Remote Australia Online

Disciplining the Savages: Savaging the Discipline' provides an alternative reading for those struggling at the contradictory and ambiguous intersections of academia and Indigenous experience. In doing so, it moves beyond the usual criticisms of the disciplines which construct the way we have come to know and understand Indigenous peoples. Nakata, a Torres Strait Islander academic, casts a critical gaze on the research conducted by the Cambridge Expedition in the late 1890s. Meticulously analysing the linguistic, physiological, psychological and anthropological testing conducted, he offers an astute critique of the researchers' methodologies and interpretations. He uses these insights to reveal the similar workings of recent knowledge production in Torres Strait education.

1. The local context and demand drivers for child protection 2. Key Child Protection reforms arising from the Inquiry into Child Protection relating to the role of NGO’s Since working on the Inquiry last year I have been increasingly interested in the context in which child protective services operates, especially the circumstances for children and families which act as demand drivers for child protection services. So before I look at some of the reforms and developments in child protection, I’d like to review some of the facts on the ground, particularly those that relate to the circumstances of Aboriginal children and families in the NT. The arena of policy development around Indigenous disadvantage is a fraught one with no shortage of strongly-held opinions and beliefs – I guess “arena” is an apt description. The pros and cons of the intervention are frequently played out in the national media, with a lot of recent comment related to the Opposition Leader’s call for a new Intervention; the merits of directing infrastructure funding to the „growth towns‟ are hotly disputed; there are ongoing controversies around income management; and, of course, there are ongoing battles over alcohol management policy with almost daily media comment and political posturing. I do think that we need to be clear first about the facts of what is happening before we proffer our opinions and solutions. The late American senator and social commentator Daniel Moynihan once famously remarked when involved in some international controversy at the United Nations, “everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own facts.” So I thought I’d start here with some facts about children in the NT to consider before we move on to responding to the need as part of the child wellbeing and protection sector. A trawl through the available research on the wellbeing of children in the NT is a truly sobering experience. I am convinced that the situation for children in the NT, and particularly Aboriginal children, is dire if not catastrophic – it’s not just sexual abuse (the ostensible trigger for the Intervention) but just about every indicator of safety and wellbeing. Bits and pieces (about sexual abuse, the impact of alcohol use or violence) regularly find their way into the local and national media, but a comprehensive picture is rarely provided. The following data are from a number of sources including NT Government and Commonwealth publications, Menzies School of Health Research, the ABS, and the NT Child Deaths Review and Prevention Committee. They highlight the absolute disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal children and families (particularly those in remote areas) as well as the disparity with respect to the non-Aboriginal children in the NT and, indeed, Aboriginal children in the rest of Australia. Covered here are just a few of the developmental hazards that need to be survived and successfully negotiated by Aboriginal infants, especially those in remote areas. I apologise if this appears to be yet another “misery index” (Beadman, 2011, p. 43) – but we do need to start with the facts.

This short article provides an overview of a 1996 research project involving Batchelor College, the Northern Territory Employment and Training Authority and the Northern Territory University. The project examined vocational education and training (VET) delivery to Aboriginal communities. The research report, entitled 'Djama and VET: exploring partnerships and practices in the delivery of vocational education and training in rural and remote Aboriginal communities', examines key issues of access and equity for Aboriginal communities through the National Vocational Education and Training System (NVETS). The report is produced in two volumes and develops a case for best practice in the delivery of VET to Aboriginal communities. The first volume is a synthesis of research findings and provides advice for policy makers, suggests principles of best practice for VET delivery in remote Aboriginal communities and highlights the changes needed in the NVETS to support these principles. The second volume contains six case studies. Information about obtaining a copy of the full report is also provided.

Current Australian federal and state government policy initiatives in Aboriginal education and social welfare reform are based on assumptions about the relationship between increased attendance and increased student performance on standardized tests. There are empirical assumptions underlying these policy interventions and their accompanying public debates. Our aim here is to empirically explore the relationships between patterns of student attendance and patterns of student achievement in schools with significant cohorts of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students. Based on an analysis of the publicly available data reported on the Australian government ‘MySchool’ website, we find that reforms and policies around attendance have not and are unlikely to generate patterns of improved achievement. Questions about the rationale and rhetoric of government policy and the need to focus on pedagogy and curriculum are discussed.

This paper traces the development of the first private company set up by Aboriginal people in Western Australia. This company, Northern Development and Mining (Nodom), was formed in the late 1940s to enable Aboriginal members of the company to develop an economic base from mining and pastoralism in the Pilbara. The methods by which this company operated and the impetus behind its formation, which stemmed from a pastoral strike and associated social movement, is instructive today. Nevertheless, this paper does not attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of this early movement and the associated companies of Pindan and Nomad. Rather, it aims to draw out and interrogate structural elements of these early organisations that can shed light on contemporary Indigenous organisations and management issues. This selective historical mapping focuses on the structure of leadership and the associated issues surrounding access to benefits within these early organisations-offering insights into the operations of contemporary Indigenous organisations set up to harness economic and social development from major mines in the Pilbara region. Questions are raised that will assist in the analyses and formulation of effective governance structures in this same region today. Researching the history of settlement and early development is an essential prologue to contextualising current Indigenous responses to mining and associated development today.

The confluence of socio-economic, political, cultural, linguistic and educational developments in the Northern Territory (NT) over the past several decades has seen the issue of school education in Aboriginal languages become an increasingly contested aspect of Indigenous education and public policy. Some, but not all of the larger Aboriginal language speaking communities consider it vital for their children to commence their schooling with a transitional period of formal instruction in their mother tongue for the maintenance of their heritage language and the central role this plays in children’s positive cultural identification and the preservation of their traditional culture and knowledge systems. At the same time, there is evidence from Australian and International studies showing that children from Indigenous language backgrounds who commence their first full-time year of primary schooling with some proficiency in English (or other equivalent official language) are advantaged in terms of their effective participation and success in the formal education system as well as within their own communities and wider society. The desired outcomes of Indigenous language maintenance, English language acquisition, engagement with school learning, and improving the educational achievement of Indigenous students are all endorsed in current NT and national Indigenous education policy frameworks. However, there remain differing views as to when, how and at what cost these outcomes can be most effectively achieved (MCEETYA, 2006; DET 2008; Simpson et al 2009; Devlin, 2009).

A presentation by Professor Jon Altman to the Ministerial Council for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs (MCATSIA) at Sydney on 28 November 2003. This paper explores best practice, evident barriers, and presents some examples of innovative solutions in the hybrid economy.

The potential for tourism to generate economic and cultural benefits for Indigenous people has been well recognized. However, the demand for Indigenous tourism product does not seem to be able to be met by the current supply of Indigenous tourism opportunities. While there appears to be a need to develop more Indigenous attractions, tours and interpretation centres to meet projected demand, there is also a critical need for increased capacity building, especially with regard to managing businesses in cross-cultural contexts. An important component of capacity building is the provision of appropriate expertise through education and training programs, and the development of entrepreneurship and capacity building among Indigenous tourism businesses and the Indigenous workforce in the tourism industry. This would provide for the development of appropriate expertise, knowledge and skills for not only successful Indigenous business activity, but also to contribute to cultural development and empowerment. The paper describes features of the development and introduction of an Indigenous Tourism Management degree program at Southern Cross University.

Improving access and participation in high quality education must be a central element in strategies aimed at improving the lives and futures of Territorians. The Federal Government’s recent intervention in NT education has emphasised the need to ensure that Indigenous children of compulsory school age enrol and regularly attend school. This is a limited goal which will not redress the serious disadvantages that Indigenous children and communities currently face. Indigenous children in the Territory should have access to the same educational opportunities as children in the rest of the country. It is estimated that as many as 7,500 Indigenous children in the NT do not attend school and preschool. In most cases, the teachers, classrooms, chairs and desks simply do not exist to accommodate them. Already, a number of NT schools are facing heavy pressure as a result of a recent surge in enrolments, not restricted to the compulsory years of schooling. The AEU believes that a broader perspective is necessary. It is time to ensure that all Indigenous children and young people aged 3 to 17 participate fully in schooling, including two years of preschool education, through to Year 12 and beyond. Education enables children to build better futures for themselves, their families and their communities; to find jobs; have successful careers; and to participate actively in their communities and in society.

While numbers, data and statistics have been part of the bureaucracy since the emergence of the nation state, the paper argues that the governance turn has seen the enhancement of the significance of numbers in policy. The policy as numbers phenomenon is exemplified through two Australian cases in education policy, linked to the national schooling reform agenda. The first case deals with the category of students called Language Backgrounds Other than English (LBOTE) in Australian schooling policy ? students with LBOTE. The second deals with the ?closing the gap? approach to Indigenous schooling. The LBOTE case demonstrates an attempt at recognition, but one that fails to create a category useful for policy-makers and teachers in relation to the language needs of Australian students. The Indigenous case of policy misrecognition confirms Gillborn?s analysis of gap talk and its effects; a focus on closing the gap, as with the new politics of recognition, elides structural inequalities and the historical effects of colonisation. With this case, there is a misrecognition that denies Indigenous knowledges, epistemologies and cultural rights. The contribution of the paper to policy sociology is twofold: first in showing how ostensive politics of recognition can work as misrecognition with the potential to deny redistribution and secondly that we need to be aware of the socially constructed nature of categories that underpin contemporary policy as numbers and evidence-based policy.

Objective: To determine whether installation of swimming pools in remote Aboriginal communities reduces infection-related outpatient attendances and prescription of antibiotics. Design and setting: Swimming pools were opened in Jigalong and Mugarinya, Western Australia, in September 2000. We examined local clinic records to document illnesses occurring in children and adolescents under 17 years of age between 1998 and 2005. In Jigalong, we examined records of those enrolled in an ongoing study evaluating the effect of swimming pools on health. In Mugarinya, we examined clinic records of those residing there permanently. Main outcome measures: Clinic attendance rates for skin, middle-ear and respiratory tract infections and trauma, and prescription rates for antibiotics were analysed by using a community-based selection method in Jigalong, and a clinic-based selection method in both communities for comparison of the two communities and the two methods. Results: We examined records of 131 children in Jigalong and 128 children in Mugarinya. After the pools had been installed, clinic attendance rates for skin infections declined by 68% in Jigalong and by up to 77% in Mugarinya. In Jigalong (where the pre-pool prevalence of infections was higher than in Mugarinya), rates of antibiotic prescription declined by 45%, as did clinic attendance for middle-ear infections (61% reduction) and respiratory tract infections (52% reduction). Conclusion: Swimming pools in remote communities are associated with reduced prevalence of skin infections. Where disease prevalence is high, pools are also associated with reduced rates of antibiotic prescriptions and middle-ear and respiratory tract infections. In communities with resident health staff, examination of clinic records is an efficient method of monitoring the effects of public health interventions on the burden of infectious diseases.

The Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme is currently the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission's (ATSIC's) most significant program. Since its establishment in 1977, this Indigenous-specific program has been variously described as a labour market program, an alternative income support scheme and a community development initiative. A major objective of the scheme is to improve the employment and income status of Indigenous people. This paper presents the first analysis using data from the 1996 Census of the effects of CDEP employment on the economic status of Indigenous individuals. The 1996 Census is the first census that provides information about CDEP employees. Information is restricted to areas in which the Special Indigenous Personal Forms (SIPF) were utilised, but this allows the effects of CDEP employment on income to be better isolated, at least in these areas. Some comparisons of the labour market outcomes of Indigenous people in CDEP communities to those in non-CDEP communities are also presented.

Public consultations had revealed that access to education was a significant concern in rural and remote areas of Australia, particularly in relation to ongoing economic decline. In response, the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission initiated the National Inquiry into Rural and Remote Education. The inquiry took evidence at formal public hearings in the capital cities of every state and territory and at less formal meetings with parents, students, educators, and community members in rural and remote areas of every state and the Northern Territory. The inquiry received 300 written and e-mailed submissions, including one from the government or education department in every state, the Northern Territory, and the Commonwealth. The inquiry also commissioned a survey from the Youth Research Centre at Melbourne University to which 3,128 individuals responded. This report summarizes major concerns raised by the public, drawing on selected quotes that are broadly representative. Following an introduction, chapter 2 describes the numbers, locations, schooling arrangements, and outcomes of rural and remote students. Chapters 3-6 cover the following themes: availability and accessibility of schools, distance education, travel, and financial aid; schooling quality (curriculum, staff, facilities, information technology, and other learning opportunities); students with disabilities (numbers, discrimination, barriers to integration, and some special programs); and Indigenous students (numbers, situation, access, barriers to participation and support, outcomes, Indigenous cultural studies, and Indigenous languages). The final chapter presents an overview of the human rights provisions relevant to rural and remote education.

A major challenge for practitioners and researchers in the field of globalisation is how to understand culturally indigenous and alien human resource management (HRM) practices using ‘emic’ rather than ‘etic’ characteristics to design effective diversity management for global companies. Initially, the study draws on literature to discuss the limitations of culturally alien HRM practices in global companies, and subsequently, a framework to understand culture based HRM practices is provided. Lastly, the framework is used to analyse three organisational stories to understand the impact of national culture, and culturally indigenous and alien HRM practices on organisational effectiveness among global companies. Implications of study findings and further research opportunities in this area are discussed.

To support VET participation, pedagogies need to recognize and respond effectively to the impact of the disparities between those students' realities and educational institutions’ assumptions about knowledge. This paper explores the potential of ePortfolios to recognise and engage diverse learner identities within formal education. The paper reports on the outcomes of a project that developed and utilised ePortfolios with a range of Indigenous learners in vocational education contexts. The learners come from different remote and regionally based communities and explored ePortfolios and a range of different technologies, knowledge systems and the associated literacies. The outcomes are discussed in relation to representations of learners' identities through ePortfolios. The discussion considers the opportunities and challenges for utilising ePortfolios in Indigenous contexts and the vocational education sector.

Relative powerlessness resulting from colonial dispossession and associated passive welfare policies has long been recognised as a critical factor influencing the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians, yet it is hard to find well-evaluated health and social interventions that take an explicit empowerment approach. This paper presents the findings of a Family Wellbeing Empowerment programme pilot delivered to Cairns Region Department of Families Indigenous youth workers and family and community workers in 2003/2004. The aim of the pilot was to build the capacity of these workers to address personal and professional issues as a basis for providing better support for their clients. The pilot demonstrated the effectiveness of the programme as a tool for worker empowerment and, to a lesser degree, organisational change.

In this article, we explore "identity enactment" within the context of a job training program that pushed its adult students to adopt certain work-related identities. Drawing on analyses of long-term participant observations, longitudinal interviews, and written artifacts, we reveal the tensions, adjustments, and reorientations that occurred when adults' conceptions of their current and future identities collided with different, even disparate, models of the professional people they were asked to become. This research reveals job training as a prime context for identity construction and speaks to the complicated relationship of identity formation to skills development. It also provides a set of terms for analyzing such identity work, conceptual categories developed from our reading of sociocultural theoretical perspectives on identity formation, ethnographies of personhood, and our ethnographic data. These terms - enacted identities, mediational means, performative moments, and reorientations of self - comprise a useful heuristic for fine-grained examinations of the process of identity formation.

Community engagement has come to the fore as a policy and programme approach that seeks to connect citizens both with each other and with government in order to deliver improved social and economic opportunities and outcomes. This model has become a key aspect of the intervention approach within Indigenous communities and is seen to have particular application in addressing community justice issues. This article examines a suite of community justice initiatives being used in Indigenous communities in Australia with a view to ascertaining how the principles of community engagement are operationalized. The article draws on this information and argues that community engagement is only one aspect of a number of community-oriented justice initiatives currently being applied. These initiatives range from concepts of community as a location, community as an interest group, and the leveraging of community capital so as to tap into and build better and stronger relationships. In so doing, the latter attempts to increase the social infrastructure, resources and capacity of communities. However, despite government attention in this area, there is a lack of a policy and programmatic framework to guide a coherent and apposite approach to issues of community in specific policy settings. The article contributes to the development of a framework that begins the process of differentiating and assessing justice administration interventions.

This report outlines the results of the Engaging Remote and Very Remote Indigenous Students with Education using ICTs project. Specifically it reports on the case studies from each site, the overall analysis of key factors and principles for using ICT, the limitations of the project and the provision of a high quality resource for school staff. The report discusses the key learnings from the project and outlines the key principles for integrating ICTs into remote schools.

The aim of the project is to inform the development of strategies designed to enhance the recruitment, retention and support of Indigenous carers and the cultural connections for Indigenous children in out-of-home care. This project focuses on home-based care arrangements, but also includes some references to residential and other forms of out-of-home care. This document is the final report in the project commissioned by ACCAP and comprises the research study (to be read in conjunction with the final report describing the companion literature review) and dissemination strategy. This final report was preceded by a draft literature review, final literature review, a draft report describing the research findings and a draft paper discussing options for dissemination. The aim of the project was to identify carers, service providers and young people in care’s views on the challenges and promising practice in Indigenous out-of-home care arrangements and to share promising practice initiatives among government and nongovernment agencies and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The National Child Protection Clearinghouse has engaged in consultations with key stakeholders in the out-of-home care sector in each state and territory, as well as conducting focus groups with Indigenous young people in care, and both Indigenous and non-Indigenous carers of Indigenous young people in two states (WA and Qld). The study was not intended to be a state-by-state audit of practices in each jurisdiction. However, an overview of the current structure of out-of-home care in each jurisdiction is useful so that the information provided by participants has a context. Tables 2 - 5 (see Appendix B) have been developed as an appendix with the cooperation of each of the states and territories to provide this contextual framework.

The delivery of basic government services to remotely living and frequently mobile Indigenous populations is a highly contentious issue; one which has recently received considerable focus at a Federal policy level. Because of distinct motivations, frequencies, and spatialisation, Indigenous mobility practices in many rural and remote areas unsettle conventional Western frameworks of government service delivery, which assume relative sedentarisation. Many services are provided chiefly through fixed, permanent infrastructure such as hospital clinics and schools that promote and cater to single-locale, stationary lifestyles. In addition, neo-liberal cost pressures are reshaping service delivery models into more acute ‘hub and spoke’ configurations: services are increasingly withdrawn from rural and remote areas and concentrated in regional and metropolitan centres. Consequently, Indigenous people living in regional and remote areas and/or who continue to engage in frequent movements often have more sporadic and contested interactions with government service agencies. This paper contends that understanding Indigenous spatiality is critical to redressing the inequitable and often inefficient nature of service delivery that has lingered in rural and remote Australia since colonisation began. Whilst the related literature acknowledges the effectual relationship between Indigenous mobility and service delivery, few published studies examine the substance of this relationship in any detail. Drawing on research in Yamatji country, Western Australia, this paper provides a thorough and focused examination of the relationship between Indigenous spatiality and the delivery of State housing, health and education services. The analysis is based on a careful engagement with the lived experiences of a group of Indigenous people in the region, and the service providers with whom they interact. By examining localised Indigenous mobility processes, and the challenges of servicing populations with diverse spatialities, the paper highlights the complex and often contested nature of the interface between mainstream services and Indigenous population dynamics.

Across OECD countries, almost one in every five students does not reach a basic minimum level of skills. In addition, students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds are twice as likely to be low performers. Lack of fairness and inclusion can lead to school failure and this means that one in every five young adults on average drop out before completing upper secondary education. Reducing school failure pays off for both society and individuals. The highest performing education systems across OECD countries combine quality with equity. This report presents policy recommendations for education systems to help all children succeed in their schooling.

This paper presents a literature review considering issues that impact upon the ethical assessment of Indigenous health research in Australia. It situates commentary on the ethical review of Indigenous health research in Australia within the context of broader commentaries on the systems for ethical review of mainstream health and Indigenous health research in Australia and also internationally. The review focuses on the identification of unresolved issues associated with the process of ethical review for committee-based ethical assessment of Indigenous health research. The review draws on Australian and international literature in the fields of public health, medical and social science research ethics and methodologies, as well as Indigenous research ethics and methodologies. While the review initially covers the development of Indigenous health research guidelines in Australia, it also considers contemporary issues impacting upon the ethical assessment of Indigenous health in Australia with regard to international developments. The main review findings are summarised and unresolved issues are presented as a set of questions. Finally, some ‘best-practice’ interventions to support the ethical assessment of Indigenous health research are outlined, as well.

Objective:To evaluate the effectiveness of a Family WellBeing empowerment course. Method:A range of methods were used, including: theory-driven analysis of literature and project documentation; participant observation; and analysis of course participants' personal narratives against set empowerment criteria. Results:Participation in the Family WellBeing course resulted in high levels of personal empowerment. The course enhanced participants' sense of self-worth, resilience, ability to reflect on root causes of problems and problem-solving ability, as well as belief in the mutability of the social environment. They were able to bring about modest, but significant, improvements in their general sense of wellbeing and those of the people around them in ways that were previously impossible. There was no evidence of organisational and community empowerment, such as stronger social networks and systems-level changes. Discussion:The effectiveness of the Family WellBeing course shows the importance of resourcing Aboriginal people to develop their own programs that address trauma and other issues resulting from settler colonisation. Conclusions:The study highlights three lessons for the use of empowerment interventions to improve health conditions, particularly among socially disadvantaged groups: 1) A need to adopt an ecological approach that simultaneously addresses empowerment at multiple settings or levels. 2) A need to ensure that such programs reach a critical mass of the target group. 3) Policy-makers and practitioners need to take a longer-term approach to empowerment interventions, including properly resourced longitudinal studies to document and enhance the evidence base for such interventions.

Indigenous decision-making and conflict management processes are core business for all who work with Indigenous peoples. The Indigenous Facilitation and Mediation Project wishes to encourage a culture of evaluation of such processes. The toolkit has been prepared with Native Title Representative Bodies and Native Title Services (hereafter NTRBs) in mind because they have a specific responsibility under the Native Title Act 1993 (NTA) to carry out decision-making and dispute management processes with their Indigenous clients. However, it may also be used by other organisations delivering native title services and adapted to a range of Indigenous decision-making and dispute management training and service delivery contexts. It is important for NTRBs and others to be able to see and evaluate whether the staff training and services they are receiving make a real difference to their operations. Making sure that this is the case will improve the capacity of NTRBs and native title holders to manage and own their business, decisions and disputes. This toolkit was developed to provide evidence-based answers to the following two key questions: 1. To what degree did the decision-making and dispute management training strengthen your organisation’s capacity to provide a more efficient and effective service? 2. To what extent, if any, has the service or process benefited native title holders, and the broader Aboriginal community? The toolkit only begins to capture all the issues which arise in the complex native title decision-making and dispute management processes. It provides a foundation upon which future evaluation processes might be designed.