Brighter lights on Capital Hill? Speculations upon federal framing and policy analysis of Indigenous issues

Postwar Australian social policy has occurred within neoliberal, social-conservative and social democratic ideational frameworks. Recent perceptions vary from concern about high levels of public spending, through disquiet about cultural change, to fear that government inaction is ignoring community needs and creating fractious and unhealthy social conditions. this paper examines these alternate ideological influences as they could affect Indigenous Australians with a focus on the values and approaches that might lead logically to desirable outcomes. effective policy requires clarity and compatibility between government thinking and the social values of Indigenous people. At issue is how the objectives of policy for Indigenous citizens might be determined.

Intercultural Dialogues in Early Childhood Education for Sustainability : Embedding Indigenous Perspectives

Embedding Indigenous perspectives in early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS) upholds social and political action goals that support a holistic approach to promoting sustainability in educational contexts. Such goals should be responsive to particular contexts and their histories to ensure local issues are a focus of sustainability alongside global areas of concern. This chapter explores how intercultural dialogues and priorities foreground broader themes of sustainability that attend to local issues around culture and diversity, and equity in relations between groups of people. Attending to such themes in educational practice unsettles a standard environmental narrative and broadens the scope and potential for ECEfS in early years settings. Strengthening intercultural priorities in ECEfS requires a commitment to reflective practices that attend to the influence of one's cultural background on teaching and learning processes. Educators committed to reflective practices provide even greater capacity for children to act as change agents (Davis, 2008, 2010) around multiple dimensions of sustainability.

Shared values : diverse perspectives – engaging engineering educators in integrating Indigenous engineering knowledge into current curricula

BACKGROUND Engineering is a problem-based practically oriented discipline, whose practitioners aim to find effective solutions to engineering challenges, technically and economically. Engineering educators operate within a mandate to ensure that graduate engineers understand the practicalities and realities of good engineering practice. While this is a vital goal for the discipline, emerging influences are challenging the focus on ‘hard practicalities’ and requiring recognition of the cultural and social aspects of engineering. Expecting graduate engineers to possess communication skills essential for negotiating satisfactory outcomes in contexts of complex social beliefs about the impact of their work can be an unsettling and challenging prospect for engineering educators. This project identifies and addresses Indigenous engineering practices and principles, and their relevance to future engineering practices. PURPOSE This Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT) project proposes that what is known/discoverable about indigenous engineering knowledge and practices must be integrated into engineering curricula. This is an important aspect of ensuring that engineering as a profession responds competently to increasing demands for socially and environmentally responsible activity across all aspects of engineering activity. DESIGN/METHOD The project addresses i) means for appropriate inclusion of Indigenous students into usual teaching activities ii) assuring engineering educators have access to knowledge of Indigenous practices and skills relevant to particular engineering courses and topics iii) means for preparing all students to negotiate their way through issues of indigenous relationships with the land where engineering projects are planned. The project is undertaking wide-ranging research to collate knowledge about indigenous engineering principles and practices and develop relevant resource materials. RESULTS It is common to hear that such social issues as ‘Indigenous concerns’ are only of concern to environmental engineers. We challenge that perspective, and make the case that Indigenous knowledge is an important issue for all engineering educators in relation to effective integration of indigenous students and preparation of all engineering graduates to engage with indigenous communities. At the time of first contact, a rich and varied, technically literate, Indigenous social framework possessed knowledge of the environment that is not yet fully acknowledged in Australian society. A core outcome of the work will be development of resources relating to Indigenous engineering practices for inclusion in engineering core curricula. CONCLUSIONS A large body of technical knowledge was needed to survive and sustain human society in the complex environment that was Australia before 1788. This project is developing resource materials, and supporting documentation, about that knowledge to enable engineering educators to more easily integrate it into current curricula. The project also aims to demonstrate the importance for graduating engineers to appreciate the existence of diverse perspectives on engineering tasks and learn how to value - and employ - multiple paths to possible solutions.

Toward making inroads in reducing the disparity of lung health in Australian Indigenous and New Zealand Maori children

Globally, Indigenous populations, which include Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders in Australia and Māori people in New Zealand (NZ), have poorer health than their non-Indigenous counterparts. Indigenous peoples worldwide face substantial challenges in poverty, education, employment, housing and disconnection from ancestral lands. While addressing social determinants of health is a priority, solving clinical issues is equally important. Indeed, ignoring the latter until social issues improve risks further disparity as this may take generations. A systematic overview of interventions addressing social determinants of health found a striking lack of reliable evaluations.Where evidence was available, health improvement associated with interventions was modest or uncertain. 10 Thus advances in healthcare remain essential and these require the best evidence available in 11 preventing and managing common illnesses, including respiratory illnesses.

Doing whitefella research in blackfella communities in Australia : decolonizing method in sports related research

There is much for non-Indigenous researchers to consider when researching in Indigenous contexts. This paper is a story of discovery for two researchers working on a project with the Indigenous Sports Program section of the Australian Sports Commission. It documents the slow, meticulous and sometimes clumsy steps taken to gain access to communities and conduct research guided by a social justice ethic. The research was successful in that eventually it was possible to develop the trust of individuals and some of the Indigenous communities more broadly, so that information could be gathered and given within the context of shared understandings and mutual interest. However, it is the turbulent journey, filled as it is, with latent tendencies, privileged assumptions and eventually reflexive readings of the data, which remains the focus of this paper. Tentative recommendations are offered to those wishing to advance this politically and epistemologically challenging approach to culturally based research

Novel polymer synthesis methodologies using combination of thermally and photochemically-induced nitroxide mediated polymerisation

The combination of thermally- and photochemically-induced polymerization using light sensitive alkoxyamines was investigated. The thermally driven polymerizations were performed via the cleavage of the alkoxyamine functionality, whereas the photochemically-induced polymerizations were carried out either by nitroxide mediated photo-polymerization (NMP2) or by a classical type II mechanism, depending on the structure of the light-sensitive alkoxyamine employed. Once the potential of the various structures as initiators of thermally- and photo-induced polymerizations was established, their use in combination for block copolymer syntheses was investigated. With each alkoxyamine investigated, block copolymers were successfully obtained and the system was applied to the post-modification of polymer coatings for application in patterning and photografting.

Subduing power : Indigenous sovereignty matters

The concept of ‘power’ can refer to the institutionalised and embodied capacity and right to dominate through a variety of means including ideology, politics, science, religion, class, race, gender and sexuality. Early feminist theorising within the West, for example, conceptualised the structure and nature of power as being connected to male domination and authority within society. Marxists, alternately, argue it is the ruling class that holds power and exercises it as owners of the means of production. In a general sense, we can say that as feminists have tied power to patriarchy and Marxists’ definitions of power have been connected to capitalism. The essays in this section, though, are less concerned with such totalising conceptualisations of power than they are with processes of interpellation or subject creation within dominant or dominating discursive spaces.1 Not power as such, but its many workings and apparatuses.

Imaginging the good Indigenous citizen : race war and the pathology of partiarchal white sovereignty

In June 2007, the Australian federal government sent military and policy into Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory on the premise that sexual abuse of children was rampant and a national crisis. This article draws on Foucault’s work on sovereignty and rights to argue that patriarchal white sovereignty as a regime of power deploys a discourse of pathology in the exercising of sovereign right to subjugate and discipline Indigenous people as good citizens.

Mobile phone use in Australian Indigenous communities : future pathways for HC14D

This paper collates recent research on mobile phone use in Indigenous communities in Australia. Its key finding is that mobile phones are heavily used in these communities, albeit in unique and unusual ways that may be difficult to comprehend beneath 'top-down' measurements. Rather than framing these uses as being compromises made in lieu of appropriate infrastructures or literacies, it is argued that HCI4D (Human-Computer Interaction for Development) would be better served by seriously plumbing into the information they reveal about how mobile phones are constructed and placed in these communities, and what these factors might reveal about local understandings of development and well-being. A consideration of these specific patterns of appropriation is necessary to push the field beyond top-down, rationalist approaches to development towards more flexible, creative solutions that build from local knowledge and competencies.

Anger in Indigenous and non-Indigenous students

This descriptive pilot study examined the cultural differences in the dimensions of self-reported anger in Indigenous and non-Indigenous (Caucasian) students aged 10-13 years in Far North Queensland, Australia. The Multidimensional School Anger Inventory – Revised (MSAI-R) (Boman, Curtis, Furlong, & Smith, 2006) was used to measure affective, cognitive and behavioural components of anger. It was found that Indigenous students had significant but small differences on the “anger experience” (affective) and “destructive expression” (behavioural) subscales. Considerations for school staff, attempting to support and connect with Indigenous students and future research are discussed.

Psychometric properties of an Australian supportive care needs assessment tool for Indigenous patients with cancer

BACKGROUND There are significant disparities in cancer outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Identifying the unmet supportive care needs of Indigenous Australians with cancer is imperative to improve their cancer care. The purpose of this study was to test the psychometric properties of a supportive care needs assessment tool for Indigenous Australian (SCNAT-IP) cancer patients. METHODS The SCNAT-IP was administered to 248 Indigenous Australians diagnosed with a range of cancer types and stages, and received treatment in one of four Queensland hospitals. All 39 items were assessed for ceiling and floor effects and analysed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to determine construct validity. Identified factors were assessed for internal consistency and convergent validity to validated psychosocial tools. RESULTS EFA revealed a four-factor structure (physical and psychological, hospital care, information and communication, and practical and cultural needs) explaining 51% of the variance. Internal consistency of four subscales was good, with Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficients ranging from 0.70-0.89. Convergent validity was supported by significant correlations between the SCNAT-IP with the Distress Thermometer (r=0.60, p<0.001), and The Cancer Worry Chart (r=0.58, p<0.001) and a moderately strong negative correlation with Assessment of Quality of Life questionnaire (r=-0.56, p<0.001). CONCLUSION These data provide initial support for the SCNAT-IP a measure of multiple supportive care needs domains specific to Indigenous Australian cancer patients undergoing treatment.

Decolonizing digital heritage practices for Indigenous literacy: A multimodal analysis of iPad Tellagami videos

Purpose Drawing on multimodal texts produced by an Indigenous school community in Australia, we apply critical race theory and multimodal analysis to decolonize digital heritage practices for Indigenous students. This study focuses on the particular ways in which students’ counter-­‐narratives about race were embedded in multimodal and digital design in the development of a digital cultural heritage (Giaccardi, 2012). Pedagogies that explore counter-­‐narratives of cultural heritage in the official curriculum can encourage students to reframe their own racial identity, while challenging dominant white, historical narratives of colonial conquest, race, and power (Gutierrez, 2008). The children’s digital “Gami” videos, created with the iPad application, Tellagami, enabled the students to imagine hybrid, digital social identities and perspectives of Australian history that were tied to their Indigenous cultural heritage (Kamberelis, 2001).

The respiratory health of urban Indigenous children aged less than 5 years: Study protocol for a prospective cohort study

Background Despite the burden of acute respiratory illnesses (ARI) among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children being a substantial cause of childhood morbidity and associated costs to families, communities and the health system, data on disease burden in urban children are lacking. Consequently evidence-based decision-making, data management guidelines, health resourcing for primary health care services and prevention strategies are lacking. This study aims to comprehensively describe the epidemiology, impact and outcomes of ARI in urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children (hereafter referred to as Indigenous) in the greater Brisbane area. Methods/design A prospective cohort study of Indigenous children aged less than five years registered with a primary health care service in Northern Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Children are recruited at time of presentation to the service for any reason. Demographic, epidemiological, risk factor, microbiological, economic and clinical data are collected at enrolment. Enrolled children are followed for 12 months during which time ARI events, changes in child characteristics over time and monthly nasal swabs are collected. Children who develop an ARI with cough as a symptom during the study period are more intensely followed-up for 28(±3) days including weekly nasal swabs and parent completed cough diary cards. Children with persistent cough at day 28 post-ARI are reviewed by a paediatrician. Discussion Our study will be one of the first to comprehensively evaluate the natural history, epidemiology, aetiology, economic impact and outcomes of ARIs in this population. The results will inform studies for the development of evidence-based guidelines to improve the early detection, prevention and management of chronic cough and setting of priorities in children during and after ARI.