Rawa School is an Aboriginal community school at Punmu in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia. The community has a population of around 150 people whose first language is Manyjiljarra. The children have limited access to English as there is no television or radio and the community is over 800 kilometres from the nearest service town of Port Hedland.

Improvements to the education of Australia's indigenous people is very much dependent upon the teacher's awareness of the factors affecting their academic potential. The traditional role of schools which essentially aimed at assimilating Aboriginal children into the ways of Western civilisation has proven to be ineffective and grossly unfair. Educational institutions must be more responsive to the needs of these people so that many more will be willing to participate in Western forms of education, and at a level beyond the compulsory years. This will involve an appreciation of the cultural, social, environmental and economic factors that can seriously impair the academic potential of Aboriginal children. Moreover, the teacher may need to alter a number of specific instructional practices in order to cater for the learning styles of these children. With the release of the Federal Government's Reconciliation Policy, and the P-10 Curriculum Framework's (Queensland Department of Education, 1987) emphasis on understanding individuals and their cultural diversity, it appears that these practices will become a necessary responsibility for all teachers in the near future.

Carlton Primary School in Port Augusta has an enrolment of approximately 200 students in years R - 7. Over 50% of these students are Aboriginal and a large number of our Aboriginal students have been identified as having English as a second language. This year is the first year an E.S.L. teacher has been appointed to the school. I work in the school for one day a week as E.S.L teacher and the following report is from one of the targeted classes.

Over the past months quite a few people have asked me what the differences are between bilingual education and two-way schooling. I will try to contrast the two models in this paper, partly because it's worth doing anyway and partly because it might be one way to reveal some differences between genuine two-way schooling and pseudo two-way schooling. Of course this is just one white person's view, and involves extrapolations from the types of things that actually are happening in, say, a half dozen schools, to what may happen as a result of a wider shift to Aboriginal control of school philosophy and curriculum.

This paper is written with the intention of educating those Teachers who may at some stage of their career come into contact with Aboriginal children and their unique and complex learning style, as Sherwood (1982, p.41) states, “most student teachers, as well as practising teachers have no real preparation for teaching Aboriginal pupils or for teaching about Aboriginal Australians”.

Courseware delivery for the Remote Area Teacher Education Program (RATEP) began in 1991, a year in which the Cairns College of TAFE successfully employed multimedia technology and interactive learning materials at both Aurukun and Hopevale communities.

The Northern Territory Department of Education was given a unique opportunity to implement an Aboriginal Schools Curriculum Materials Project (ASCMP) with funding from the Department of Employment, Education and Training (DEET) and the implementation of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy (NAEP). One package of resources that has resulted from this initiative is known as Getting Going with Genres. A feature of the development of these resources was the involvement of large numbers of Aboriginal people in writing workshops in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.

1993 has been declared the International Year of the World's Indigenous People (IYWIP) by the United Nations. The major objectives of the IYWIP are to increase international co-operation in finding solutions to the problems faced by the world's 300 million indigenous people and to promote and encourage respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms throughout the world.

Issues of finances and resources continue to be critical in determining future directions for Aboriginal Support Programs in higher education. Full accountability for expenditure of public funds has been the ‘hidden agenda’ behind the rhetoric of ‘self management’ and ‘self-sufficiency’ of both the labour and coalition parties in regard to Aboriginal affairs (Sharing the Country). Yet, it is becoming increasingly evident that these political terms have economic links with ‘amalgamation’ and ‘program rationalization’; that is, they are packaged in ‘micro economic reform’.

The Ntyarlke Unit is a special program unit of the Catholic High School (CHS) offering education to Aboriginal youth from the town camps of Mparntwe (Alice Springs). These students are mostly Arrernte speakers and descendants of the traditional owners of the McDonnell Range country of Central Australia.

Many children come to school with a limited understanding of, and experience with, books and reading. Many do not have a clear idea of what ‘words’ are, nor of ‘letters‘ and ‘sounds’ in words. Some of the Aboriginal children with whom we were working faced these difficulties. In addition, most of them pronounced certain sounds in nonstandard ways.

At Yarrabah primary school, Mr. Flighter was my normal teacher when I was in grade seven. He taught us every morning and then we went to different classes.

Indulkana Anangu school, on the Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara Lands S.A. has about 70 students. The classes are CPC (pre-school), Reception, Junior Primary, Middle Primary, Upper Primary and Secondary girls and boys. At a staff meeting early this year, I proposed a focus on reading, across the school, for one term, with a review at the end. This idea was accepted by the staff.

Much has been written regarding Aboriginal culture and the difficulties ‘Whites’ have faced trying to introduce ‘Western education systems, (and the difficulties Aborigines have had dealing with Whites). One facet that seems to have gained little attention is that of the White staff themselves as individuals and the influence that they have in either a successful or failing educational institution. This is quite separate from the issue of whether or not the person has good teaching or administration skills. There are other issues which are often far more relevant in their daily life. Ideally, communities should not have to rely upon White staff, but presently and for the foreseeable future, it is a necessity.