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Background: Historical socio-political processes have produced gross inequity of health resource for Aboriginal Australians and New Zealand Māori. Objectives: This paper argues that socio-political factors resulting from the entrenchment of colonialism have produced significant personal and structural barriers to the utilisation of healthcare services and directly impact the health status of these two vulnerable groups. Design: Discussion Paper. Conclusions: Understanding the actual barriers preventing the utilisation of healthcare facilities, as perceived by Indigenous people, is essential in reducing the gross disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous morbidity and mortality in Australia and New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/Aim: To examine the experiences of culturally safe mentoring programmes described by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses and midwives in Australia. Design: A systematic scoping review. Data Sources: The following databases were accessed: CINAHL Plus with Full Text (EBSCO), EMCARE (Ovid), MEDLINE (Ovid), INFORMIT (Health Collection/Indigenous Collection) and SCOPUS. Support relating to key words and appropriate databases was provided by a university librarian. Review Methods: Search terms across databases were sourced from 1997–2021, identifying a total of 161 papers. Title/abstract searches were screened against the inclusion/exclusion criteria, resulting in 18 papers reaching full-text review. Of the 18 full-text papers reviewed, six were eligible for inclusion in the final review. Results/Findings: Culturally safe mentorship was a positive experience for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses and midwives. Thematic discussion identified three key themes: Mentorship as a way forward, Culture in mentorship, and Cultural safety's role in mentorship. Discussion: Culturally safe mentoring has been a key recommendation in the nursing literature for over 20 years. There is limited knowledge on what constitutes an effective programme as mentoring programmes have not been empirically evaluated or reviewed. Conclusion: This review provides evidence that Cultural Safety and the exploration of culture impact culturally safe mentoring and can impact workforce cultural capability. Impact Statement: This review indicates that culturally safe mentoring has been a key recommendation in nursing literature for over 20 years. This review provides evidence that Cultural Safety and the exploration of culture impact culturally safe mentoring and can impact workforce cultural capability. However, there is limited knowledge of what constitutes an effective programme, as mentoring programmes have not been empirically evaluated or reviewed providing an opportunity for further research. Plain Language Summary: Little is known about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses' and midwives' perspectives of culturally safe mentoring programmes in Australia. However, mentoring programme are seen as a key workforce retention strategy. This scoping review aims to explore and interpret Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses' and midwives' perspectives of culturally safe mentoring programmes in Australia. This review concludes that mentoring programmes require content in Cultural Safety and that programmes need to be empirically evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, Aboriginal children are significantly over‐represented in the out‐of‐home‐care system. Drawing on Aboriginal trauma scholarship and decolonizing methodologies, this paper situates the contemporary state removal of Aboriginal children against the backdrop of historical policies that actively sought to disrupt Aboriginal kinship and communities. The paper draws on submissions to the 2018 Australian Senate Parliamentary Inquiry into Adoption Reform from Aboriginal community controlled organizations and highlights four common themes evident throughout these submissions: (i) the role of intergenerational trauma in high rates of Aboriginal child removal; (ii) the place of children within Aboriginal culture, kinship and identity; (iii) the centrality of the principles of self‐determination and autonomy for Aboriginal communities and (iv) Aboriginal community controlled alternatives to child removal. Acknowledging the failure of both federal and state reforms to address the issues raised in these submissions, the paper reflects on the marginalization of Aboriginal voices and solutions within contemporary efforts to address the multiple crises of the child protection system and the implications for the future of Aboriginal children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This paper explores the principles of co‐design with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities by reflecting on the literature, learning from experiences of allied health professionals, and considering how co‐design can be applied in rural and remote allied health practice. Context: This paper has been authored by a working group from Services for Rural and Remote Allied Health (SARRAH). SARRAH is a member‐based allied health organisation, working to improve health outcomes for rural and remote Australians. SARRAH has been representing and supporting allied health professionals in rural and remote Australia for over 20 years, with a member base that includes students, practitioners, programme managers, policy makers and academics. As a non‐Indigenous organisation, SARRAH works in partnership and receives guidance from the peak organisation, Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA). Approach: Over a period of 3 months, a group of eleven SARRAH members and staff came together to review available literature, seek member perspectives and share their experiences and understandings of co‐design. Working group discussions were grounded in the knowledge and experiences shared by two Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander group members. Conclusion: This paper proposes that successful co‐design with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities places legitimate value on different knowledge systems, is built on strong and trusting relationships, promotes inclusive involvement and requires authentic partnerships. Using these principles, SARRAH will engage with members and stakeholders to influence meaningful change in allied health practice in rural and remote Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a commendation received by the paper titled "The Historic Importance of the Dingo in Aboriginal Society in Victoria (Australia): A Reconsideration of the Archival Record," by Fred Cahir and Ian Clark at the 2013 Victorian [Australia] Community History Awards.

This paper explores the challenges of repatriating poorly documented Aboriginal sacred religious objects from Central Australia. The authors present an overview of historical endeavours to repatriate these objects from Australian domestic museums and the progress of recent returns from international collections. Detailed documentation, including reference to an object's specific relationship to places, people or ancestral stories is critical to ensuring that rightful contemporary Central Australian Aboriginal people can assume care and responsibility for any repatriated objects. The absence of provenance data and any other related collection documentation can therefore greatly inhibit the return of these objects to present-day custodians. Exploring the prospect of returning large numbers of poorly provenanced sacred objects back to Australia, this paper argues that aside from the potential logistical or infrastructure requirements of repatriating these items, the development of Indigenous cultural frameworks and innovations will be critical to any meaningful repatriation outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the barriers to learning for Aborigines are rigid institutional structures, focus on learning for gaining knowledge rather than application, and the individualistic framework of formal education. The population would be better served by two-way learning through relationships (knowledge sharing) and self-determination and control. (Contains 17 references.) (SK)

In Western Australia, an action research project engaged White teachers and Aboriginal teacher aides in collaborative forums about the use of Aboriginal English in school and the development of two-way bi-dialectal teaching practices to support literacy acquisition among Aboriginal students. Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal project participants describe the struggle to create cross-cultural understanding and the resulting improvements in classroom practices. (SV)

Two urban Australian nursing students' stories of their experiences in clinical placements in rural and Aboriginal communities indicate their interest in and enthusiasm for returning to rural nursing after graduation. Unfortunately, many urban students are disadvantaged financially by the added expense of their rural clinical rotation. Assisting urban nursing students to work in rural areas is a potential recruitment strategy. (TD)

The Circumpolar Women's Conference set an example for the world by emphasizing regional and international cooperation. The focus on reconciliation, healing, and respect for cultural diversity was a refreshing counterpoint to conservative policies affecting Aboriginal Australians. Justice systems and Native language programs in the Yukon and Australia's Northern Territory are compared, as are attitudes toward past abuses of indigenous children in residential schools and foster care. (TD)

Examines the philosophical basis of "Terra Nullius" as a justification for colonialism and racism directed at indigenous peoples, and its persistence as a pervasive mindset that impedes true equality and reconciliation in Australia. Discusses problems that arise when biased teachers or those with little cross-cultural experience attempt to present "Aboriginal perspectives" in the classroom. (Contains 22 references.) (SV)

This paper describes the strategies used by Aboriginal young people to build positive relationships and sexual wellbeing. It does so to counter the risk-focussed narratives present in much existing research and to showcase the resourcefulness of Aboriginal young people. We used peer-interview methods to collect qualitative data from 52 Aboriginal young people living in western Sydney, Australia. Participants reported a strong desire to stay safe and healthy in their sexual relationships and to achieve this they relied heavily on oral communication and yarning strategies. Participants viewed communication as a way to gain or give advice (about bodies, infections, pregnancy, relationships); to assess the acceptability and safety of potential partners; to negotiate consent with partners; to build positive relationships; and to get themselves out of unhealthy relationships. Participants also discussed 'self-talk' as a strategy for building sexual wellbeing, referring to narratives of self-respect and pride in culture as important in establishing Aboriginal young people's positive views of self and as deserving of respectful and safe sexual relationships. These findings suggest that future programmes and interventions based on yarning could be well-regarded, given it is a cultural form of pedagogy and a strategy Aboriginal young people already use to build positive relationships and identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1960s in Australia was a politically turbulent time with assimilation policies being questioned by moves in various spheres, including education, to address inequality. The late 1960s also saw the emergence of activist responses to racism as well as the groundbreaking 1967 Referendum, which called for the alteration of two clauses within the Australian Constitution that discriminated against the Indigenous population. A few months after the Referendum was held, a conference called Aborigines and Education was convened at Monash University. Education was seen to be vital in addressing what was described as "profound educational disadvantage" experienced by Indigenous people. The debates that ensued show how education was imagined to be able to solve the problems Indigenous students were encountering. In this article I confine my interest to a selection of papers and examine the features of two distinctive discourses that emerge: that of "uplifting the Aborigine" and that of "upholding" Aboriginal dignity and pride. In doing this, I demonstrate how particular "race logics" were employed and contested in these debates. I argue that the insights garnered through analysis of these discourses offer opportunities for education research and practices that are in solidarity with the emancipatory goals of marginalised communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1951, performers from Daly River and Tiwi Islands Aboriginal communities staged a corroboree strike. The musicians and dancers had routinely entertained visiting cruise ships in the Darwin Botanic Gardens, but now joined dockside workers to protest the jailing and exiling of two Aboriginal agitators Lawrence Wurrpen (Urban) and Fred (Nadpur) Waters. In Melbourne, the Australian Aborigines' League expressed solidarity with the Darwin strikes and protested the exclusion of Aboriginal voices from the Jubilee of Australian Federation. The League's leaders Doug Nicholls and Bill Onus produced a new work of musical theatre featuring east coast Aboriginal performers Fred Foster, Margaret Tucker, Georgia Lee, Harold Blair, and others in 'Out of the Dark — An Aboriginal Moomba'. In this paper we examine political uses of performance in Australia's assimilation era, and show how Aboriginal agitators used music and dance to connect struggles for rights across Australia, and to keep cultural identity alive. In doing so we show how performance operated both as work and as assertion of cultural sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To systematically review the literature to investigate the role of the hospital pharmacist and the services provided for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people. Methods: A systematic literature review was performed following a search from inception to present of MEDLINE, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA), EMBASE, Scopus and Pubmed, in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. All forms of published literature were included. Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people and hospital pharmacists/pharmacy department services in Australia were the populations included. Results: 1592 studies were identified. After removal of duplicates and application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, 16 papers underwent full text review, with 7 papers included in the final review. No high‐level evidence articles were found. Joanna Briggs Institute Levels of Evidence for meaningfulness were low. Settings were varied and included rural, remote and urban sites. Five articles were allocated a Donabedian Model level where the structure was described. Two papers described structure and process. None described outcomes. Hospital pharmacy services included development of models for patient care, partnerships and resource sharing in rural and remote areas and ensuring continuity of care. Conclusion: Systematic review of the literature to determine the role of hospital pharmacy services for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people produced limited publications for review. From these, roles identified included: development of models for patient care, partnerships and resource sharing in rural and remote areas and ensuring continuity of care. Future research and publication of work by hospital pharmacists nurturing and developing relationships in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clinical scenarios used in rural medical education often convey inappropriate stereotypes that undermine the intent of the curriculum. Case writers should be clear about the learning or assessment objectives in each case, have access to people with appropriate expertise and understanding of the issues, and ensure that contextual and cultural issues are not dominated by biomedical science. (TD)

Purpose: From 2018, the Schools Up North (SUN) programme worked with three remote Australian schools to enhance their capability and resilience to support the wellbeing and mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and staff. This paper explores the implementation of SUN during the first two years of COVID-19 (2020–2021). Method: Using grounded theory methods, school staff, other service providers and SUN facilitators were interviewed, with transcripts and programme documents coded and interrelationships between codes identified. An implementation model was developed. Results: The SUN approach was place-based, locally informed and relational, fostering school resilience through staff reflection on and response to emerging contextual challenges. Challenges were the: community lockdowns and school closures; (un)availability of other services; community uncertainty and anxiety; school staff capability and wellbeing; and risk of educational slippage. SUN strategies were: enhancing teachers' capabilities and resources, facilitating public health discussions, and advocating at regional level. Outcomes were: enhanced capability of school staff; greater school-community engagement; student belonging and engagement; a voice for advocacy; and continuity of SUN's momentum. Conclusions: The resilience approach (rather than specific strategies) was critical for building schools' capabilities for promoting students and staff wellbeing and provides an exemplar for remote schools globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boomerangs are among the most recognisable elements of Australian Aboriginal technology. In the popular mindset, the prevailing image of these wooden artefacts is that of thrown implements that return to the thrower, principally used for hunting animals. However, boomerangs have a deep multipurpose role in Indigenous societies, with just a few examples of their known functions, including fighting, digging, and making music (i.e., "clap sticks"). Recently, yet another function for boomerangs has been proposed (Martellotta et al., 2021): the functional modification of lithic tools (i.e., retouching)—a form of use that is almost unknown among non-Aboriginal researchers. Here, we provide the first comprehensive review of evidence for the use of boomerangs as lithic retouching tools (percussors). A detailed lexical analysis demonstrates similarities between Palaeolithic bone retouchers used for the same purposes as the Australian hardwood boomerangs, thus confirming our traceological hypothesis and the power of using a multidisciplinary approach in investigating Australia's deep past. This paper provides the foundation for discussions surrounding the multipurpose concept behind many Aboriginal tools by focusing on the most iconic item. We propose that, in future studies, the complex technological and functional features of boomerangs should take precedence over their famous "returning effect". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historical study of exemptions has focused on escape from protectionist policies designed to control and monitor Aboriginal people in Australia — restricting their freedom of movement, intruding into their family life, and reducing their ability to participate on equal terms in the labour force. In this paper, we consider a contemporary policy — income management — which primarily restricts the freedom to dispose of personal income and has targeted Aboriginal people and communities, both directly and indirectly. Provisions for individual exemptions have been incorporated inconsistently within the many iterations of income management, and Aboriginal people are significantly less likely than others to be granted an exit from this form of financial control. The study reported here is an example of mixed‐methods social research, rather than an historiography. We use techniques of historical comparison to illuminate contemporary practices and identify the ongoing influence of settler‐colonial governance in the lives of Aboriginal people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia and internationally, Indigenous children are seriously overrepresented in the child welfare system. This article provides an overview of literature investigating the needs of Indigenous children in residential care facilities. The provision of culturally safe and trauma-informed therapeutic care to Indigenous children and young people in residential care recognizes that the trauma and violence that they have experienced is exacerbated by their Indigeneity due to the colonial histories presenting. Utilizing a systematic scoping review methodology, the study returned a total of 637 peer-reviewed articles that were identified and reviewed for inclusion. The process of exclusion resulted in the inclusion of eight peer-reviewed studies and 51 reports and discussion papers sourced from gray literature. Findings from this study, though dearth, indicate that trauma-informed and culturally safe interventions play a significant role in Indigenous children's health and well-being while in care. Their experiences of abuse and neglect transcend individual trauma and include intergenerational pain and suffering resulting from long-lasting impacts of colonization, displacement from culture and country, genocidal policies, racism, and the overall systemic disadvantage. As such, a therapeutic response, embedded within Indigenous cultural frameworks and knowledges of trauma, is not only important but absolutely necessary and aims to acknowledge the intersectionality between the needs of Indigenous children in care and the complex systemic disadvantage impacting them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent neo-liberal policy frameworks in Australia advocate economic development opportunities for Aboriginal Australians as a viable strategy to redress the marginalisation and social disadvantage that appear to characterise many Aboriginal communities. In New South Wales (NSW), Aboriginal peoples are currently negotiating with industry for the chance to participate in coal seam gas (CSG) development opportunities. Based upon research focusing on CSG development in the Northern NSW region, this paper argues that certain constructions of Aboriginality inhibit successful Aboriginal engagement with the economic opportunities provided by CSG. This paper illuminates the role of the media in facilitating dominant discourse about Aboriginality and the implications of those constructions for Aboriginal engagement with the mainstream economy. Findings demonstrate that the media are complicit in constructing Aboriginal peoples in a way that could prejudice their attempts to engage in economic opportunities that do not align with the dominant constructions of Aboriginality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on fieldwork carried out in 1981–82 with the Warlpiri women in Willowra, Northern Territory. The basis of discussion is the documentation of women's ceremonies and the return of the data many years later to this community. My role as an ethnographer in the past, and the potential outcomes of the reintroduction of ethnographic data, indicates there is much of value in the documentation of Indigenous cultural and intellectual heritage. Documenting religious ceremonies reveals a variety of values: that of the ethnographer in the documentation of Indigenous cultural and intellectual property; the intrinsic value of these material renditions to the tradition-bearers themselves; and the value of these contributions in applied community contexts. In regard to the community benefits of research and documentation, the paper addresses archival documentation for revitalisation of culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the functions of interactional devices used by co-tellers in multiparty stories in Umpila and Kuuku Ya'u, two closely related dialects of a Paman language of Cape York Peninsula, Australia. Within the Umpila and Kuuku Ya'u speech community there is a strong cultural preference for multiparty storytelling – a preference which has been noted in a number of Aboriginal Australian contexts. This paper seeks to understand the mechanisms through which co-tellers in these multiparty narratives contribute to the story. It first discusses co-teller roles, and distinguishes three key narrator roles and orders of conduct associated with each. The analysis then focuses on the use of questions and evaluative comments used by one type of co-teller, supporting narrators. The following discussion demonstrates that questions and evaluative comments go beyond immediate functions of seeking information or spontaneous expressive reactions. They help to fulfil expectations on supporting narrators to engage actively in the talk. It is additionally shown that these devices have functions in highlighting key aspects of the story and developing stance in intricate ways that complement the main line of the storytelling. The analysis demonstrates the close coordination of co-tellers in constructing a story; piece-by-piece they collaboratively describe and evaluate the story events as a group, prioritizing a local and situated shared telling over other potential story goals like performance and progressivity of a plot. The analysis of Umpila and Kuuku Ya'u storytelling contributes to the field of interaction and narrative studies by furthering our understanding of the organization of storytelling in different cultures and languages contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The dingo (Canis dingo) is a wild-living canid endemic to mainland Australia; the descendent of an early lineage of dog introduced thousands of years ago to the continent, where it was isolated from further introductions of domestic canines until European colonisation began in 1788. Dingoes are notoriously difficult to maintain in captivity and owing to their predatory nature it is also known that they can pose a serious risk to children. Yet, written records and oral histories indicate that Aboriginal people in mainland Australia routinely practiced the rearing and keeping of dingoes in a tame state within their home communities and domestic spaces. This paper reviews historical and archaeological evidence for the management of wild and captive dingoes by Indigenous communities, revealing a substantial divide between the nature and outcomes of these interactions between historical/pre-contact Aboriginal societies and those in contemporary Australia. It is concluded that this special human-wild canid relationship has implications for the understanding of the domestication of dogs from wolves during the Late Pleistocene. Historical sources and Indigenous oral traditions indicate that Australian Aboriginal people commonly reared and kept the wild-caught pups of dingoes (C. dingo) as tamed companion animals. A review of the available evidence suggests Indigenous communities employed an intense socialisation process that forged close personal bonds between humans and their tame dingoes from an early age. This was complemented by oral traditions which passed down awareness of the dangers to children posed by wild or unfamiliar dingoes, and which communicated the importance of treating dingoes with respect. Together, these practices resulted in what can be interpreted as substantially altered behaviours in tamed dingoes, which, despite their naturally high prey drive, were not considered a serious threat to children and were thus able to be maintained as companion animals in the long term. This relationship is of importance for understanding the original domestication of the dog, as it demonstrates a means by which careful and deliberate socialisation by foragers could both manage risks to children's safety posed by keeping wild canids in the domestic realm and retain them well into reproductive maturity—both issues which have been highlighted as obstacles to the domestication of dogs from wolves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Barwick (1990) finds that, in Central Australian performance, whilst text and melody in isolation are relatively fixed, 'there is immense variability in their combination, which is accomplished by what may be crudely characterised as a process of expansion and contraction of the melody to accommodate texts of different lengths' (Barwick 1990:61). Following musicological examinations by both Barwick (Barwick 1989, 1990 and 1995) and Keogh (Keogh 1995) which focus on identifying principles that underlie this process of expansion and contraction, the paper presented here looks at songs of the junba genre, composed and performed by Ngarinyin elder, Scotty Martin, in the North central Kimberley. In addition, it is suggested in this paper that the style of musicological analysis developed by Barwick and Keogh has relevance beyond the discipline of musical analysis, as its results allow the analyst and reader to begin to trace relationships between creative processes active in the moment of performance with 'patterns and rules' evident in other aspects of the music-makers' ways of being in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thinking about the governance of Indigenous poverty as an economic, social and racial project, the paper offers a way of understanding the dynamics of Indigenous policy formation in Australia in the neo-liberal age as what Howard Winant first coined a racial formation. In providing this analysis, this paper sits alongside a small, but growing body of work that reveals the racialized effects of governing through poverty in the neo-liberal age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over much of the nineteenth century, recurring problems of covert and opportunistic conflict between settlers and Indigenous peoples produced considerable debate across the British settler world about how frontier violence could be legally curbed. At the same time, the difficulty of imposing a rule of law on new frontiers was often seen by colonial states as justification for the imposition of order through force. Examining all the mainland Australian colonies from the 1830s to the end of the nineteenth century, this paper asks how this contradictory dilemma played out through deployment of ‘native police’ and the ‘civilising’ role of legalised violence as a strategy for managing the settler frontier. In light of wider debate about a humanely administered empire, Australia’s first native police force established in New South Wales in 1837 was conceived as a measure that would assist in the conciliation and ‘amelioration’ of Aboriginal people. In the coming decades, other Australian colonies employed native police either as dedicated forces or as individual assistants attached to mounted police detachments. Over time, the capacity they held to impose extreme violence on Aboriginal populations in the service of protecting pastoral investments came to reflect an implicit acceptance that punitive measures were required to bring order to disorderly frontiers. By tracing a gradual shift in the perceived role of native police from one of ‘civilising’ Aboriginal people to one of ‘civilising’ the settler state itself, this paper draws out some of the conditions under which state-sanctioned force became naturalised and legitimated. It concludes that, as an instrument of frontier management, native policing reflected an enduring problem for Australia’s colonial governments in reconciling a legal obligation to treat Aboriginal people as subjects of the crown with a perceived requirement to bring them under colonial authority through the ‘salutary lessons’ of legalised violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community rehabilitation is an essential health service that is often not available to remote Australians. This paper describes the first cycle of a collaborative project, between local community members, allied health professionals and a university, to co-design a community rehabilitation and lifestyle service to support adults and older people to stay strong and age well in place. An action research framework was used to develop the service for adults in two remote communities, one being a discrete Aboriginal community. The first cycle involved planning for, and trialling of a service, with observations, reflections and feedback from clients, community members, university students and health service providers, to inform the subsequent service. Over two years, stakeholders worked collaboratively to plan, trial, reflect and replan an allied health student-assisted community rehabilitation service. The trial identified the need for dedicated clinical and cultural supervision. During replanning, three key elements for culturally responsive care were embedded into the service: reciprocity and yarning; holistic community-wide service; and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mentorship. An action-research approach to co-design has led to the establishment of a unique community rehabilitation service to address disability and rehabilitation needs in two remote Australian communities. Co-design of community rehabilitation services between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members and the local allied health professionals can lead to development of an innovative service model for remote Aboriginal communities. Culturally responsive community rehabilitation services in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities requires holistic and community-wide perspectives of wellbeing. Incorporating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of engaging and communicating, and leadership and mentorship for non-Indigenous allied health professionals and students are essential components for students-assisted culturally responsive services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disproportionately high numbers of Aboriginal young people access residential alcohol and other drug programs in Australia. While demand is high, these programs often have low numbers of Aboriginal staff. Residential programs, however, generally offer supports that reflect features of Aboriginal health care – holistic, group-based, connected to local communities, and addressing determinants of health. The qualitative research outlined in this paper was a collaboration between a mainstream residential therapeutic community program and two Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, and Aboriginal young people and researchers, with Aboriginal research leadership. It used an Aboriginal healing framework to understand the experiences of 12 young Aboriginal people in the program, triangulated with 19 key informant interviews. This provided an opportunity to understand how Indigenous knowledge about healing related to mainstream programs and the experiences of Aboriginal young people. This moves beyond individualist and deficit-focused conceptions of youth alcohol and drug use and centres Aboriginal cultures as healing. Findings point to the need for critically self-reflective mainstream organisations, a larger Aboriginal workforce with leadership roles, partnerships with Aboriginal Elders and organisations, and an investment in Aboriginal community-controlled alcohol and other drug services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study investigated the delivery of guideline-recommended services for the management of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in Australian primary healthcare centres participating in the Audit and Best Practice for Chronic Disease (ABCD) National Research Partnership project. Methods: ARF and RHD clinical audit data were collected from 63 Aboriginal centres in four Australian jurisdictions using the ABCD ARF/RHD audit tool. Records of up to 30 patients treated for ARF and/or RHD were analysed per centre from the most recent audit conducted between 2009 and 2014. The main outcome measure was a quality of ARF and RHD care composite indicator consisting of nine best-practice service items. Results: Of 1081 patients, most were Indigenous (96%), female (61%), from the Northern Territory and Queensland (97%) and <25 years of age (49%). The composite indicator was highest in the 0–14 year age group (77% vs 65–67% in other age groups). Timely injections and provision of client education are important specific areas for improvement. Multiple regression showed age >15 years to be a significant negative factor for several care indicators, particularly for the delivery of long-acting antibiotic injections and specialist services in the 15–24 year age group. Conclusions: The results suggest that timely injection and patient education are priorities for managing ARF and RHD, particularly focusing on child-to-adult transition care. What is known about the topic?: The burden of rheumatic fever and RHD in some Aboriginal communities is among the highest documented globally. Guideline-adherent RHD prevention and management in primary health care (PHC) settings are critically important to reduce this burden. Continuous quality improvement (CQI) is a proven strategy to improve guideline adherence, using audit cycles and proactive engagement of PHC end users with their own data. Previously, such CQI strategies using a systems approach were shown to improve delivery of ARF and RHD care in six Aboriginal health services (three government and three community controlled). What does this paper add?: This paper focuses on the variation across age groups in the quality of ARF and/or RHD care according to nine quality of care indicators across 63 PHC centres serving the Aboriginal population in the Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. These new findings provide insight into difference in quality of care by life stage, indicating particular areas for improvement of the management of ARF and RHD at the PHC level, and can act as a baseline for monitoring of care quality for ARF and RHD into the future. What are the implications for practitioners?: Management plans and innovative strategies or systems for improving adherence need to be developed as a matter of urgency. PHC professionals need to closely monitor adherence to secondary prophylaxis at both the clinic and individual level. RHD priority status needs to be assigned and recorded as a tool to guide management. Systems strengthening needs to particularly target child-to-adult transition care. Practitioners are urged to keep a quick link to the RHDAustralia website to access resources and guidelines pertaining to ARF and RHD (https://www.rhdaustralia.org.au/arf-rhd-guideline, accessed 3 October 2019). CQI strategies can assist PHC centres to improve the care they provide to patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aboriginal People have inhabited the Australian continent before time began, but archaeologists and anthropologists state there is evidence for approximately 51,000 to 71,000 years of continual habitation. During this time, the Australian continent has experienced many environmental and climatic changes, which have contributed to mass animal extinction. The skeletal remains of Aboriginal Australians were examined for evidence, which may be indicative of fast running which would assist survival. The skull and mandible bones of the Kaurna People were examined for signs evolutional traits related to survival. Aboriginal culture, knowledge of medical treatment and traditional medicines were also investigated. Oral storytelling of factual events, passed down unchanged for millennia, contributed to survival. The Kaurna People exhibited evolutionary facial features that would have assisted survival. Kaurna People had excellent knowledge of medicine and the capacity to heal their community members. The process of mobility and relocation may have embedded the need to be mobile in some Aboriginal Australian cultures, and why many Aboriginal tribes did not invest too much time and resources in building permanent structures and dwellings. Navigating these extremely harsh, rapidly changing conditions is an incredible story of survival of Aboriginal Australians. The findings of this investigation suggest that Aboriginal Australians' survival methods were complex and multi-faceted. Although this paper could not examine every survival method, perhaps Aboriginal Peoples' knowledge of flora and fauna, (for nourishment and medicine) living in clans, and avoiding mass cohabitation was paramount to our survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was written in response to a request by the editors of the AP: Online Journal of Public Archaeology, Jaime Almansa Sánchez and Elena Papagiannopoulou, for Claire Smith to write on the future of public archaeology in Australia. In Australia, public archaeology focusses on high profile colonial sites such as The Rocks in Sydney (Karskens 1999) and Port Arthur in Tasmania (Steele et al. 2007; Frew 2012), tourism (e.g. Cole and Wallis 2019) or enhancing school curricula (Nichols et al. 2005; Owens and Steele 2005). However, given her decades-long relationships with Jawoyn and Ngadjuri people (Smith 1999; Smith et al. 2016; Smith et al. 2020), Claire Smith decided that a useful way of approaching this topic would be to obtain Indigenous views on the subject. Accordingly, she contacted the Aboriginal co-authors of this article and invited them to co-author the paper. The possibility to write in free form was a boon. The 'conversation' format we settled on was designed to facilitate the voices of individuals, to present a range of Indigenous views, to allow people to express their views frankly, and to deal with the constraints of people being located in different parts of Australia as well as occasional lock-downs due to COVID-19. We decided on five topics/questions that would be the basis of the conversation. Each Aboriginal author gave their views either by email or by phone. These views were interwoven into a 'conversation'. The language has been edited lightly for clarity and to simulate a real-life conversation. The final text was approved by all authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Completion rates in vocational education are typically poor for Aboriginal students (<30%). A scholarship program was designed for Australian Aboriginal students using five enablers of success previously identified for Aboriginal preregistration tertiary nursing students. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the five enablers contributed to the success of Aboriginal students in vocational education and whether there were any other enablers. Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted with two groups of Aboriginal students in Certificate III and IV Dental Assisting and Certificate IV in Allied Health Assistance, and their teaching and support staff. The data were initially coded inductively. Initial codes were then categorised according to the five enablers identified to contribute to the success of Bachelor of Nursing students. New categories were created for data not assigned to the enablers. Results: Twenty students (64.5% of the cohort) and six staff (75%) consented to participate. The five enablers were perceived to have contributed to the success of the scholarship recipients and two additional enablers were identified. A completion rate of 96.8% was achieved by the scholarship recipients (30 completions of 31 enrolments). Conclusions: In contrast with the state average, a completion rate of 96.8% was achieved using seven enablers in this study. To improve completion rates for Aboriginal students, vocational education programs need to be customised to cultural, family and community context. The seven enablers in this study should be subject to a larger study to inform policy, funding, design and delivery of vocational training for Aboriginal students. What is known about the topic?: It is well established in the literature that Aboriginal students have poorer educational outcomes than other students. What does this paper add?: This paper validates five previously identified enablers to improve outcomes for Aboriginal students and an additional two for vocational education. These enablers may also be applicable to other types of education. What are the implications for practitioners?: Practitioners can use the enablers in this study to design and implement vocational education programs and improve educational outcomes for Aboriginal students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent reforms to the Australian child-protection sector have widened its scope from solely a statutory child-protection system to a public-health model to increase the number of agencies involved in the provision of services for children who are deemed 'vulnerable' or 'at risk'. Nevertheless, the number of Aboriginal children in the sector continues to increase. This paper argues that the reflective basis of social work practice in Australia contains a lack that evades consideration of the 'projective identifications' informing practice. Social workers are more likely to achieve safety outcomes for children when such projections are acknowledged and tendered to in their reflective practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high prevalence and health effect of tobacco smoking and secondhand smoke exposure among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is well known. Due to its significance, the responsibility of tackling smoking among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should not remain solely with health service providers. The creation of supportive environments and collaboration beyond the health sector are critical elements of comprehensive primary health care practised by Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services. This paper discusses how Apunipima Cape York Health Council worked with three Aboriginal Shire Councils to create more smoke-free places, using local working groups, information sessions and community-based health promotion. The flexibility and the time allocated to the engagement process with councils, community leaders, organisations and community members were important. All three communities acknowledged the benefits of role modelling and working together to improve health, with addressing tobacco smoking seen as 'everyone's business' and 'not just service providers'. Aboriginal Shire Councils can play a critical role, in partnership with Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services, in creating healthy places that enable healthy choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past histories charting interactions between British healthcare and Aboriginal Australians have tended to be dominated by broad histological themes such as invasion and colonization. While such descriptions have been vital to modernization and truth telling in Australian historical discourse, this paper investigates the nineteenth century through the modern cultural lens of mental health. We reviewed primary documents, including colonial diaries, church sermons, newspaper articles, medical and burial records, letters, government documents, conference speeches and anthropological journals. Findings revealed six overlapping fields which applied British ideas about mental health to Aboriginal Australians during the nineteenth century. They included military invasion, religion, law, psychological systems, lunatic asylums, and anthropology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Since Cronulla, racism and the resurgence of White ethno-nationalism is again contesting the diversity of Australian national imaginaries. This paper argues, however, that encounters with Aboriginality and connection to Country provide fresh perspectives that affirm difference. The paper focuses on Broome and Darwin, two urban centres in northern Australia with a visible Aboriginal population that have been the focus of little contemporary research on intercultural relations compared to southern cities. Such an optics from the Top End is necessary, given its unique histories of Aboriginal and ethnic minority contact that predate White settlement, as well as the ongoing resistance to dehumanising, interventionist and racially discriminatory practices and policies. This paper places affirmative ‘events of commoning’ at the core of emancipatory politics. Such a politics is informed by the theoretical conceptualisation of commoning as a relational process of ‘being-in-common’ that unfolds in cooperative practices and collective action. We focus on two events – a protest event in Broome as response to the closure of remote Aboriginal communities and a ‘celebration walk’ through the streets of Darwin during NAIDOC week. These ‘noisy’ and ‘quiet’ struggles reclaim the street and provide the possibility to think about how a common world can be recomposed through embodied potentiality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on the findings from a study exploring the efficacy of a training program for child protection practitioners. The training aimed to improve understanding of the sociohistorical context that underpins interactions between the welfare system and Aboriginal communities, the impact of past and present child protection laws, and the importance of trauma theory to guide practice when working with Aboriginal families. A pre–post survey design study was conducted. Findings demonstrated the preferred theoretical approach to practice was guided by attachment theory. No participant listed trauma theory as guiding their work with Aboriginal families. The study found the lack of skills and knowledge deficit of trauma-informed principles and the limited understanding of trauma theories can be and should be addressed in vocational training. As a result of the training, participants' knowledge about trauma significantly improved, as did their understanding of key concepts such as the difference between past and current welfare laws, assimilation, intergenerational trauma and trauma-related behaviours. Findings point to the need for high quality training in entry-level and professional development for welfare practitioners to support best practice in working with Aboriginal families, and the importance of rigorous evaluation of training to ensure that it is impactful. IMPLICATIONS Welfare practitioners do not necessarily understand trauma theory and trauma-informed practice and do not understand the impact of trauma on Indigenous Australians. Mandatory in-service training about the past and ongoing traumatic impact of previous child welfare system laws, must be provided to welfare practitioners. Trauma theory needs to guide child protection practice when working with Aboriginal families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of this paper is to describe the implementation and evaluation of the Growing Strong Brains® (GSB) toolkit in a remote Aboriginal community in Western Australia (WA) over a 2-year period, 2018–2019. Background: Ngala, a community service organisation in WA, developed the GSB toolkit in 2014, a culturally appropriate and interactive resource to build knowledge of early childhood development within Aboriginal communities. This was in response to evidence that a higher percentage of children in Aboriginal communities were developmentally vulnerable compared to the rest of the population. The GSB toolkit promotes awareness and understanding of early brain development pre-birth and in the early years of a child's life. Methods: The project was underpinned by participatory action research (PAR). Reflective PAR review cycles (n = 5) monitored local community engagement, navigated challenges and utilised community strengths. Fifty-nine local service providers attended a 2-day formal training. Data were collected by using various methods throughout the project, including feedback following training, focus groups, surveys, one-on-one interviews using yarning techniques and reflective feedback from the Project Lead. Findings: Establishing local Aboriginal project staff was pivotal to the success of the project. When delivering services for and with Aboriginal people, it is essential that cultural competence, safety and decision-making is carried through from planning to implementation and evaluation, and involves genuine, respectful and authentic relationships. Sufficient time allocation directed towards building relationships with other service providers and local community members needs to be considered and built into future projects. The Growing Strong Brains® project is embedded within the local community, and anticipated implementation outcomes were achieved. The support of the local people and service providers was beyond expectation, enabling the building of local capacity, and the development of a common understanding of the key messages from the GSB toolkit to allow integration throughout all levels of the community. This project has been important to build on the strategies necessary to introduce, implement and evaluate the GSB toolkit in other remote Aboriginal communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For centuries, education has been used as a tool of assimilation, and this has been the Indigenous experience in Australian education system. Nevertheless, for those who has successfully negotiated it, education provides the key to self-determination, active and equal participation in the society. Since 2007, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is relevant to the Australia's Indigenous people. It has provided several guidelines, such as self-determination, rights and equity, which should be given to them. The UNDRIP should be not just an acceptance of a symbolic gesture but a more active 'recognition of rights'. Therefore, this paper reviews the current and the past reports that reflect the shifts in government policy of Indigenous education in Australia during the important key period when government policy relating to the Indigenous people shifted between 1974 and 2014. Several themes are identified as outcomes from the document analysis including: assimilation; equity and equality; participation and selfdetermination; and rights and recognition. The findings suggest that the Australian government still lack in their efforts to recognize and acknowledge the equity, the rights, and the self-determination of the Aboriginal people and Torres Straits Islander as 'the first people' in the country. It can be concluded that, Australia is yet to achieve at a substantive level the implementation of the UNDRIP. As a suggestion, alteration to the current curriculum framework needs to be done to improve the rights and equity of education development and cultivation of relationships between schools and Indigenous communities to ensure a successful outcome in the Indigenous education policy. Besides that, government of Australia should take an important and positive step approach towards the recognition of Indigenous Education rights through the adoption of the UNDRIP in their practice and constitution to recognize Indigenous languages, cultures and Indigenous knowledge in the education system in line with mainstream society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the notion of indigenous cultural identity in Australia and New Zealand by examining how indigenous culture is represented in popular music, specifically, through 'known' signifiers of indigenous culture. This paper argues that these signifiers are limited to specific instrumentation, musical characteristics such as rhythm and melody, and indigenous language. These findings are reached through an examination of the extant literature on indigenous popular music in Australia and New Zealand, and by applying the same methods these studies employ to a comparison of indigenous popular music from these countries. Music from the groups Yothu Yindi (from Australia), and Moana and the Moahunters (from New Zealand) is analysed, demonstrating how signifiers of indigenous culture are perceived to have roots in traditional culture. This paper concludes by presenting an Australasian framework through which signifiers of indigenous identity have been identified and discussed in academic literature, and argues that the limitations of semiotic analysis has restricted the exploration of popular music's capacity to express indigenous identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that the Australian government's intervention in the Northern pre-empts the end of Australia as a single nation state. Through a discussion of national identity, history and particular key (post 1965) policies/Acts and actions by the federal Government the paper considers the place of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in relation to the Australian nation-state and each other. The paper argues there has been a continued social and political marginalisation, displacement and exclusion of Indigenous Australians and continued construction of them as'others' to 'Australianness'. It argues that at so a pivotal point in the history of this country, in the Post Apology society, the Intervention is a watershed institutionalising racism towards indigenous Australians in the new millennium. It suggests place and identity within the 'Australian' nation-state need to be re-framed for the possibility for Indigenous inclusion and/or provide for the sovereignty of the Indigenous nations. Without such action it suggests the Howard/Rudd choirs sing to the ghost of the nation-state as he walks by the billabongs the wells of racism to which non-Indigenous leaders have ever returned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2006-07, the author was involved in redesigning a database storing traditional knowledge of Australian Aboriginal clans. The project raised issues relating to the design of repositories for indigenous knowledge, including theoretical approaches taken to ontology (knowledge structures, classification systems) and metadata creation. This paper describes the design process undertaken, in which user-centred design principles accommodated an emergent contrast between traditional knowledge customs and "good" database design principles. Theoretical approaches taken to ontology are presented, and the format of the restructured database is discussed in general terms. Assembling evidence from usability testing and qualitative research, the paper concludes that a flexible ontological system was needed to provide the customisability required by indigenous users - a system whose iterations and applications may usefully represent widely differing aboriginal cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this viewpoint article is to consider the #BlackLivesMatter movement within the Aboriginal Australian struggle for equality, sovereignty and human rights. Indigenous sovereignty has been threatened throughout Australia's history of colonization. We provide a viewpoint and recommendations for social policy education and practice. Design/methodology/approach: We provide commentary and interpretation based upon the lived experience of Black, Indigenous and Other People of Color (BIPOC) co-authors, co-authors who are Allies, extant literature and practice wisdom as social policy educators. Findings: Universities are sources of knowledge production, transmission and consumption within society. We provide critical recommendations for what social policy education within universities can address human rights and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Originality/value: Culturally responsive inclusion for BIPOC has only just begun in Australia and globally within the context of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. This paper adds critical conversation and recommendations for what social policy programs might do better to achieve universities' teaching and learning missions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the strategies that speakers employ in response to children's crying in the remote Aboriginal community of Wadeye, in northern Australia. Drawing on spontaneous interactions amongst Murrinhpatha speaking families, we analyse instances of crying by children aged 0;6 to 8;11 years, and the ways in which they are responded to. Results indicate that adult Murrinhpatha speakers manage children's distress through a variety of verbal and non-verbal strategies, and multimodal combinations thereof. The selection of strategies directly relates to the developmental stage of the crier. Adult caregivers respond differently to the crying of infants, of children who can walk unaided but are producing little if any language, of children who can talk intelligibly, and children more advanced again who have a degree of social independence. In the particular strategies that caregivers apply, they guide children towards a developmentally appropriate self-sufficiency. Caregivers encourage autonomy in ways that reflect a child's current abilities, be it physical, linguistic, emotional, or social. By exploring responses to crying in an under-researched cultural and linguistic context, this paper offers a unique perspective on the pragmatics of managing distress and what this reveals about local constructions of personhood within the context of carer-child interaction. • Analysis examines responses to children's crying in a remote Australian Aboriginal community. • Methods utilize multimodal analysis of spontaneous crying events in early childhood. • Findings show how caregiver responses are situated in relation to local expectations of children across developmental stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yolŋu Aboriginal people's knowledge about water ("gapu") and its governance has strong cultural significance and meaning in East Arnhem Land Aboriginal worlds in northern Australia. This study used transdisciplinary research methods to explore the ways in which Yolŋu Aboriginal gapu and Western science hydrological knowledge can work together and contribute towards water management on Milingimbi Island, a small, resource-constrained, bedrock island. Transcending disciplinary boundaries is distinctly different to an interdisciplinary, socio-hydrological perspective, which can pose a risk to hybridizing Aboriginal knowledge and Western science. Community engagement activities and workshops were conducted as part of a three-year research project to bring together the incommensurable knowledge communities. A participatory three-dimensional mapping exercise created a shared space, facilitating an open-dialogue exchange of insight and knowledge among Aboriginal knowledge authorities, hydrologists, public servants, and academic researchers. This paper prompts readers to reconsider the ways water can be perceived and conserved in a decolonizing way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the processes of assemblage as an important aspect in studies of contemporary Australian settler colonialism. I explore how, what I am calling the Indigenous development assemblage, is made up of various government policies, actors, discourse, knowledge, legal frameworks and institutions, intersect and cohere with each other. I also explore how this assemblage affects not only material outcomes but also generates an atmosphere that affects aspirations, hope and possibility for change. Through examining various processes of the assemblage underway in the town of Kununurra, I argue that settler colonialism is different to the totalitarian form it often is described as. Through understanding the processes of assemblage, incoherence, disruption and emergence was also observed which opens up possibilities of the destabilisation of the assemblage itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pandemics such as COVID-19 are a serious public health risk for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, yet primary healthcare systems are not well resourced to respond to such urgent events. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a federal government advisory group recommended a rapid, tailored Indigenous response to prevent predicted high morbidity and mortality rates. This paper examines the efforts of one ACCHO, which in the absence of dedicated funding, pivoted its operations in response to COVID-19. Gurriny Yealamucka Health Service (Gurriny) is the only primary healthcare service in the discrete Indigenous community of Yarrabah, Far North Queensland.Methods: The research was conducted at the request of the Chief Executive Officer of Gurriny. Using grounded theory methods, thirteen Gurriny staff and five Yarrabah and government leaders and community members were interviewed, transcripts of these interviews and 59 documents were imported into NVIVO-12 and coded, and key concepts were compared, organised into higher order constructs, then structured into a theoretical framework.Results: Gurriny responded to COVID-19 by leading with local solutions to keep Yarrabah safe. Four key strategies were implemented: managing the health service operations, realigning services, educating and supporting community, and working across agencies. These strategies were enabled or hindered by five conditions: the governance and leadership capacity of Gurriny, relying on the health taskforce, locking the door, "copping it", and (not) having resources. A year after the first case was experienced in Australia and on the eve of vaccine rollout to Indigenous communities, there have been no COVID-19 cases in Yarrabah.Discussion: The success of the locally led, holistic, comprehensive and culturally safe response of Gurriny suggests that such tailored place-based approaches to pandemics (and other health issues) are appropriate, but require dedicated resourcing. Key challenges were the fragmented and rapidly changing government processes, poorly coordinated communication and resource allocation channels, and bottlenecks in hierarchical funding approval processes.Conclusions: The COVID-19 response in Yarrabah demonstrates the need for governance reform towards greater resourcing and support for local decision making by Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]