Lajamanu is a remote, traditionally oriented Aboriginal community on the Northern edge of the Tanami Desert. The population comprises about 700 Warlpiri people, and 40 white people most of whom are involved in the delivery of public services.

The issue of selecting potentially successful students for a course of study is of central concern to course organisers. Nowhere is this issue of more concern than in the area of bridging courses designed to promote access to tertiary courses and professions in which Aboriginal people are grossly under-represented. Organisers of bridging courses are faced with the problem of identifying potentially successful candidates and designing courses to meet their individual learning needs. The problem exists because of the unprecedented nature of innovative courses catering for newly defined clientele such as mature-aged, urban and academically aspiring Aboriginal students.

Language is a way of communicating between people by the use of symbols, signs, writing and oral speech. Language is used in different ways in different communities, countries and cultures throughout the world. Lindfors (1980, p.43) suggests that language consists of three major components: Semantic, Syntatic and Phonological.

Language is seen as being acquired by human beings through their own interaction with the environment that surrounds them. Human beings are able to build an overview of their language through personal experience, and also a cognitive structure developed from their world view.

Over the past 15 years the voice of protest in Australia has come to be linked synonymously with the black Australian. The nation’s indigenous people have progressively united and, in the strength of unity and growth of support for their claims, have met increasingly resistant Federal and State governments. Unfortunately, the “land rights” issue has dominated the public Aboriginal doctrine, preventing white Australians from being exposed to and appreciating the other important needs and opinions Aboriginal people have.

One of these needs is an education system sympathetic to: past, failed attempts at educating indigenous people; the importance of Aboriginal culture as a socio-cultural identifier and educational issue; and the needs Aboriginal children have in terms of curriculum and pedagogy. These fundamental elements are the counterpoints from which any study of the development of Aboriginal education, within Australia, must proceed.