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- Cultural Survival Institute Case studies and reference advocating for Home lands and Indigenous languages in the Northern Territory
- Our Generation A Documentory exploring social and cultural injustice in Aboriginal communities, through the mouths of men & women from North East Arnhem Land, Australia.
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Recent Articles
Aboriginal Communities Archive
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Economics of Remote Communities Part 4: Supporting Indigenous Motivation
Posted on January 17, 2012 | No CommentsIn Part 3 of this series on the economics of remote communities, we discussed how personal motivation must be harnessed to challenge welfare dependency and drive locally controlled economic growth. But how is such motivation harnessed and supported? 2. Supporting motivation Passion and motivation die... -
Dhurili Nation Challenges Mining Lease Agreement in Court
Posted on June 7, 2011 | 3 CommentsDhurili Nation considers court action as Prime Minister celebrates historic agreement in Gove Peninsula, NT. The Dhurili Nation, comprising the Datiwuy, Golumala, Marrakulu and Marrangu clans have previously confirmed to the Northern Land Council and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs that they are lawful traditional... -
Culture Shock 101
Posted on January 5, 2010 | 6 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. -
An example of disempowerment- Why dont you talk to us first?
Posted on December 21, 2008 | 1 CommentThe Elder speaking was quite irate about decisions that had been made by Goverment and organisations that had not been discussed with local leaders. "Why don't you Balanda explain to us what are your plans?... You don't talk to us... You just change things." ... -
Four hours in English – The NT Government’s Indigenous ed. plan built on misinformation.
Posted on October 17, 2008 | 6 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... -
Closing the Gap Part 1 – Symptoms & Causes
Posted on August 5, 2008 | No CommentsThe Federal Government has embarked on a process they call "Closing the Gap". It recognises that there is a gap between the outcome for Indigenous people and rest of Australia in key social indicators. Indigenous people and their communities face poor health outcome, poor job prospects and poor educational outcome compared to the rest of Australia. As Australians attempt so help to rectify such social problem we must distinguish the symptoms from causes, and ultimately find a way to treat the cause/s. Let me illustrate the difference between a symptom and cause using a parable. -
English only Education Part 2 – Transfering meaning
Posted on May 16, 2008 | 1 CommentFor an Indigenous person on a community where English a second or even sixth language all their peers will difficulties in understanding and learning certain English words. When a person in such a community does hear a new English word they can not easily learn the meaning. Because their parents and peers do not use it, do not know it or they may use a local assumed meaning, which can be very wrong. -
A Foreign Australia – Working in Aborignal Communities
Posted on March 25, 2008 | No CommentsIf you are working with, for, or planning to enter an Aboriginal community in Australia the first thing you must do is begin to think like you are about to enter an overseas country. Of course physically these Aboriginal communities are in Australia, but the...