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A Noongar historian is leading a team to record the Noongar language online in a Wikipedia format where words and phrases can be added over time. Professor Len Collard from the University of Western Australia has teamed with Curtin University to record the language. While around 40,000 First Nations people identify as Noongar, there are less than 250 fluent speakers of the language. Professor Collard believes the new tool will preserve and revitalise the Noongar language.
In recent days, the Productivity Commission released its evaluation of the demand-driven funding system for universities. From around 2009, until the funding model was suspended in 2017, universities were free to enrol unlimited numbers of students in most undergraduate courses. The Commissioned described the policy as a “mixed report card”. It argued the demand-driven system led to increased participation from students from low socio-economic backgrounds, but that it didn’t improve access for regional or Indigenous Australians. In reality though, Indigenous student enrolments rose dramatically under the demand-driven system.
Regional and remote Indigenous students will be provided access to laptops to support their studies as part of a new Curtin University program launched this month.
This article is an extract from an essay Owning the science: the power of partnerships in First Things First, the 60th edition of Griffith Review. We’re publishing it as part of our occasional series Zoom Out, where authors explore key ideas in science and technology in the broader context of society and humanity. Scientific and Indigenous knowledge systems have often been in conflict. In my view, too much is made of these conflicts; they have a lot in common.
Indigenous Australian claims to be the most ancient continuous civilisation on Earth have been backed up by the first extensive testing of their DNA. Their origins date back more than 50,000 years to the Old Stone Age, according to the research. Scientists took DNA samples of modern populations in Australia to find the genetic traces of the ancient civilisation and reconstruct their journey out of Africa 72,000 years ago.
In our research and training we have found so much success in teaching the why to how Aboriginal people and British Australian people do the same things differently. We have had much success in teaching Ancient Australia as the first step to knowing Aboriginal people, where their process and communication needs come from and also to deepen the identity of all Australians to this amazing country. As one wise Torres Strait Islander Elder once said after one of our information sessions - "No-one will ever understand why we grieve today, if they don't know what we have lost".
Australia Day this year was marked by thousands of people marching against holding our national celebration on 26th January. It is a day that represents the start of invasion, pain and dispossession for First Nations peoples. The pain was compounded this year by the refusal of the Australian Government to embrace the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’ and its call for the establishment of a ‘First Nations Voice’ in the Australian Constitution. So I believe it is important to share the stories of great creative work that celebrates partnerships with First Nations peoples. First Nation knowledge and creativity could be playing a vital role in helping educate our children and can help us achieve the productive futures we want, where innovation and creativity are basic to growing our national economy.
Australia is missing its target to halve the unemployment gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia by several decades, according to the latest Closing the Gap report. The report also highlights many other problems with current Closing the Gap targets. For instance, the unemployment target misses other aspects of economic life, such as income. The targets need to be rethought so that they address economic well-being and more closely guide strategy and policies on the ground.
The tenth Closing the Gap report to be tabled in Parliament today is expected to show progress in the two health targets – to close the gap in life expectancy by 2031 and halve the child mortality (death) gap by 2018. But only the latter is on track.
The Indigenous death rate has dropped by 15% (from 1998-2015), but we’re not on track to meet the deadline. Chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer are responsible for the majority of this gap.
While death rates from heart and kidney disease have dropped among Indigenous people, death rates from cancer are on the rise, and the gap here is widening.
The Turnbull Government has responded swiftly and justly to the final report into the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses To Child Sexual Abuse. And then there’s the response to the Bringing Them Home report, and the stolen wages scandal across two decades, and successive governments. The double standard is there in black and white, for anyone who cares to look. Chris Graham reports.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are staying in school longer but Australia’s Indigenous retention rate remains well below that of other students. On Friday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released new school statistics showing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander retention rate has increased by about 15% over the past decade.
To educators, they’re among our brightest prospects for tackling the scientific challenges facing the nation in the decades to come. They’re all high achievers at schools across the country. As Indigenous Australians, they come from a culture that has been using “science and technology and engineering to solve problems for thousands of years”. But, according to coordinator Scott Philip, it’s also because these teenagers are “emotionally and socially brave”. “They’ve nominated and supported themselves to get here, which is a big deal,” he said.
A teacher in Western Australia's South West finds a way to boost the number of Indigenous girls studying maths and science by letting them design and build phone chargers.
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A $30 million federal government literacy program twice-extended across some of the country's most remote schools failed to boost the literacy of Indigenous children.
In 2014, Bruce Pascoe wrote a book called Dark Emu that challenged the belief that the First Australians were hunter-gatherers. In researching his book, Bruce examined the journals of the early explorers and found evidence of a complex civilisation that was using sophisticated technologies to live, farm and manage the land. Researchers continue to discover new evidence of the earliest human occupation of Australia. A recent scientific study in south-west Victoria suggests Aboriginal Australians may have been living on the continent for 120,000 years. In this digibook, we learn about the history of Aboriginal agriculture and technology and celebrate the ingenuity of the First Australians. We walk with Bruce around his farm as he reflects on Aboriginal people’s relationship with plants, animals and technologies. By looking at scientific research, archival footage and the journals of early explorers, we learn about the vast agricultural fields, ingenious aquaculture systems, sophisticated use of fire and successful industries that existed in Australia prior to colonisation. A note for the audience: many primary sources used in this resource have words to describe Indigenous people that many people find offensive but at the time were widely used and, unfortunately, accepted. Words such as "blacks", "Aborigine" and "natives" were commonly used in colonial Australia to describe Indigenous people, but today they are considered outdated and highly offensive by many people. All videos produced by Tim Purdie for ABC Education.
As a former Curtin student, Matthews has unique insight into the Indigenous uni student experience. An Aboriginal man from the Kija (East Kimberley) and Gurindji (Northern Territory) language groups, he graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Indigenous Community Management and Development (ICMD) with Honours in 2009. Matthews now lectures in the ICMD program and is undertaking a Master of Education, investigating how tertiary enabling programs can be enhanced for future generations of Indigenous students. “I’ve kind of gone full circle. I’ve had opportunities at CAS as both student and teacher, and that’s been really interesting because it’s enabled me to experience education from both sides,” says Matthews. “I’ve now been able to step back from teaching so I can focus on my research and start creating new ways for Indigenous higher education.”
This course provides an introduction to Noongar culture and language. Learners will be taken on a journey through Noongar boodja (Noongar country). They'll join Noongar guides as they share knowledge and personal experiences of history, land, and culture. Learners will be introduced to conversational Noongar - learning words and phrases that can be used in simple dialogue. We hope this course enhances cultural understanding and respect for the Noongar people - and Aboriginal Australians, as a whole - more broadly. Wandjoo noonakoort, which means: welcome everyone!
Virtual reality technology is making it far easier to connect with remote Indigenous Australians. Carriberrie, a mesmerising 360-degree, live-action documentary film showing at the Australian Museum in March, illustrates how well immersive technology can transcend cultural boundaries. Viewing this 12-minute film, I am teleported to breathtaking Australian locations, from the heart of the outback to the rainforest, drawn in by the hypnotic rhythm of traditional song and dance. Various scenes take you to remote communities, where people share their connection to the land through corroborree – the Aboriginal dance ceremony. “Dance”, the film’s narrator David Gulpilil says, “is the first language of our people.” Against the backdrop of a pre-dusk sky, I stand among the Anangu women, the traditional owners of Uluru-Kata Tjuta. They stamp their feet into the red dusty earth. In the final scene, I am surrounded by Mayi Wunba dancers. They share their story as if just with me. At times, their gaze breaks the fourth wall. It is hauntingly intimate. I feel as if I am a traveller welcomed like a friend into a local’s home.
Wominjeka. Welcome, stranger. Meet Koorie Heritage Trust guide, Stephen (Rocky) Tregonning and join him on a walking tour around Federation Square in Melbourne. Learn about the five tribal groups of the Kulin Nation, the traditional owners of Melbourne and its surrounds, and the colonisation story of Melbourne. Head down to the Birrarung (Yarra River) with Rocky and hear about the changes that have taken place there over the years. Discover the significance of the public artworks at Birrarung Marr and learn about the traditional hunting and gathering practices of local Aboriginal people. Next, head inside and check out some of the tools, objects and historical documents held by the Koorie Heritage Trust. Do you know what a marngrook is? Have you heard an emu caller being played? Have you ever seen a Certificate of Exemption? Come on this walking tour with Rocky, learn about local Aboriginal history and culture and you’ll be answering ‘yes’ in no time!
This year’s Closing the Gap report tells a more positive story than the 2017 report on the seven measurable gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in the areas of health, education and employment. According to the government’s figures, the targets relating to Year 12 attainment, early childhood education, and child mortality are on track to be closed. In last year’s report, Year 12 attainment was on track, but child mortality wasn’t. Early childhood education is a revised target, and 2018 is the first time trends can be monitored. The previous early childhood target was not met. But the targets related to life expectancy, employment, literacy and numeracy, and school attendance are not on track to being met.
The tenth Closing the Gap report, tabled in parliament by Malcolm Turnbull on Monday, shows only three of the seven targets are on track to be met. The targets for early childhood education and Year 12 attainment are on track, and the target to halve child mortality is back on track. But the remaining targets are not on track – for school attendance, mortality, employment, and reading and numeracy. The government will hail this year’s outcome as the most promising result since 2011. Last year, only one target was being met – on improved Year 12 attainment.
There were angry rumblings at last week’s meeting of Indigenous leaders and the Prime Minister and in the Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee Report. They will get significantly louder with today’s release of the 10th Annual Closing the Gap Report. Blame will mostly fall to successive governments for the few wins and many failures of the past decade. Many will again shake their heads at governments’ seeming inability to work consistently in genuine partnership with First Nations Peoples, in community-owned, systemically-targeted, co-ordinated ways the evidence tells us are most likely to be effective.
Indigenous students can thrive in white systems and maintain their culture – I’ve seen it
As the government continues to talk about Closing the Gap, it is up to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities to instil extra support and create pathways for young Indigenous people.
After working in these spaces, I can tell you it is not always easy. Often it involves entering an environment that has historically denied a place for our young people. It can be heartbreaking, daunting and tiring but as our children continue to succeed in the western education system, we see people continue to grow both on country and in community. Culture, language, lore, community and education remain critical to the growth of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
This year marks the bicentennial of John Oxley’s 1818 reconnaissance mission to the New England tableland in New South Wales, which lay the foundation for 200 years (and counting) of violent and stifling colonialism. The first squatter reached New England in 1832, and an intense period of frontier conflict accompanied invasion and occupation.
Numerous newspaper reports document the “outrages” and “depredations” committed by Aboriginal people on the tableland; shepherds tomahawked and troopers speared, livestock in their thousands appropriated and destroyed, huts burned to the ground, and graziers forced to flee the district. Claiming “there was no force to keep them down”, colonists constantly called for adequate police protection from the “lawless blacks”.
You probably know that much of the world's environment is under threat. But a new study says languages are disappearing alongside plants and animals.
The study, from the World Wildlife Fund, measured the threat to languages using a scale that tracks how threatened species are. Not only are many languages steadily losing speakers, says co-author Jonathan Loh, but "the rate of decline, globally, is actually very close to the rate of decline in populations of wild vertebrate species."
There's the obvious threat of in-demand languages, which many people start speaking more and more as the speakers of smaller languages dwindle. "Thousands of indigenous languages spoken around the world are being replaced by one of a dozen or so dominant world languages like English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese," Loh says.
NAIDOC Week 2018 will celebrate the invaluable contributions that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have made – and continue to make - to our communities, our families, our rich history and to our nation. Under the theme - Because of her, we can! - NAIDOC Week 2018 will be held nationally from Sunday 8 July and continue through to Sunday 15 July. As pillars of our society, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have played – and continue to play - active and significant roles at the community, local, state and national levels.
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