Aboriginal people in Western Australia experience very high rates of imprisonment. In June 1985 the percentage of Aboriginal people in prisons in Western Australia was 32.7% (Walker and Biles 1986:23) and a large number of these were young men. Aboriginal people constitute 2.5% of the total population of Western Australia which means they are over represented at a rate of 12%(W.A.A.E.C.G. 1987:32). These figures have been extensively researched and documented (Hazlehurst 1987, Eggleston 1976 and Martin and Newby 1986) perhaps to the detriment of Aboriginal people (Parker 1987:140). Parker believes these high rates are due to the socio-economic and political status of Aboriginal people in our society, and suggests education programs about Aboriginal culture should be introduced to judicial agents accompanied by "the promotion of Aboriginal autonomy and independence in the areas of health, housing, education and employment" (Parker 1987:137). Broadhurst (1987:152) reinforces this view, asserting that the over representation of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system is a result of deprivation and economic dependence and the development of the north-west, rather than an aspect of Aboriginality (Broadhurst 1987:179). He urges that prisons be used as a ’last resort‘.

Part I of this article outlined the findings of a 1987 study of attitudes of Aboriginal students in 19 New South Wales Central Schools. It showed that, despite higher attrition rates, Aboriginal children seemed to be as favourably disposed towards their schools as were their non-Aboriginal peers.

Part II, drawing from the same Central Schools study, compares the perceptions of teachers in these Central Schools according to whether the schools were ‘predominantly Aboriginal’, ‘significantly Aboriginal’ or ‘non-Aboriginal’.

I would like to focus on the history and culture of the Aboriginal people in the Manning Valley of New South Wales to show how material that is localised in nature can be used in a school program of studies. Such material helps to reveal the local or regional nature of Aboriginal culture, as well as aspects that are related to the whole of Australia. The common factors of Aboriginal culture have tended to have been over emphasised in the past and little mention has been made of the local or regional scene.

Aboriginal Studies is now being taught at Year 12 level in South Australian schools as an externally moderated, school assessed subject, accredited by the Senior Secondary Assessment Board of South Australia.

It is a course in which students learn from Aboriginal people through their literature, their arts, their many organizations and from visiting Aboriginal communities. Current issues about Aborigines in the media form another component of the study.

This essay provides an analysis and evaluation of The Emu Hunting Kit. It looks at the background to the production of the materials and the problem which arose in deciding in which language to publish. Then the kit is discussed under five clusters of issues which relate to the production of a kit of Aboriginal Studies: the preparation, presentation, content, cultural attitudes and the teaching of the unit.

One of the most important issues in planning and implementing Aboriginal Studies at Higher School Certificate level is that of teacher quality. We need to consider the kinds of people who will be teaching Aboriginal Studies since this will have a direct bearing on the kind of program we end up with. There are a number of different perspectives which need to be considered.

Language is a way of communicating between people by the use of symbols, signs, writing and oral speech. Language is used in different ways in different communities, countries and cultures throughout the world. Lindfors (1980, p.43) suggests that language consists of three major components: Semantic, Syntatic and Phonological.

Language is seen as being acquired by human beings through their own interaction with the environment that surrounds them. Human beings are able to build an overview of their language through personal experience, and also a cognitive structure developed from their world view.

The structures of a traditional school curriculum, time-table, and teaching practices can, by their very nature, be destructive of Aboriginal identity and traditional Aboriginal education, even when, on the surface, the content of the school curriculum is Aboriginal. This article explores the idea that the processes of reading and writing and making books, movies and videos can also be very destructive of Aboriginal identity when these things are controlled by the imagination of white educators and media makers.

In an article based largely on overseas research into teacher effectiveness (e.g., Ryans, 1960; Kleinfeld, 1972) and Australian discussions of the non-Aboriginal teacher’s role in educating Aboriginal students (e.g., Hart, 1974), Fanshawe (1976) argues that the personal characteristics of effective teachers of adolescent Aborigines are likely to include:

• being warm and supportive;

• making realistic demands of students;

• acting in a responsible, businesslike and systematic manner;

• and being stimulating, imaginative and original.

This article is essentially a review of an article by J.P. Fanshawe which appeared some 12 years ago in The Aboriginal Child at School [Vol.4 No.3, 1976]. The comments are still valid today and will probably be valid ten years hence.

In the article Fanshawe puts forward a particularly sound argument on what personal and professional characteristics are necessary for a teacher to become effective in teaching nontraditionally oriented adolescent Aborigines. I believe that many of the attributes Fanshawe advocates are equally applicable to teachers involved in teaching Aborigines in the Primary school and indeed, to teachers in general.

Over the past 15 years the voice of protest in Australia has come to be linked synonymously with the black Australian. The nation’s indigenous people have progressively united and, in the strength of unity and growth of support for their claims, have met increasingly resistant Federal and State governments. Unfortunately, the “land rights” issue has dominated the public Aboriginal doctrine, preventing white Australians from being exposed to and appreciating the other important needs and opinions Aboriginal people have.

One of these needs is an education system sympathetic to: past, failed attempts at educating indigenous people; the importance of Aboriginal culture as a socio-cultural identifier and educational issue; and the needs Aboriginal children have in terms of curriculum and pedagogy. These fundamental elements are the counterpoints from which any study of the development of Aboriginal education, within Australia, must proceed.

Kunwinjku is the main Aboriginal language spoken in Oenpelli, Northern Territory. It is estimated that Kunwinjku is spoken by over 1,000 people; it is the lingua franca of Western Arnhem Land.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the linguistic difficulties that Kunwinkju speakers face in learning English as a second language, and to suggest some teaching strategies that a teacher can adopt to help children overcome these.