Labour market and other discrimination facing Indigenous Australian

This paper uses self-reported data to illustrate how Indigenous Australians experience discrimination and how it is potentially associated with poor labour market outcomes. After giving consideration to what factors may lead people to report being discriminated against, an empirical analysis of self-reported discrimination is presented, utilising data from the 2008 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS). Correlations between discrimination experienced in different settings are identified, and the association of discrimination with human capital and other characteristics is presented. The results suggest that the main process driving the reporting of discrimination is the extent to which an individual is exposed to situations in which they interact with potential discriminators. This could mean that some Indigenous Australians decrease their labour supply in order to avoid potentially adverse (discriminatory) situations. Implications for understanding Indigenous disadvantage are discussed along with recommendations for both addressing discrimination and enhancing the resilience of individuals facing discrimination.

Incorporating indigenous Australian knowledge and perspectives into planning practice : past, present and future

The history and contemporary practice of land-use planning and place-making by Indigenous Australians is poorly understood by academics, students and practitioners in the field of urban and regional planning in Australia. This is despite recent high-profile events which have increased the profile of Indigenous peoples’ rights, such as the recognition of native title by the High Court in Mabo v the State of Queensland [No. 2] (1992) 175 CLR 1 and The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007), and Commonwealth policy and reconciliation discourses. Further, little impact has been discernible arising from the adoption of reconciliation policies by government bodies, planning authorities and the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA). This paper reviews this lack of progress and discusses why this is a problem for Australian planners which needs to be addressed. The paper reviews the present Australian historical and socio-cultural context in terms of collaboration with traditional land owners as it relates to contemporary planning practice. It considers ontological, epistemological and axiological differences between the dominant western model of planning and Indigenous models, and the challenges this presents. A case-study documenting past, present and future planning practices at Lake Condah in South West Victoria which is the Country of the Gunditjmara and Budj Bim will bring to life these topics through the documentation of Indigenous planning practices prior to and post European arrival. It offers a vision for the future of planning with Indigenous communities. The paper envisages a future which values and incorporates Indigenous place-making and planning, which goes far beyond the tacit acknowledgement of traditional owners commonly observed around Australia today.

The subjective wellbeing of 'at-risk' indigenous and non-indigenous Australian adolescents

Quantitative comparisons of subjective wellbeing (SWB) between samples of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian adolescents are scarce. This paper contributes to this literature by studying adolescents 'at-risk' of disengaging, or who have already disengaged, from school, their families or society. A three-group cross-sectional comparative design was employed, comparing Indigenous (N = 3,187) and non-Indigenous (N = 14,522) 'at-risk' adolescents with a mainstream sample of Victorian high-school students (N = 1,105). Age and gender differences in SWB within the three groups were also explored. All participants completed the Personal Wellbeing Index-School Children (PWI-SC), which measures SWB. Mean SWB was significantly higher in the mainstream sample than in both the Indigenous and non-Indigenous 'at-risk' groups. However, within the at-risk adolescents, the Indigenous sample scored higher than the non-Indigenous. In the mainstream sample, male and female SWB did not significantly differ, whereas males scored higher than females in both at-risk groups-with males scoring higher on all seven PWI-SC domains. Finally, in all three samples, a decline in SWB from early to mid-adolescence was observed. This suggests that mid-adolescence is a challenging time for all young people as they approach adulthood. The implications of this research for educational and government policy concerning youths in Australia is discussed. For example, the importance of obtaining normative data that will assist in the identification of young people who are most at-risk for experiencing low personal wellbeing and who are in the greatest need of support. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

Dissonance between conceptions of learning and ways of learning for indigenous Australian university students

This article reports on a phenomenographic investigation into conceptions of learning for 15 Indigenous Australian university students over the three years of their degree courses. The ways in which they went about learning were also investigated along with the relationship between individual students' 'core' conceptions of learning and the ways in which they learned. Results indicated that their conceptions and ways of learning were similar in some respects to those found for other university students. However, some students went about learning in ways that were incongruent with the core conception of learning they held. This can be regarded as dissonance between strategies and conceptions of learning. The implications of this for teaching and learning for such students are discussed.

A longitudinal study of learning for a group of indigenous Australian university students: Dissonant conceptions and strategies

Conceptions of learning and strategies used by 15 indigenous students in three Australian universities were studied longitudinally over three years. Their academic achievements were good, but at a high cost in terms of time and effort. In spite of the fact that almost half of the students expressed higher-order (qualitative) conceptions of learning in the first year and more in the second and third years, all of the students reported using highly repetitive strategies to learn. That is, they did not vary their way of learning, reading or writing in the beginning of their studies and less than half of them did so at the end of the three years. It is argued that encountering variation in ways of learning is a prerequisite for the development of powerful ways of learning and studying.