This paper addresses the potential importance of assistant teachers in confronting the challenges of Indigenous literacy education. A discussion is raised with reference to a range of relevant literature, while reflections drawn from the author's involvement in evaluating the National Accelerated Literacy Program (NALP) in the Northern Territory are used to highlight an urgent need and vital opportunity to support assistant teachers – as mainstay figures in Indigenous education – in becoming “wellsprings” of literate practice and principled pedagogy. An overview of Accelerated Literacy methodology and the NALP is provided as a framework for considering how to embed strong literate practices and principled pedagogy in remote Indigenous communities through the provision of empowering professional development to Indigenous assistant teachers: facilitating for them a genuine and qualified status as literacy educators. The prospects and challenges of pursuing such an opportunity, in the context of NALP, are likewise considered.

This paper provides a description of a postgraduate clinical psychology training programme's journey towards becoming more biculturally responsive and how the learnings from this have been applied to the wider Department of Psychology at the University of Canterbury (UC), Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ). The paper includes a discussion of cultural competency, and frameworks which have been proposed as a way to blend Western and Māori knowledge and clinical and cultural practices. The reasons for introducing the changes, the process of change and the actual changes are described, together with a discussion of the outcomes of the changes. Key principles in undertaking the changes were that it was considered important that the process that was seen as an ongoing journey. Further guiding principles were that a graded, integrated approach was required, undertaken in partnership with Māori, and with a commitment to biculturalism before multiculturalism.

In 2008, Ecuador reformed its Constitution after a prolonged period of economic, social and political crises. The momentary rupturing of power structures, that had limited political participation to small clusters of elites, opened participatory spaces for historically marginalised social groups to engage in the process of constitutional drafting. As a result of this unprecedented political shift in participation and inclusiveness, alternative notions of cultural, social and economic rights surfaced. This progressive constitutionalism is thus a novel attempt at overcoming legal formalism in favour of a Living Law, a law that embraces the contextual settings where it will be applied by scrutinising the historic power structures that have moulded it. Good Living as a legal principle underlines the enactment of a Living Law.

To traditional Aborigines their whole concept of life, whether it is physical or spiritual survival, is centred on their belief in the Dreamtime. The Dreamtime was the period of creation when the Aborigines’ life-style was planned and the Aborigines’ entire life centred on the need to live in the style prescribed by the mythical Dreamtime ancestors.

An understanding of the Dreamtime is essential to an understanding of traditional Aboriginal culture. Stanner (1979, 23–40) describes the Dreaming as pervading every aspect of life from social organization to food gathering. Not only is it the period of creation when the mythical ancestors roamed the earth, but it is also the life spirit which ties man, society and nature, both past and present, to the living now.

R.M. Berndt (1980) describes the dreaming thus:

The Dreaming therefore constituted a particular view of life, of the place of human beings within a preordained scheme or patterning symbolising a three-sided relationship between mythic beings, nature and people. Each was dependent on the others. People were part of nature, part of particular mythic beings, in social and personal terms.

(Berndt, 1980, 14–15)

Not only did traditional Aborigines believe in the Dreaming, they lived it. It is the Dreaming which provides the blueprint for life.

Central to the belief in the Dreaming is the belief in the mythical beings. These beings were part human and part animal. They roamed the earth in the Dreamtime using super-human powers to create all natural features.

The La Grange Aboriginal Language Program grew out of a strongly expressed need at our first school council meeting earlier this year [1985]. The Bidyadanga Community Aboriginal Council Chairman, Mr Jack Mulardy, and Vice-Chairman, Mr John Dodo, wanted an Aboriginal language program for some time, as they are very concerned that their people’s language will be forgotten.

The intention of this paper is to briefly explain the development of Bilingual programs in Australia, their application to the Aurukun situation, the problems encountered at Aurukun, and directions for 1988 and beyond.

By the end of 1990, at least three hundred Aboriginal and Islander people had graduated in South Australian tertiary institutions, from associate diploma level and above. In 1990, the annual graduation rate surpassed forty, the great majority at three-year level or above, including at least one Honours, one doctorate and graduates in architecture and law. The eight-fold increase in graduate numbers over the total up to 1980 reflects the active presence on campuses of Aboriginal/Islander-oriented support services and, even more so, of preparation programs: some three-quarters of all graduates had participated in some form of supplementary preparation.

Otitis Media or middle ear infection is more common in Australian Aboriginal children than in any other population. The associated hearing loss causes added learning difficulties for these children particularly when learning a second language.

We are all aware of the results of numerous prevalence surveys taken over the past 25 years which suggest that 25 - 50% of all Aboriginal children in school classrooms are likely to be suffering a significant hearing loss at any one time (Neinhuys, 1988; Quinn 1983; Stuart et al., 1972, 1973; Willis, 1985). The incidence of infection varies from place to place and seasonally as well. In some school populations as many as 54% of children have been shown to have significant hearing loss (Quinn, 1985). There is a widely held view that a fluctuating conductive hearing loss over a long period of time can prove to have serious implications on the child’s developing behaviour, language competence and educational performance.

The Aboriginal/Islander population of Queensland was calculated by the 1981 census to be greater than 44,000 (Department of Aboriginal Affairs, 1984, p.11). However, for a slightly later estimate, the Annual Report of the Queensland Department of Aboriginal and Islander Advancement records a figure of 60,000 (Department of Aboriginal and Islander Advancement, 1984, p.l). Both of these figures could be substantially correct given a possibility that some Aboriginal people may not identify themselves as such on census returns. Whatever the reason for the difference in the figures, a total of some 50,000 is most likely conservative for the present time. This figure converts to a percentage of slightly over 2% of the Queensland population being Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Of the 50,000 Aboriginal/Islander population some 24% are Torres Strait Islanders (Department of Aboriginal Affairs, 1984, p.11).

I feel that there is an immediate need for teachers coming into contact with a new Aboriginal community to evaluate themselves not only professionally, but also socio-culturally.

The hazards and pitfalls of acculturation interchanges are too numerous and complicated to enumerate, and it is incumbent upon the new teacher to ‘establish’ himself (or herself) initially in the new environment. The community is only too cognizant of the behaviour and actions of a new member in its midst, and once the Aboriginals establish ‘you’ in their mental structure, then acceptance gradually comes. The reasons for culture conflict are manifold, and we, as teachers, must be careful not to use these as an excuse for indifference and neglect of our ‘client’ community.

There are many benefits gained by employing Aboriginal Teacher Aides. These include:

1. (a) The employment of such people as Yvonne Walker at this school, to undertake work of an experimental nature, in teaching untried courses in language to Aboriginal children.

(b) The self-respect gained by Aboriginal people in working with teachers in responsible organizations.

(c) The decreased reliance on Social Services and consequent upsurge in desire to obtain responsible positions. (One Aboriginal person recently asked me if the Police Department have aides).

(d) The efforts made by employed aides to attempt to standardize their social interaction through accepting norms in dress and general conduct.

‘Language immersion’ has been regarded with suspicion for roughly two decades by many educators wishing to be loyal to the goals of bilingual education in indigenous groups. In this paper I argue that we should not be suspicious of immersion in a generalised way as an approach to both first and second language teaching among these groups. Rather, we should define those conditions under which immersion might be dangerous and those under which it might be helpful to the language aspirations of indigenous minorities.

First of all I would like to extend to you all a warm welcome to Canberra. For the next ten days the focus of the Christian world will be on this Assembly.

The following article is an extract from Mr. Lines’ dissertation for his Advanced Diploma Course at Torrens College of Advanced Education, Adelaide.

In the first issue of The Aboriginal Child at School last year, we described the theoretical framework for considering factors contributing to the school success of Aboriginal children as presented in Aboriginal Futures : Review of Research and developments and Related Policies in the Education of Aborigines (Watts, 1981).

The philosophical basis for this consideration is well worth stating again:

Throughout this exploration of the education of Aborigines the view is taken that school success means success in achieving the full range of goals envisaged in the establishment of schools and the determination of their programs:

I think those of us who are interested in what is written in Aboriginal languages need to be much more open than we have been in the past to shifts of emphasis in the development of written Aboriginal literatures. Looking at the way the Northern Territory bilingual program developed is one way in to thinking about this issue.