Coming Events
Cross-cultural Skills & Awareness
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Our hidden biases. Test your unconscious racial associations.
18 May 2011 10:45 PM | 1 Comment
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Predatory systems maintaining Indigenous disadvantage: Some examples
01 July 2010 6:21 PM | 5 CommentsAs was discussed in the previous article, one of the limit conditions that create Indigenous "poverty" is that people must engage in strange cultural spaces, controlled by the Dominant Culture. But what are the systems that maintain peoples lack of control in these spaces. I put forward a range of possibilities, some more controversial than others.
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Community Development skills Archive
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Understanding Indigenous “Poverty”- Making it History
Posted on January 26, 2010 | 7 CommentsIn recent times the word "poverty" has been used broadly to refer to the situation in many remote Indigenous Communities in Australia. But for most people poverty conjures images of the poor from 3rd world slums. The Indigenous peoples of Australia face very different situations. I think it is worth stepping back and considering what Indigenous "poverty" has in common with the situation of the worlds poor. What can this tell us about how so called "Indigenous poverty" can be overcome. -
Culture Shock 101
Posted on January 5, 2010 | 7 CommentsHaving moved to a remote Indigenous community about 4 months ago, my wife and I have recently started to go through the struggles of culture shock. In this article I take you through some of the causes, the symptoms and how to manage Culture Shock. The essential basics of surviving what can be the most difficult part of working in an remote Aborignal or Torres Strait Islander community in the first year. -
When Indigenous Advocacy Does Damage
Posted on November 23, 2009 | No Comments"The poverty experienced by many Aboriginal people is as morally reprehensible as torture and must be eradicated", Amnesty International secretary-general Irene Khan says. Strong words, but is such 'advocacy' helpful. I argue that moralistic bites such as this are in fact dangerous. While advocates feel that such statements point out government failures, they can actually be harmful to the people they are meant to protect. I consider why this is... -
Recruiting, Training and Supporting Dominant Culture Personnel for Indigenous Communities
Posted on September 5, 2009 | 8 CommentsThe following is a Presentation I made to a ‘Roundtable’ discussion with TEAR Australia, in August 2009, discussing the needs and possibilities for supporting government and non-government personnel working in Aboriginal communities across Australia to improve community development outcomes for Indigenous people. What I am... -
The Blame Game.
Posted on June 16, 2009 | No CommentsIt is the easiest thing to lay blame. It is also very easy to assume that you are being blamed by someone else. Recently, I have become more aware of the way groups all working to help Indigenous people fight against each other, laying blame or putting up walls. The clash of cultures that occurs within and among organisations working with Indigenous can result in what I call the 'blame game'. A dynamic that people brings added stress and disfunction to the whole system. The blame game is notable both between dominant culture workers and Indigneous people, as well as between different Indigneous groups. -
A project in responsive development
Posted on February 23, 2009 | No CommentsWe are initiating a new project in developing human enterprise in NE Arnhem Land. This unique project has an entirely holistic approach, focusng on the facilitation of, well, everything - everything the people have a passion to achieve. By providing the resources to remove obstacles and enabling real, effective and people driven change, and by supporting the people in developing their own ideas and fulfilling their desires we will provide opportunity for change in remote Indigenous communities. -
How do Indigenous Languages help Learning outcomes?
Posted on December 8, 2008 | No CommentsTo some we may be beginning to sound like a broken record, always talking about the importance of using Indigneous languages. But the reason I continue to talk about this is because many Australia personnel and agencies have so much trouble really absorbing the importance of starting with local languages. So lets say it as simply as possible. If a hearer does not understand well the language being used then ZERO meaning or information may be being conveyed. How can this be? Let's break it down... -
Four hours in English – An Indigenous bilingual teacher’s experience.
Posted on November 28, 2008 | No CommentsA growing group called ‘Friends of Bilingual Learning’ (FOBL) sprang up a few months ago and its members are actively involved in the debate over Marion Scrymgour’s decision to relegate the use of local Indigenous languages to only 1hour a day at all bilingual schools. ... -
Four hours in English – The NT Government’s Indigenous ed. plan built on misinformation.
Posted on October 17, 2008 | 7 CommentsThe NT Minister for education argues that Indigenous languages have no place in teaching literacy and numeracy in remote indigenous schools and has announced that the first 4 hour of every school day must be in English. Support for the Government's position seems to be based on a few misunderstanding about way learning actually operates on remote indigenous communities. Let's briefly explore the reality in the bilingual community schools this will effect. -
Punishing Parents – forcing attendence using welfare
Posted on August 30, 2008 | No CommentsThe latest issue before us is a policy presented by Kevin Rudd and Jenny Macklin to suspend the welfare payments of parents whose children do not attend school. Even if this policy is implemented nationally it hugely discriminates against Indigenous parents, because many Indigenous people in Australia live in situation that are wholly different to other Australian. Yet indigenous parents in North East Arnhem have adopted a wide range of strategies to try to improve their children's prospects. We look at some examples...