Lives Of Aboriginal People Research Articles

Tele-otology for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People Living in Rural and Remote Areas.

To evaluate a referral-based, tele-otology service in rural and remote areas of the Northern Territory, Australia. A retrospective observational cohort study was performed of a tele-otology service in 93 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities (2011 to 2019). Assessments included face-to-face examinations performed by Clinical Nurse Consultants and audiologists, and asynchronous reviews performed by otolaryngologists. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to determine the likelihood of ear disease, adjusted for age and gender. Intra- and inter-rater agreement was assessed between otolaryngologists. A total of 3,950 patients were reviewed (6,838 encounters, 13,726 ear assessments). The median age of patients was 9.8 years (interquartile range: 7.2 years). Overall, 62.2% of patients were identified with ear disease and 62.5% identified with hearing loss. Substantial intra- and inter-rater agreement in diagnosis was found between otolaryngologists (κ = 0.71 and κ = 0.78, respectively). The most common ear conditions identified were chronic otitis media (COM, 28.1%) and otitis media with effusion (OME, 16.5%). Topical or oral antibiotics were initiated in 14.1% of all encounters, most often for acute otitis media or COM. Surgery was recommended in 27.7% of all encounters, most often myringoplasty, adenoidectomy, and myringotomy with insertion of tympanostomy tubes. Tele-otology is a critical component of an integrated approach to evaluating ear disease in Indigenous people living in rural and remote areas. The high prevalence of OME, COM, and surgical recommendations highlights the need for community engagement, regular follow-up, and early interventions to prevent long-term hearing loss. NA Laryngoscope, 134:5096-5102, 2024.

Counting the Ways That Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Older People Participate in Their Communities and Culture.

This study aimed to determine the proportion of older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples participating in cultural events and activities and determine the demographic and sociocultural characteristics associated with participation. The Australian Bureau of Statistics National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (2014-2015) was used to measure the prevalence of participation in cultural events and activities. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to measure associations. Sociocultural factors were selected by matching survey items to the 12 sociocultural factors described in the Good Spirit Good Life Framework, a culturally validated quality-of-life tool for older people. The majority (62.0%) of survey respondents 45 years and older participated in cultural events (e.g., ceremonies, funerals/sorry business, NAIDOC week activities, sports carnivals, festivals/carnivals) or were involved in organizations. Many (58.5%) also participated in activities (e.g., fishing, hunting, gathering wild plants/berries, arts/crafts, music/dance/theater, writing/telling of stories). In regression models including demographic and cultural variables, participation in cultural events was highest among people living remotely (odds ratio [OR] = 2.71), reporting recognition of homelands (OR = 2.39), identifying with a cultural group (OR = 3.56), and those reporting having a say in their communities (OR = 1.57), with similar odds seen for participation in activities. Participation was inversely proportional to increasing age, with a greater proportion of females participating in events and males in activities. The social lives of older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were characterized by widespread participation in cultural events and activities. These findings provide important insights into services as they support older people to live a good life.

Ecological Literacy and Local Wisdom of Australian Aboriginal People in Welcome to My Country Written by Laklak Burarrwanga and Family

The life of Aboriginal people in Australia has been depending on nature since thousands of years ago. The sources of their food are entirely of natural origin. Although they live in a nomadic way, they still maintain and protect the nature around them in order not to damage and become extinct. This research aims to explore ecological literacy (eco-literacy) and local wisdom of Aboriginal people to maintain a mutual symbiosis between man and nature, reflected in a non-fiction book entitled Welcome to My Country written by Laklak Burarrwanga and Family. This is descriptive qualitative research using the ecocriticism approach. The result shows that Australian Aboriginal people have much knowledge of eco-literacy that they apply in everyday life to maintain the sustainability of the ecosystem. Besides, they also have local wisdom they believe will bring good things in their life in terms of protecting their natural environment.

Indigenous-led precision public health: a new starting point.

Precision public healthcare has been applied to bring about positive change, narrowing the gap in healthcare inequity for Aboriginal peoples. Three such examples include the Mappa, Lyfe Languages, and Pilbra Faces projects, which were all developed through engagement and codesign with Indigenous Australians and each meet a distinct critical need. The Mappa project offers patients and healthcare providers with the necessary geographical information to navigate and maximally utilize available healthcare services. Lyfe Languages is a community driven translational tool that empowers indigenous languages in healthcare. The Pilbara Faces project aims to create a database of clinical measurements enabling better disease diagnosis and monitoring. These three projects have been integrated into a multi-faceted precision public health program, the Healthy Pilbara Project Initiative, acting synergistically to improve the lives of Aboriginal peoples living in Western Australia.

Exploring action research as a method of creating evidence that is informed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of being, doing and knowing

Over the past two decades there has been growing acknowledgement of the need to decolonise approaches to evaluation policy, programs and services impacting on the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Action research methodologies have been identified as the most appropriate approach ( Evans et al., 2014 ). This article outlines how a community controlled peak body is utilising an action research approach guided by First Nations wisdom and knowledge to drive evaluation. Examination of two action research projects undertaken by Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak (QATSICPP) demonstrate how action research embodies the principles of self-determination and Indigenous Data Sovereignty in evaluative processes. The article also highlights how evaluative evidence informs new approaches to address the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in child protection. Project reflections suggest participants found the action research approach inclusive, participatory, and effective in assisting them to address critical practice and systemic issues. The importance of ensuring evaluative methodologies are meaningful for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was also highlighted.

Exemptions from Compulsory Income Management: A Short “History of the Present”

The historical study of exemptions has focused on escape from protectionist policies designed to control and monitor Aboriginal people in Australia — restricting their freedom of movement, intruding into their family life, and reducing their ability to participate on equal terms in the labour force. In this paper, we consider a contemporary policy — income management — which primarily restricts the freedom to dispose of personal income and has targeted Aboriginal people and communities, both directly and indirectly. Provisions for individual exemptions have been incorporated inconsistently within the many iterations of income management, and Aboriginal people are significantly less likely than others to be granted an exit from this form of financial control. The study reported here is an example of mixed‐methods social research, rather than an historiography. We use techniques of historical comparison to illuminate contemporary practices and identify the ongoing influence of settler‐colonial governance in the lives of Aboriginal people.

The effects of Aboriginal tertiary students' perceived experiences of racism and of cultural resilience on educational engagement

Racism pervasively impacts the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and is a substantial barrier to accessing, engaging and succeeding within secondary education. Cultural resilience and support have been identified as critical to Aboriginal success within racist institutions. However, research examining experiences of racism and cultural resilience among Aboriginal tertiary students is limited. This study explored the relationship between racism, cultural resilience, and educational engagement and academic outcomes in a sample of these students (N = 63). We proposed that higher perceived racism would be associated with lower engagement and academic outcomes. The study also developed a new measure of Aboriginal tertiary students’ experience of racism during their studies, which demonstrated good reliability and validity. Experiencing racism was associated with perceiving a less supportive learning environment, and with lower learning outcomes, developmental outcomes and overall student satisfaction.

Trauma-informed sentencing in South Australian courts

Recently the concepts of ‘compassionate courts’, ‘humane justice’, ‘kindness in court’, and trauma-informed practice have emerged in legal theory and practice in the US, England, Scotland and Australia. This article uses a trauma-informed practice framework to examine how South Australian superior court judges acknowledge defendant trauma in sentencing. Trauma-informed sentencing practice requires that judges realise the presence of trauma, recognise its relevance, respond in a way that is informed by trauma and act to resist re-traumatisation. By using this ‘4Rs’ framework to analyse sentencing remarks of 448 defendants published in 2019, the presence of trauma-informed practice was explored. Analysis indicated that judges realised trauma was present in the lives of many defendants, particularly women and Aboriginal peoples, but did not always overtly recognise a link between trauma and criminal behaviour and were unlikely to refer to a defendant’s trauma history or use trauma-informed principles of practice in their sentencing response. Research findings were presented to judicial officers at a Judicial Development Day in 2021. The article reflects on those discussions as well as the primary research, when making recommendations for future sentencing practice primary for the judiciary, but also for legislators and legal practitioners.

Regeneration time: ancient wisdom for planetary wellbeing

AbstractIn these regenerative times prompted by the Anthropocene, Aboriginal voices are situated to draw on ancient wisdom for local learning and to share information across the globe as ecological imperative for planetary wellbeing. In this paper, postqualitative research foregrounds the sentient nature of life as ancestral power and brings the vitality of co-becoming as our places into active engagement. It enables coloniality to surface and reveals how it sits in our places and lives, in plain sight but unnoticed because of its so-called common sense. Postqualitative research relates with ancient knowledges in foregrounding Country’s animacy and presence, revealing the essence of time as non-linear, cyclical and perpetual. In this way, we are places, weather and climate, not separate. Postqualitative research also relates with ancient knowledge in illustrating Country as agentic and time as multiple, free of constraint and directly involved in our everyday. Country is active witness in the lives of Aboriginal peoples, here always. This is a strong basis for decolonisation. We all have a responsibility to listen, to help create a new direction for the future in the present time.

Applying an authentic partnership approach to facilitate optimal health of Aboriginal children.

The aim of this development paper is to inform the ongoing implementation of the partnership approach with Aboriginal families in Australia. As almost all Community Health Nurses employed by the Health Department of Western Australia, Country Health Service are non-Aboriginal, there are a number of factors that may, potentially, limit their capacity to work effectively with the primary caregivers of Aboriginal children.Historically, much that has been written about the health and development of Aboriginal people in Australia has been negative and derogatory with wide criticism for their non-participation with health services and healthy lifestyle activities. Not only has this "deficit discourse" approach proved to be unhelpful in terms of improving the health and well-being of Aboriginal people but also there is mounting evidence that it has been detrimental to mental and physical health and capacity to achieve autonomy in all aspects of life.In response to the voices of Aboriginal people, the partnership approach to care has been promoted for use by Community Health Nurses in Western Australia. However, the implementation of the approach is not always genuinely strength based, and it does not always focus on mutual goal setting within authentic partnership relationships. The partnership approach has the potential to improve the lives of Aboriginal people if it is implemented with appropriate cultural sensitivity, shared responsibility, dignity and respect.

Quality of Life in the First Year of Cancer Diagnosis among Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal People Living in Regional and Remote Areas of Australia.

Little is known of the quality of life (QoL) of cancer patients in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia, where healthcare delivery is geographically challenged. This exploratory study describes QoL among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cancer patients in the NT, in the first year of diagnosis. Participants were recruited from the only cancer care centre in the NT and completed the Assessment of Quality-of-Life questionnaire (AQoL-4D). The results were descriptively analysed. The participants’ (n = 63; mean age 58.8 years) mean AQoL utility score was 0.72 (SD 0.26); patients scored lowest in the relationships and mental health dimensions of the questionnaire (mean 0.89, SD 0.19, and 0.89, SD 0.17, respectively). Participants living in remote and very remote areas (46%) reported higher QoL scores, compared with participants in the outer regional capital city of the NT in the overall (mean 0.76, SD 0.22 and 0.78, SD 0.20 vs. 0.67, SD 0.29, respectively), and mental health dimensions (mean 0.92, SD 0.09 and mean 0.94, SD 0.06 vs. 0.85, SD 0.22, respectively). The findings were suggestive of clinically meaningful differences across socioeconomic groups, cancer and treatment types, and comorbidity status. Mean QoL scores were consistent with previous reports in other Australian cancer cohorts. The findings suggest a need to support cancer patients’ mental health and relationships during the diagnosis and treatment phase of their cancer journey.

Dynamics of the policy environment and trauma in relations between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the settler-colonial state

This integrative review seeks to employ insights from critical social psychology and Indigenous nation building governance research to advance an explanation for why Australian state policy continually fails to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and reproduces trauma. The review suggests that settler-colonial law and policy embed a history of oppressive relations that suppress Indigenous voice, culture, and identity, inexorably leading to intergenerational traumatic social and wellbeing outcomes for Indigenous peoples. Given settler-colonial policy’s ongoing role in continuing the subordination of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander law/lore, the ongoing policy failure to redress Indigenous inequality and improve their wellbeing is unsurprising. Nevertheless, our analysis contributes to understanding how just and viable relations between Australian Indigenous peoples and the settler-colonial state are possible through collaborative politics. Allowing space for agreement and disagreement in their worldviews, collaborative negotiations offer a way forward to redress policy failures and traumatic outcomes that are currently entrenched.

Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book (2013) as ‘crisis fiction’

ABSTRACT Alexis Wright’s novel The Swan Book (2013) has been read as contesting imperialist histories in its use of ironic magical realism: asengaging with debates in Australian indigenous communities about sovereignty; and, as world-making in its portrayal of conflicting and overlapping material forces and temporalities. Previous readings have examined the text’s dramatisation of biopolitical interventions into the lives of Aboriginal people, and the novel’s near-simultaneous evocation of different time periods. To date, scholarship on The Swan Book has not fully conceptualised its assault on western narrative forms. The following paper focuses on the novel’s contestation of crisis and catastrophe as metonyms for colonial and western ways of being and knowledge, and its narratival focus on what could be termed ‘survivance’, a term used (after Derrida) by Native American fiction writer and scholar Gerald Vizenor, to whose novel Bearheart: The Heirship Chronicles (1990), Wright’s book makes intertextual references. The following paper contends that Wright’s novel offers radical structures of feeling that counter western notions of narrative,history, time and the individual. These are manifest in the text’s inclusion of nested narratives, its critique of western notions of history, its de-hierarchisation of time, and in its disputation of the centrality of the individual.

Recognizing the life of Aborigin Australia before the Europeans arrival

This article seeks to provide understanding or information related to the life of Aboriginal people in Australia before the arrival of Europeans, known as pre-colonialism. As it is known, the continent of Australia was once occupied by Britain, which was originally a place for the laying of prisoners because at that time the prisons in England were full. Aboriginal is the name for the indigenous people who inhabited Australia for the first time. Aboriginal is the name of a tribe that was given by accident by the Europeans who saw it for the first time in Australia and this name applies to the designation of indigenous Australians to this day. The name of the Aboriginal tribe is a gift from Europeans who visited Australia and were surprised to see that the continent was inhabited. The term “Abo” means an astonishment of European society, and “origin” means authentic. The origin of the Aboriginal people is believed to have come from Asia who later occupied Australia for 45,000-50,000 years. The description of Aboriginal people is almost the same as the physical characteristics of the Papuans, the Toala people in Sulawesi, the Sakai people in Malaysia, the Veddas people in Sri Lanka, and the indigenous tribes of South India (Siboro, 1989). Aboriginal life before the arrival of Europe was rough and still very primitive. The way of life that is one with nature as well as various Aboriginal traditions and cultures is very interesting because it takes full advantage of the existing natural systems. For this reason, the study of Aboriginal people is very interesting.

SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTACTS OF FOREIGN TRAVELERS IN THE TOBOLSK NORTH IN THE XIX - THE BEGINNING OF THE XX CENTURIES

The publication considers the features of socio-cultural contacts, mainly in the north of Western Siberia. The participants of them were foreign travelers and the local Russian and native population. Travelling in traditional culture and in later times was considered a way out of the ordinary. Memoirs created by educated travelers indicate the existence of sustainable cultural stereotypes. Peoples of the outskirts and especially the indigenous population were perceived as a passive object outside of civilization. The negative impact of the “cultural peoples” leads them to the edge of death. The only way to salvation is assimilation and acceptance of European values. Many travelers such as M. Castrén, A. Ahlquist, O. Finsch, S. Sommier, U. Sirelius, K. Karjalainen, S. Patursson agreed with this position. Their memoirs distort not so much the facts as the picture of the life of aboriginal people. Subjective silence and not quite correct estimates indicate that the archaic or its components were preserved not only in the worldview of the aborigines, but also among a number of highly educated individuals.

Archaeology of the recent: Wooden artefacts from Anbangbang 1 and Djuwarr 1, western Arnhem Land

In 1985, Annie Clarke analysed botanical materials from Anbangbang 1 and Djuwarr 1, Kakadu National Park, western Arnhem Land. The 49 wooden artefacts from Anbangbang 1 and 20 wooden artefacts from the Djuwarr 1 site in Deaf Adder Gorge are now in the collections of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT). This research involves a re-examination of these artefacts in terms of their morphological and functional attributes. They are interpreted within the context of ethnographic observations and information from Arnhem Land archaeological sites of a comparable age, particularly those combining archaeology with rock art research. The study shows convergence between the archaeology, rock art and ethnography, indicating the importance of spears in the life of Aboriginal people, in this case reed spears and spears with barbed heads. The study also documents variability as regards seasonality of site use and hunting patterns in response to environmental changes around 1,500 BP.

"Jasper Jones" as a Window into Australia’s Aboriginal history

Jasper Jones (2017) is an Australian film adaptation of Craig Silvey’s 2009 novel of the same name. The film is directed by Arrernte woman Rachel Perkins, who founded Blackfella Films in 1992 and has since been heading the initiative to include more Indigenous representation on screen. With an Aboriginal character, Jasper Jones, at the forefront of the story, the film presents a window into the lives of Aboriginal people living in 1960’s white Australia.

The Well-Being of Carers of Older Aboriginal People Living in the Kimberley Region of Remote Western Australia: Empowerment, Depression, and Carer Burden.

Objective: To describe demographic features and well-being of carers of Aboriginal Australians aged ≥45 years in remote Western Australia. Method: Carer burden, empowerment, and depression were assessed in 124 Aboriginal carers in four remote Aboriginal communities. Results: Carers were aged 38.8 ± 15.0 years, 73.4% were female, and 75.8% were children or grandchildren of the person cared for. The mean Zarit-6 score was 3.7 ± 3.6. Attending high school (odds ratio [OR] = 0.3; 95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.1, 0.7]) and feeling empowered (OR = 0.2; 95% CI = [0.1, 0.8]) were inversely associated with carer burden; female carers were less likely to feel empowered (OR = 0.4; 95% CI = [0.2, 0.9]); and empowerment was inversely associated with depression (OR = 0.3; 95% CI = [0.1, 0.7]). Discussion: Aboriginal carers in remote communities are relatively young and most are children or grandchildren. Carer burden was lower than anticipated. However, existing tools may not adequately measure Aboriginal perspectives. Education and empowerment are key factors which support programs must consider.

Racial penal governance in Australia and moments of appearance: disrupting disappearance and visibilizing women on the inside

ABSTRACT The paper considers the lives of women that are invisibilized by the racial penal governing mechanisms of the settler state. It demonstrates how a racial penal governance is configured historically by its interlockings with multiple and hierarchical systems of oppression that intervene differently in the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and women, convict women, racialized diaspora and marginalized white women. The paper engages with four ‘moments of appearances’ that interrupt and speak back to racial penal governance. Mirzoeff’s The appearance of Black Lives Matter (2017, https://namepublications.org/item/2017/the-appearance-of-black-lives-matter/) theorization of decolonial spaces of appearance is integrated to the analysis of historical and recent moments of appearance visibilized in the testimonials of Thomas Brune, the Aboriginal youth Co-editor of the Flinders Island Chronicle in 1837 in the Wybalenna prison Camp and of Zoe, Alison and Pamela who have lived experience of prisons. These are embodied moments that make lives in prisons appear and matter.

Teaching cultural humility for social workers serving LGBTQI Aboriginal communities in Australia

ABSTRACTIt is well documented that colonization and subsequent repressive policies have wrought devastating changes in the lives of Aboriginal people in Australia. Social workers are an essential group for improving social justice and self-determination for Australian Aboriginal people. The Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) acknowledges that Aboriginal people make a unique contribution to the life of the nation and mandates that social work educational programs provide culturally responsive content that acknowledges the value and contributions of Aboriginal people. Social work educators need to embed this content without reinforcing stereotypes or being tokenistic. This is a challenge when teaching about intersecting identities, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI) Aboriginal people. We outline the terms used in this space and propose that cultural humility is an acceptable framework to consider. We introduce key conceptual terms used in LGBTQI Aboriginal communities. Finally, we provide recommendations for engaging with LGBTQI Aboriginal peoples.