In our society education is a key factor in determining social and economic status (work opportunities derived from recognised training and accredited qualifications). The educational system appears to alienate many Aborigines. This is attributed to the interplay of poverty, communication or cultural differences, low expectations of school children, attitudes of teachers and parents (and the community in general), large unemployment and the limited scope of school curricula covering Aboriginal history or culture. This had led to an upsurge of pride (in recent years) in Aboriginal traditions and a promotion of the cultural inheritance stemming from the past. The notion of ‘cultural pride’, clearly influences the black community and the wider society wherein non-Aborigines are increasingly being exposed to ‘Aboriginality’ in a social and educational environment.

As a child I lived at a place called Angatja. My father, mother, grandmother, older brothers, aunts, and uncles taught me there and I learned from them. My mother taught me about her bush foods. She collected the plant foods and prepared them and I learned by watching her. I learned also from my father. He taught about meat foods, cooking the meat, making spears, joining parts of the spears tightly with sinew and going out hunting for meat. My mother would take me out with her. We two went out together to collect small animals and plant foods, hitting sand goannas, and sometimes collecting bush honey. I watched her and gathered some foods and when we all came together in camp we ate the meat and plant foods. My mother gathered various plant foods, native millet seeds, pigweed, roots which grew in the rocks and other seeds. These foods were available in autumn. Other foods were found on trees in spring. These fruits included mistletoe berries, mulga apples, native plums and quandongs. Also the native fig trees grew on small rocky hills.

Otitis Media or middle ear infection is more common in Australian Aboriginal children than in any other population. The associated hearing loss causes added learning difficulties for these children particularly when learning a second language.

We are all aware of the results of numerous prevalence surveys taken over the past 25 years which suggest that 25 - 50% of all Aboriginal children in school classrooms are likely to be suffering a significant hearing loss at any one time (Neinhuys, 1988; Quinn 1983; Stuart et al., 1972, 1973; Willis, 1985). The incidence of infection varies from place to place and seasonally as well. In some school populations as many as 54% of children have been shown to have significant hearing loss (Quinn, 1985). There is a widely held view that a fluctuating conductive hearing loss over a long period of time can prove to have serious implications on the child’s developing behaviour, language competence and educational performance.

Preparation and support programs for teacher trainees were instituted in South Australia in 1978. By that time, only thirteen Aboriginal/Islander people had ever graduated as teachers in South Australia. Since that time, and by the end of this year, over one hundred awards will have been completed in South Australia, eighty percent by people who had been prepared and enrolled through special entry preparation and support programs such as ATEP (Aboriginal Teacher Education Program) at Underdale and the Magill Early Childhood Education Program. Graduates now work across the range from pre-school to tertiary education. Around seventy percent of graduates are in classrooms, with another fifteen percent otherwise involved in education. Very few, if any, are employed.

The Queensland Department of Education has instigated, planned and supported, over a significant period of time, various programs to enable Aboriginal and Islander entrants to become trained and qualified teachers. Such programs have included for example:

The failure at school of Aboriginal students from traditional backgrounds has generally been ascribed to cultural differences. This study, however, investigated the relationship between Aboriginal children's learning and hearing loss. Aboriginal students with hearing loss were found to be different in that they used the highly verbal teacher-oriented behaviours, which were associated with school success, less than other students. There was evidence that some students with hearing loss used alternative peer-oriented learning strategies with some success. Also compensatory practises by teachers, including using Aboriginal teaching styles, appeared to assist some students with hearing loss.