Australian Indigenous Education

If you were hoping to wake up to an all ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi’ Australia Day this morning, then whatever you do, don’t log onto the world’s largest website.

In a stunning departure from convention, today’s ‘Google Doodle’ – the picture that adorns the Google logo, and changes based on the significance of the day – has delivered what surely must be the most overtly political statement in world Google history.

Over to Google for the explanation: “Doodle 4 Google 2015 was won by Ineka Voigt from Canberra High School in ACT, for her entry ‘Stolen Dreamtime’,” explains the corporate giant.

Invasion Day is sometimes referred to as Survival Day and is held on what most Australians refer to as Australia Day, the 26th of January each year. The day commemorates the original invasion of the continent by the English colonisers, and the continued oppression of Aboriginal people since that time.

Every community around Australia is different, and in some communities there is no official recognition of this day with an official event. In Brisbane, however, the community holds an official march and oftentimes a concert.

The scientific world is stunned by research which backs an Aboriginal legend about how palm trees got to Central Australia.

 

Several years ago Tasmanian ecologist David Bowman did DNA tests on palm seeds from the outback and near Darwin.

 

The results led him to conclude the seeds were carried to the Central Desert by humans up to 30,000 years ago.

Picture this: every time Malcolm Turnbull addresses the nation, he acknowledges the Aboriginal country he was born on. @IndigenousX host Charlie Jia imagines a new kind of united Australian identity

The colours and shapes of the endangered Carnaby cockatoo are the inspiration behind a new Edith Cowan University building.

Archaeological survey by state’s Department of Aboriginal Affairs identified no Aboriginal material at Bibra lake north site in Perth, despite 1970s study that uncovered more than 2,000 artefacts

Progress has been made in smoking and Indigenous birthweights, but not in reading rates and employment.

Curriculum set to be finalised in October and be available as an online resource to primary and high schools

About 10 languages will be painstakingly recorded as part of a major Australian research project but many more are on the brink of extinction, warns academic

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day (Children’s Day), and the week leading up to it, is a time to for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families to celebrate the strengths and culture of their children. The day is an opportunity for all Australians to show their support for Aboriginal children, as well as learn about the crucial impact that community, culture and family play in the life of every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child.

Children’s Day is held on 4 August each year and is coordinated by SNAICC. Children’s Day was first observed in 1988, with 2015 being the 28th celebration. Each year SNAICC produces and distributes resources to help organisations, services, schools, and communities celebrate at the local level.

 

A record number of Indigenous PhD students have graduated from the University of New South Wales.

 

Four Indigenous students are graduating from UNSW with PhDs, with three receiving their doctorates during ceremonies on the Kensington campus this month. It’s the most doctorates awarded to Indigenous students in one year.

If there is ever a day that I don’t feel Australian, it would be on Australia Day.

My mother is a fifth-generation Australian of English and Irish heritage and my father is Munanjahli and an Australian-born South Sea Islander.

Their marriage in 1968 for their families was the first time that “lives of black and white entwined”, in the words of Noonuccal poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal. Their union blended two very different histories, cultures and experiences of citizenship in this country, which was apparent throughout my childhood and into adulthood.

On 26 January, one of the saddest days in human history will be celebrated in Australia. It will be “a day for families”, say the newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch. Flags will be dispensed at street corners and displayed on funny hats. People will say incessantly how proud they are.

For many, there is relief and gratitude. In my lifetime, non-indigenous Australia has changed from an Anglo-Irish society to one of the most ethnically diverse on earth. Those we used to call “New Australians” often choose 26 January, “Australia Day”, to be sworn in as citizens. The ceremonies can be touching. Watch the faces from the Middle East and understand why they clench their new flag.

Aboriginal languages will become a new HSC subject from 2016, a decade after the indigenous languages policy was introduced.

Students and employers want cultural competency – something university leaders are failing to recognise, the acting vice-chancellor of the University of Sydney has said.

Cultural competence is the set of behaviours, attitudes and policies that allows professionals to work together in cross-cultural situations. As today’s workplace is multicultural, USYD’s professor Shane Houston told Campus Review, universities must equip students with knowledge of interacting with other cultures so they can get jobs.

Bill Shorten has said he wants to reduce the number of uni students dropping out. Here's one way to do it.

Digs reveal nineteenth century 'computers' to upskill white prisonersSkills training represented efforts to reintegrate prisoners into colony lifeLacking of skills opportunities on Rottnest Island represented social control efforts 

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.

A special exhibition of the regions Aboriginal history will be on display in Katanning from September showcasing art from children of the ‘Stolen Generation.’

Inquiry for Indigenous Science Students (I2S2) uses hands-on inquiry-based projects in an Indigenous context to increase student engagement and achievement in science.

Around 500 Aboriginal children were taken to the Roelands Mission from the 1940s to the 1970s. Now some of those people are transforming the mission into a place of education and healing.