Since the development of psychological assessments of ‘intelligence’ at about the beginning of this century, many groups of people have been tested. By and large, most have performed at lower levels than people of north-western European origin or ancestry, who belong to the culture within which the tests were devised.

Among the poor performers, with average IQ’s of 80 to 92, have been people of southern and eastern Europe and Caucasian people from further east (Greeks, Yugoslavs, Iranians, Iraqis, Turks, Indians), tested in their homelands, mostly in large numbers and by compatriots, on ‘standard’ non-verbal or translated tests.

These relatively poor performances demonstrate the extent of cultural learning of a particular type involved in most cognitive tests. Presumably, north-western European cultural learning is required for good performances on tests coming from this cultural background, so that children from different backgrounds, even those from other areas of Europe, are likely to be disadvantaged.

Children from more widely different backgrounds, such as those from hunting and gathering groups, can be expected to be disadvantaged even further.

Nevertheless, hunting and gathering people have been tested on Western-type tests, and poor performances interpreted as indicating inferior ability. Kalahari ‘bushmen’ people in the 1930s were assigned a mean mental age of 7.5 by Porteus as a result of their performance on his Maze Test.

In the same period, Aboriginal people of north-west Australia performed poorly on this test, with ages ranging from 8.22 years to 12.17 years for adults. Aboriginal people have performed poorly, but not invariably so, on other tests.

The English language differs from others both in the patterns and the sociolinguistic conventions of its discourse. This paper uses forms of greeting as a specific reference as to how crosscultural communication can break down when Aboriginal people and English speakers interact.

Since children often rely on the spoken word as a basis for writing, and Aboriginal children rarely learn to write successfully in English, referring to the structure of Aboriginal languages offers a possible explanation of one contributive factor to this inability.

The Interim Committee for the Australian Schools Commissioni in its Report in May 1973, considered the needs of disadvantaged schools. Many teachers in remote areas will not yet have had an opportunity to read this report and we felt that you would like us to make available to you some of the committee’s comments on disadvantaged schools.

9.5… The Committee has chosen the term “disadvantaged” in relation to schools drawing a high proportion of enrolments from neighbourhoods having certain characteristics known to be generally associated with a low capacity to take advantage of educational facilities. This is not to say that all children coming from such neighbourhoods achieve poorly in school. Low-income families may be emotionally richer than affluent ones. Nor can poor families be described as culturally or socially deprived in any general sense, for the cultural life of home and neighbourhood may be as sustaining, and the social experiences as broad, as those of any type of family. The poor are disadvantaged in their relative lack of power in society, in the absence of any cushioning against adversity, and in the paucity of the kind of experience which is helpful to success in school and society.

I am one of a group of young Inala mothers who are involved in a playgroup in which we teach and learn with our children through their different stages of growth.

Each Thursday we are visited by Margaret Henry and Jeannie Barney. They offer me advice concerning different and new methods of play or sometimes we exchange methods of play and communication.

The play involved doesn’t require a set time or any expensive toys. Cotton reels, plastic containers etc., can provide hours of fun. However, we are fortunate enough to have a toy and book library from which our kids can select a toy or book for the week.

Once a month we all meet at the Inala Family Education Centre, and there we mothers have the chance to talk and our children to play. In general, we discuss and experiment with suggestions and ideas, and we get the chance to show off our creativeness in the making of an item of play for our sons or daughters.

The advantages of such a program are many. We are not only teaching our children but we’re learning with them also. We develop a relationship as friends with them, and they shall have some form of preparation for kindergarten. But, for me, there is nothing more fulfilling than to see my son repeat something I’ve shown him, and enjoy doing it.

The twin issues of education and employment are inextricably bound together for all Australian school students. In a recent issue, Mr. Hall discussed how Aboriginal students at Port Augusta High School are dealing with the problem; and he suggested that schools should engage in a program of pre-employment trainging.

In this article, Mr. Lewis discusses the employment opportunities for and aspirations of Aboriginal school leavers in New South Wales. Most importantly, he tells us how his Department can assist these students to find the positions which they want.

In July 2003 an important one-volume text, Forget about Flinders: A Yanyuwa atlas of the south west gulf of Carpentaria (Yanyuwa Families, Bradley & Cameron, 2003) produced in a limited edition of 14 copies, returned to Yanyuwa country and to the families who collaborated with John Bradley and artist Nona Cameron on the project. Subsequently, a second edition of 20 copies has been released, mainly to institutions. It is the most comprehensive attempt yet to restore Yanyuwa names to country and to produce a multilayered, dynamic, history-rich, and bilingual representation of how country is known in this community, and how the central song cycle texts intersect with Yanyuwa tradition. What follows is a condensed and edited interview with Frances Devlin-Glass, in which John Bradley discusses the motivations, the hybridised methodologies employed, the innovations of this new genre, and the pedagogical ends served by this latest iteration of Yanyuwa song cycles.

This paper will explore the role of universities as one of the most important gatekeepers that facilitate the appropriation of Indigenous medical knowledge (IMK) from Indigenous communities to transnational pharmaceutical corporations. The first section will deconstruct the “denial of dependency” upon IMK. Using case studies, the critique will demonstrate a complex mystification of Indigenous knowledge and labour, and a de-identification of Indigenous people and nature as the source of the medicines appropriated. The last section will analyse the law and policy context of the past 20 years that is responsible for creating a process of academic capitalism that has strengthened this phenomenon.

Myths express what is significant during man’s experience, and so communicate at a deeper level than other stories. They should never be treated as pre-scientific attempts to explain how things began. The creation of myths met a much more profound and basic need.

In presenting myths to children, there are many methods that can be used. Rather than just presenting one or two myths and leaving it at that, significance is gained by presenting children with a collection of myths on one topic, for example, creation or fire, from a variety of places around the world. Children will find the values of literary objectives that the myths have in common. With guidance from the teacher, they will see that the myths are true to man’s experience.

Programs should allow for as much involvement of the pupils as possible during their study of myths. Integration with as many subject disciplines as possible, particularly the expressive arts, should come naturally. This gives the pupils a chance to convey thoughts of what the myth tells them or their group. The working out of a ritual dance, the making of music to accompany it, the writing of poetry, and the numerous art activities can be effective ways of saying what cannot be expressed through ordinary language. It is man’s imagination that has to be stirred and not his rationality. The celebration and the performance of these student fashioned rituals are the culmination of this study and can impregnate a very deep unconscious movement in the performers and witnesses.

I had been telling a group of Aboriginal mothers about some of the things that we had learned about how their children talk. The discussion had become quite animated as they recognised elements of their own speech in the examples I was giving. It was obvious that they were pleased that I regarded their way of talking as worthy of study and as something to be valued.

Sir Herman Black, Lady Black, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

When I was first asked would I come along this afternoon to say a few words, my reply was, “I will think about it”. The response was, “How long do you need to think?”

Well, here I am.

It gives me great pleasure to be here this afternoon, to take part in this occasion. An occasion that has been taking place about this time every year, since 1975.

1975 will always be a year to remember, for it was the year that the first group of Aboriginal teacher assistants graduated from the training program and were presented with their certificates by Sir Herman Black.

Since then I have watched many Aboriginal people go through the same well-earned procedure. I guess it was the same with most of the groups, not knowing anybody, but by the end of the year it was like one big family.

First, I would like to congratulate the people who have successfully completed another year of the Aboriginal Teacher Assistants Training Program. I am sure this will be another year, 1978, that will go down in history, where yet another group of Aboriginal people have progressed within themselves from doing such a program, and I wish them the best of luck for what they may do in the future. I hope there will be many more continuous ATA programs to follow.

Background Discussion

It is an irrefutable fact that most Aboriginal children are under-achieving scholastically. It is also fairly obvious that a contributing factor in this under achievement is poor literacy skills which can hold children back in most areas of school performance.

Many different reading schemes and approaches have been tried, including Bridging and Headstart programs, which have met with very little success in the long term. As a result it is all too easy for educators to fall back on the deficiency model and blame the child and the home. This is neither profitable nor an adequate explanation for the under-achievement of Aboriginal students.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate some of the problems associated with the monolingual approach to the education of Aboriginal children. It does not set out to cover all of the problems experienced by vernacular-speaking children when English only is used as the medium of their primary formal education. By revealing some of the main areas of difficulty, though, it is hoped that bilingual education will be seen as a valuable tool for overcoming many of the problems.

I have a particular interest in the topic of hearing impairment within this human development unit of study and specifically I have a concern for the hearing loss of the Aboriginal child at school. The content of this assignment firstly will address the major characteristics associated with hearing impairment and then the condition specific to the Aboriginal community. The second part of this essay will explore the implications in relation to the child, the classroom, the teacher and the community setting.