but 1) because the program objectives are reinterpreted to suit the local context or 2) the instruments used to measure outcomes are inadequate for the task.

Addictions and Healing in Aboriginal Country establishes a framework for understanding the issues pertinent to Indigenous addictions to alcohol, gunga and gambling and its after-math in one community, Big River (a fictitious name for a real community).

Knowledge about sexual violence against women from Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds is scant. Anecdotally, levels of sexual violence are purported to be high, but national victimisation surveys may not capture, or may misrepresent, the extent of sexual violence in these communities. While many of the reasons for not reporting sexual violence to police are likely to be similar to those for mainstream women, women from diverse backgrounds can face additional cultural and related factors affecting their ability and/or willingness to report violence. This paper reports on findings from a multi-dimensional study investigating these issues. Participants indicated the need for appropriate interpreters when reporting sexual violence, a preference for female police officers to handle the case, protection of complainants, and more effective dissemination of information on how the criminal justice system processes sexual assault cases. There is a clear need to address fundamental attitudes and beliefs within particular communities about sexual violence and this will require strong community leadership and the support of local community members.

Aboriginal culture is one of the oldest surviving cultures in the world. Aboriginal cultures are numerous and diverse, made up of hundreds of different kinship and language groups that have adapted to diverse living conditions throughout Australia over many thousands of years. Torres Strait Islanders are a separate people with distinct identity and culture. Aboriginal cultures and Torres Strait Islander cultures are still dynamic and evolving and, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals and communities form the context for the development of health policy.

This bibliography has been prepared by the Rural Education, Research and Development Centre, Townsville, Qld according to guidelines established by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission to assist in its inquiry into aspects of rural and remote school education provision in Australia. It attempts to include highly relevant, more recent, seminal, theoretical and policy-oriented Australian materials. Only items which directly relate to rural and remote education have been included. More broadly based materials have not been included. Only a few overseas references are included. Materials published since 1990 have been included unless a work published prior to that date is still considered seminally important and has had a substantial impact on the development of policy and research in rural and remote education. It was tempting to include works such as Turney, Sinclair and Cairns' book Isolated schools: Teaching, learning and transition to work (1980), because it was one of the first significant, systematic analyses by Australian educators of the needs of children in rural and remote schools. In the end, it was decided to omit it because of its age. For similar reasons Sher's Rural education in urbanised nations (1981) was also omitted. The construction of a select bibliography of this type is fraught with difficulties. It was particularly difficult to keep the bibliography to a manageable size including as it does research, theoretical and policy-oriented materials, as requested by the Commission. Further, what appears as "seminal" to one person will not appear so to another and changing social, cultural, economic and political imperatives alter perceptions of what publications are important. To validate the selection of items, the draft bibliography was sent for evaluation and review to some fourteen scholars and practitioners in rural education who have a special interest in the various areas. Their comments and suggestions have been incorporated into the final bibliography. The bibliography is presented under the following headings: Rural and remote education in general Education for children with disabilities Teacher training, in-service and retention Income support and funding Distance education and technology Indigenous education Education for non-English speaking background children It proved difficult sometimes knowing where to locate particular publications because their subject matter crossed headings. Under each heading bibliographic references with short annotations are provided. These publications are further listed by type of publication; for example, monographs, journal articles, government reports, conference papers, and book chapters. Within each of these sections, items are listed by date from most recent to least recent.

This paper outlines the evaluation of the Indigenous Youth Arts and Culture Project using appreciative inquiry, an assets-based community development process that enhances positive potential in people and communities.

The author delineates and elaborates on the dialects of a coloniser colonised interaction in tertiary education in a way that expands our understanding and opens many new questions and avenues of inquiry.

Indigenous Australians participate in training for many reasons and achieve a range of outcomes. This systematic review of existing research focuses on the key factors required to ensure Indigenous people achieve the outcomes they aspire to personally and for their communities. It provides evidence to enable vocational education and training policy-makers and practitioners to act and move forward in developing training that meets the aspirations and needs of Indigenous Australians.

Programs typically produce activities that have an impact on service users or clients with measurable impacts in terms of service use outcomes. However health promotion activities and community information initiatives often do not have ‘clients’ in the same way. Impact evaluation of such programs can therefore be more problematic. This paper reports on an outcomes evaluation of a health and community information program, described as a mobile family resource centre, to demonstrate how impact may be measured. The evaluation draws on program logic assumptions but uses these in a way that informs the development of an impact model. The evaluation has found that while some of the impact can be measured quantitatively in terms of increased uptake of information, the impact can also be measured qualitatively in terms changes in access to social networks and improvements in interagency networks. The paper concludes that impact of health promotion and community information programs like the mobile family resource centre can be effectively measured using innovative approaches to data collection and analysis. information initiatives often do not have ‘clients’ in the same way. Impact evaluation of such programs can therefore be more problematic. This paper reports on an outcomes evaluation of a health and community information program, described as a mobile family resource centre, to demonstrate how impact may be measured. The evaluation draws on program logic assumptions but uses these in a way that informs the development of an impact model. The evaluation has found that while some of the impact can be measured quantitatively in terms of increased uptake of information, the impact can also be measured qualitatively in terms changes in access to social networks and improvements in interagency networks. The paper concludes that impact of health promotion and community information programs like the mobile family resource centre can be effectively measured using innovative approaches to data collection and analysis.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are almost five times more likely to be placed in out-of-home care compared with non-Indigenous children (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2007). Yet there is a serious shortage of culturally appropriate placements to accommodate them. Even with intensive recruitment efforts, professionals have been unable to recruit sufficient Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander carers to meet the demand.

As part of an evaluation of a web-based early literacy intervention, ABRACADABRA, a small exploratory study was conducted over one term in three primary schools in the Northern Territory. Of particular concern was the relationship between attendance and the acquisition of early literacy skills of Indigenous and non-Indigenous children. Using the GRADE literacy assessment, it was found that students made significant gains in a number of early literacy skills (e.g. phonological awareness skills and vocabulary processing). Classroom attendance was strongly and positively correlated with the acquisition of phonological awareness skills and early literacy skills (e.g. letter recognition, word identification processing). Indigenous children attended class significantly less frequently than non-Indigenous children and performed significantly worse overall, particularly with regard to phonological processing tasks. In light of these findings, it is suggested irregular attendance contributed to the Indigenous students' lowered literacy acquisition.

At present the only information on the Aboriginal 'dreamtime' is interspersed throughout anthropological literature. This information ranges from being adequate, to being almost useless, from being detailed, to being vague. In some cases two ethnologies will contradict one another in important detail, in other cases anthropologists will draw conclusions where the Aborigines themselves give contradictory evidence. This thesis then is an attempt to bring the available information together in one work. The synthesizing of material highlights the fact that there is a wide range of variation amongst Aboriginal communities and anthropologists, in the way they conceptualise the 'dreamtime'. By not realising this variation, a false universality has been applied to the 'dreamtime', in regard to the finer metaphysical points; thus creating an order, or unity, [as if a consensus of opinion is held] about the 'dreamtime' within Aboriginal Australia. In looking at the ethnologies, which deal with the 'dreamtime', it is apparent that the conclusions anthropologists draw are in fact dependent upon the questions asked, and how the anthropologist understands the answers. In most cases a different set of questions need to be asked in order to get a clearer picture of the 'dreamtime', and a different set of presuppositions need to be held in order to filter the answer. In some cases the Aboriginal cultures have disappeared, in others they have become Westernised. In both cases we may never know what they believed about the 'dreamtime'. In regard to the answers given to the questions asked by certain anthropologists, certain consequences or conclusions can be drawn about 'Dreamtime' metaphysics when looking at the ethnographies of these anthropologists: R. and C. Berndt [Ooldea], R. Berndt [Wuradjeri, Murngin], D. Bell [Warrabri], E. Kolig [Fitzroy Aborigines], J. Meggitt [Wailbiri], C. Mountford [Tiwi], C. Mountford and R. Tonkinson [Jigalong], W.E.H. Stanner [Murinbata]. Thus, in these ethnographies a number of variations on 'Dreamtime' ontology appear. For some Aboriginal communities the 'Dreamtime' is: 1) a past reality [Tiwi, Wuradjeri, Jigalong], 2) at the same time a past reality and a concurrent reality with the present reality [Mardudjara, Murngin, Wailbiri, Ooldea, Warrabri]. For those communities where the 'Dreamtime' is at the same time a past reality and a concurrent reality with the present these are two variations: a) the concurrent reality is parallel with the present [Murngin, Wailbiri, Ooldea, Warrabri]. b) the concurrent reality is within the present reality [Murinbata, Mardudjara]. These variations on 'Dreamtime' metaphysics makes the posing of universalistic claims about 'Dreamtime' metaphysics tenuous. The inadequacy of certain universalistic claims in regard to 'Dreamtime' metaphysics is seen with regard to some of A.P. Elkin's claims. Elkin creates a false universality when he claims the 'Dreamtime' is "...the condition or ground of existence... in which the past ['Dreamtime'] underlies and is within the present". This claim by Elkin [it will be seen (ch.4)] is only valid for the Murinbata and perhaps the Mardudjara, but not for the Jigalong, Fitzroy Aborigines, Wuradjeri, Murngin, Warrabri, Wailbiri, Ooldea and Tiwi, because for these groups the 'Dreamtime' is parallel to the present reality and not within it. The above discussion points out: 1) the variability and complexity of 'Dreamtime' metaphysics and 2) the danger of for all-encompassing universalistic theories to explain 'Dreamtime' metaphysics. The demonstration of this complexity and variability of 'Dreamtime' metaphysics, within this thesis, is an attempt to prove W.E.H. Stanner's claim that the 'Dreamtime' is "...much more complex philosophically than we have so far realised."