Desert harmony : stories of collaboration between Indigenous musicians and university students

This article will discuss the ways in which community service learning programs in music can foster meaningful collaborations between universities and Indigenous communities. Drawing on recent pedagogical literature on service learning and insights from a four-year partnership between Australian Indigenous musicians at the Winanjjikari Music Centre in Tennant Creek and music students from Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, it will describe how such programs can facilitate significant cross-cultural exchanges between students and Indigenous communities. By drawing on observations and interview data from those involved in the project, this paper argues that these partnerships can both assist communities with activities such as cultural maintenance, and provide students with intercultural experiences that have the potential to transform their understandings of Indigenous culture.

Does improving school level attendance lead to improved school level achievement? An empirical study of indigenous educational policy in Australia

Current federal 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 at the school level. Based on an analysis of the publicly available data reported on the ‘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 focused at the school level as opposed to the need to focus on pedagogy and curriculum are discussed.

Higher uptake of long-acting reversible and permanent methods of contraception by Australian women living in rural and remote areas

Objectives: To examine factors associated with the uptake of i) long-acting reversible, ii) permanent and iii) traditional contraceptive methods among Australian women. Methods: Participants in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health born in 1973–78 reported on their contraceptive use at three surveys: 2003, 2006 and 2009. The participants were 5,849 women aged 25–30 in 2003 randomly sampled from Medicare. The main outcome measure was current contraceptive method at age 28–33 years categorised as long-acting reversible methods (implant, IUD, injection), permanent (tubal ligation, vasectomy), and traditional methods (oral contraceptive pills, condoms, withdrawal, safe period). Results: Compared to women living in major cities, women in inner regional areas were more likely to use long-acting (OR=1.26, 95%CI 1.03–1.55) or permanent methods (OR=1.43, 95%CI 1.17–1.76). Women living in outer regional/remote areas were more likely than women living in cities to use long-acting (OR=1.65, 95%CI 1.31–2.08) or permanent methods (OR=1.69, 95%CI 1.43–2.14). Conclusions: Location of residence is an important factor in women's choices about long-acting and permanent contraception in addition to the number and age of their children. Implications: Further research is needed to understand the role of geographical location in women's access to contraceptive options in Australia.

The Torrent : Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley, 10 January 2011

Of all the stories to emerge from Queensland’s catastrophic summer of 2011, the most dramatic and starkly tragic were those that took place in Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley. On January 10, 2011, after weeks of heavy rain and as floodwaters began to overwhelm much of south-east Queensland, an ‘inland tsunami’ hit the city of Toowoomba, the rural districts of Spring Bluff and Postmans Ridge, and the towns of Murphys Creek, Withcott, Helidon, and Grantham. The Torrent:Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley, 10 January 2011 tells, for the first time, the extraordinary stories of survival and loss that emerged from that terrible day. Official figures state that twenty-four people died. Many escaped death only because they were rescued by members of the community or through sheer good fortune. Based on exclusive interviews with survivors, rescuers and with the families and friends of victims of the disaster, The Torrent is a unique and powerful account of human courage in the face of the devastating force of nature, and the enduring resilience of ordinary Australians.

Unintended consequences : satellite policy and Indigenous television

This article examines two instances of media policy involving satellite transmission and Indigenous television: the introduction of the Viewer Access Satellite Television (VAST) platform in 2010 and the introduction of AUSSAT in the mid-1980s. The government’s failure to provide community and Indigenous broadcasters with an access regime at the time of AUSSAT resulted in Australia’s first and only Indigenous commercial television licensee, Imparja. Over a quarter of a century later, Imparja now forms part of the joint-venture company that runs VAST, a key component of Australia’s digital switchover planning. During the passage of the legislative amendments required to establish VAST, the issue of access resurfaced – this time in relation to Australia’s national and community Indigenous television channels. The article recounts the events leading up to the 2010 Bill, and examines the intended and unintended consequences of satellite policy in relation to Indigenous media, including equalisation and transparency of government funding programs.

Indigenous names for Indigenous Support Centres as part of the Welcome to (University) Country

The significance of naming Indigenous Support Centres (ISCs) with Indigenous language terminology — given that such reconciliatory acts may serve as symbolic means to improve the cultural efficacy of an Australian university’s Welcome to Country on offer to Indigenous Australian students — is explored and discussed in this paper. A survey of all 39 Australian universities was conducted, and the results regarding the Indigenous naming of their ISCs were tabulated and compared.

An evaluation of the culture performance of two Macrobrachium species in Vanuatu: the exotic M. rosenbergii and the indigenous M. lar

Fisheries and aquaculture are important for food security, income generation and are critical to long term sustainability of many countries. Freshwater prawns have been harvested in the streams and creeks in Vanuatu, however due to over-exploitation catches have declined in recent years. To satisfy high demand for this product, Vanuatu government intends to establish economically viable small-scale aquaculture industries. The current project showed that wild Macrobrachium lar in Vanuatu constitute a single population for management purposes and that M. rosenbergii grows much faster than M. lar in simple pond grow-out systems, hence is a better species for culture in Vanuatu.

The ‘Indigenous Australian’ theme in the Australian Curriculum English : necessary or not?

On Friday 10 January 2014 Education Minister Christopher Pyne formally announced a review of the inaugural Australian curriculum. In his three and half minute televised justification, Pyne (2014) identified a number of criticisms of the national curriculum document, including the ‘necessity to have themes’ of ‘Australia’s place in Asia, Indigenous Australia and sustainability’. It is the second of these themes that we consider as ALEA’s Hot Topic for March 2014. We respond to Pyne’s momentary musing of the necessity of the ‘Indigenous Australian’ theme in the Australian Curriculum with a particular focus on the discipline of English. In the nomenclature of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority’s Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2013), we are of course referring to the ‘cross curriculum priority’ of ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures’.

goDesign Express 2011 Workshop

The goDesign Express 2011 Workshop was a design immersion workshop run by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Built Environment and Engineering Faculty during three weeks of 70-minute art class periods/sessions in August/September 2011 at Morayfield State High School, for 80 Grade 10 and 64 Grade 11 art students and two teachers, and October 2011 at Narangba Valley State High School for 60 Grade 10 and 30 Grade 11 art students and two teachers. Funded and administrated through QUT’s Widening Participation Program, which supports outreach activities to increase tertiary enrolments for under represented groups (such as low-SES, rural and indigenous students), the program utilised two activities from Day 1 of the highly successful 3-day goDesign Travelling Workshop Program for Regional Secondary Students (http://eprints.qut.edu.au/47747/). In contrast to this program, which was facilitated by two tertiary design educators, the goDesign Express 2011 Workshop was facilitated primarily by three tertiary interior design/architecture students, with assistance from a design educator. This action research study aimed to facilitate an awareness in young people, of the value of design thinking skills in generating strategies to solve local community challenges. It also aimed to investigate the value of collaboration between secondary school students and teachers, and tertiary design students and educators, in inspiring post-secondary pathways for school students, professional development for schoolteachers, and alternative career prospects and leadership skills for tertiary design students. During the workshop, secondary students and teachers explored, analysed and reimagined their local community through a series of scaffolded problem solving activities around the theme of ‘place’. Students worked individually and in groups designing graphics, fashion and products, and utilising sketching, making, communication, collaboration and presentation skills to improve their design process, while considering social, cultural and environmental opportunities for their local community. The workshop was mentioned in a news article in the local Caboolture Shire Herald newspaper.

Australian Indigenous Art : Local Dreamings, Global Consumption (Autohtona Australijska Umetnost : Lokalno Sanjarenje, Globalna Potražnja)

Indigenous Australian visual art is an outstanding case of the dynamics of globalization and its intersection with the hyper-local wellsprings of cultural expression, and of the strengths and weaknesses of state, philanthropic and commercial backing for cultural production and dissemination. The chapter traces the development of the international profile of Indigenous ‘dot’ art – a traditional symbolic art form from the Western Desert – as ‘high-end’ visual art, and its positioning within elite markets and finance supported by key international brokers, collectors and philanthropists.

“Scary” heterosexualities in a rural Australian mining town

This paper draws upon Hubbard's (1999, p. 57) term ‘scary heterosexualities,’ that is non-normative heterosexuality, in the context of the rural drawing on data from fieldwork in the remote Western Australian mining town of Kalgoorlie. Our focus is ‘the skimpie’ – a female barmaid who serves in her underwear and who, in both historical and contemporary times, is strongly associated with rural mining communities. Interviews with skimpies and local residents as well as participant observation reveal how potential fears and anxieties about skimpies are managed. We identify the discursive and spatial processes by which skimpie work is contained in Kalgoorlie so that the potential scariness ‘the skimpie’ represents to the rural is muted and buttressed in terms of a more conventional and less threatening rural heterosexuality.

Doing cultural work : local postcard production and place identity in a rural shire

Studies of place construction in the rural studies literature have largely privileged the role of professionals over that of local lay actors. This paper contributes to redressing this imbalance through a critical case-study of lay postcard production in a rural shire. Drawing on original, qualitative research conducted in the Shire of Ravensthorpe, Western Australia, including in-depth interviews with key participants, the analysis focuses on this lay production—undertaken in the main by women—as cultural work. By emphasising the work of making the postcards along with the cultural work these postcards achieve, this examination foregrounds intersections of material and imagined ruralities. In the process, this study highlights the complexity and importance of this lay contribution to place identity, particularly as positioned within what may be considered rural cultural work.

Use of simple pharmacokinetic modeling to characterize exposure of Australians to perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid

Perflurooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) have been used for a variety of applications including fluoropolymer processing, fire-fighting foams and surface treatments since the 1950s. Both PFOS and PFOA are polyfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFCs), man-made compounds that are persistent in the environment and humans; some PFCs have shown adverse effects in laboratory animals. Here we describe the application of a simple one compartment pharmacokinetic model to estimate total intakes of PFOA and PFOS for the general population of urban areas on the east coast of Australia. Key parameters for this model include the elimination rate constants and the volume of distribution within the body. A volume of distribution was calibrated for PFOA to a value of 170ml/kgbw using data from two communities in the United States where the residents' serum concentrations could be assumed to result primarily from a known and characterized source, drinking water contaminated with PFOA by a single fluoropolymer manufacturing facility. For PFOS, a value of 230ml/kgbw was used, based on adjustment of the PFOA value. Applying measured Australian serum data to the model gave mean+/-standard deviation intake estimates of PFOA of 1.6+/-0.3ng/kgbw/day for males and females >12years of age combined based on samples collected in 2002-2003 and 1.3+/-0.2ng/kg bw/day based on samples collected in 2006-2007. Mean intakes of PFOS were 2.7+/-0.5ng/kgbw/day for males and females >12years of age combined based on samples collected in 2002-2003, and 2.4+/-0.5ng/kgbw/day for the 2006-2007 samples. ANOVA analysis was run for PFOA intake and demonstrated significant differences by age group (p=0.03), sex (p=0.001) and date of collection (p<0.001). Estimated intake rates were highest in those aged >60years, higher in males compared to females, and higher in 2002-2003 compared to 2006-2007. The same results were seen for PFOS intake with significant differences by age group (p<0.001), sex (p=0.001) and date of collection (p=0.016).