Bibliography : leaves 251-277. / viii, 295 leaves : / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Examines the epidemiology of eye disease in Anangu Pitjantjatjara people of South Australia. The ethical issues of research in Aboriginal communities is discussed with reference to the handling and ownership of data. / Thesis (M.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Community Medicine, 1994

Doctor of Philosophy / Anindilyakwa is the language spoken by over 1,000 Warnindilyakwa Aborigines on Groote Eylandt, Northern Territory. In the Australian language families, it is placed in the Groote Eylandt Family (Oates 1970:15) or the Andilyaugwan Family (Wurm 1972:117). As Yallop (1982:40) reports, Anindilyakwa and Nunggubuyu "are similiar in grammar and possibly share the distinction of being the most gramatically complex Australian languages. They are diverse in basic vocabularly, however, and are therefore allocated to separate families".

Abstract not available

Abstract not available

The purpose of this research is to investigate the significance of a Tiwi community's history in order to better understand the work of Aboriginal Community Police Officers (ACPO).The situation under study is a workplace on Bathurst Island in the Northern Territory. The literature on workplace education offers the proposition that an understanding of the socio-cultural and historical context of workplaces is fundamental to thinking about workplace education.It is hypothesised that ACPOs have a dual consciousness of their profession and their workplace, and this consciousness has been informed and shaped by their common history.It is argued that this history is characterised by syncretism. The process of acculturation is researched, where police officers draw on experiences with, and knowledge of, both Tiwi and murrintawi societies.An historical account of the Tiwi society is given.A literary device of vignettes is used, followed by a descriptive-analytical interpretation in which historical events and various social-cultural aspects are described, analysed and interpreted / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis explores place-based experiences of non-Indigenous persons in Australia. It examines the extent to which it is possible for non-Indigenous persons to enter deeply into Indigenous ways of seeing and/or knowing place and what the implications of this may be in terms of personal identity and belonging in Australia today. The thesis draws upon the emerging cross-disciplinary field of place studies and is embedded in the discursive space of the encounter between Western and Indigenous knowledge systems. The Indigenous concept of ganma, meaning ‘meeting place’, the meeting of saltwater and freshwater bodies, is the organising principle by which the encounter is examined. Because place-based experiences are the central focus of this study, phenomenology has been chosen as the methodological framework that can hold the complexity, multilayered meaning and ambiguity characteristic of the human experience. What informs this research is a hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry. The specific methods used to carry through such an approach involve three aspects: observations of and conversations with Aboriginal Yuin Elder Uncle Max Harrison in order to shed light on the cross cultural experience; open-ended phenomenological interviews with four participants who received land-based teachings with the Elder aimed at bringing forth the quality of their experiences; and first person phenomenological research through different forms of textual production that reflect the nature of deep engagement and dialogue with place. The discussion chapters confirm the complexities of the encounter between two cultures yet demand a rethink of the intercultural space, the ganma. A new notion of ganma is proposed where a shared sense of place between Indigenous and non-Indigenous persons is Participants in the research had a powerful and profound embodied experience of Aboriginal culture, of Aboriginal place or country. These outcomes derive not through borrowing from or wholesale appropriation of another culture, but from direct experiencing and through direct dialogue. The nexus of the interchange is revealed to be an exceedingly complex structure. First, place is no blank space - it is inscribed and saturated with meaning. Country continues to exert its influence, inform, evolve and reveal itself. The potency of country is particularly strong when that site is a sacred site. Second, the influence of the Aboriginal Elder, as mediator of the teaching sites, has considerable impact. Third, the individual’s own psychic contents are brought to bear in any relationship with place. It is posited that an unhinging takes place that allows the shift from one mode of experiencing reality, a Western way of inhabiting the world, to another mode, an Indigenous way of being in the world. The venturer into the new ganma straddles both worlds, is able to adjust to the transfer of knowledge from one cultural context to another and adopts aspects of both cultures into their new conceptual framework. This new merging of the ancient and the modern incorporates place as inscribed with ancient meanings and place with new meanings and new inscriptions. Narratives of place embody the evolving notion of switching modes of reality to switching modes of being as new ongoing forms that challenge existing cultural explanations. The integration of an Aboriginal worldview in non-Indigenous persons may be leading towards the development of a new sensitivity that connects us with place, more informed by Indigenous ways of being. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis examines the possibilities for building a reconciliatory jurisprudence for the protection of indigenous rights under the Australian Constitution. The thesis first examines what could be meant by the term ???reconciliation??? in a legal context and argues that it requires (1) acknowledgement of and atonement for past wrongdoing, (2) the provision of recompense, and (3) the establishment of legal and constitutional structures designed to ensure that similar wrongs are not repeated in the future. The thesis focuses on the last of these three requirements. It is further argued that developing a reconciliatory jurisprudence first requires the courts to free themselves from the dominant paradigm of strict positivism so that they are liberated to pay due regard to questions of morality. Given this framework, the thesis then sets out to examine the purpose and scope of the race power (section 51(xxvi)) of the Australian Constitution, with particular regard to the case of Kartinyeri v Commonwealth in which the High Court directly considered the power. The thesis concludes that the majority of the Court had not, for various reasons, properly considered the nature of the power. An appropriate ruling, it is argued, should find that the power does not enable Parliament to discriminate adversely against racial minorities. The thesis then proceeds to consider whether there are implied terms under the Constitution that protect fundamental rights. It is argued that these rights are indeed protected because the Constitution is based upon the rule of law. In addition constitutional provisions are to be interpreted subject to the presumption that its terms are not to be understood as undermining fundamental rights unless a constitutional provision expressly states otherwise. The thesis also considers whether there is an implied right to equality under the Constitution. The conclusion drawn is that such a right exists and that it is both procedural and substantive in nature.

It is accepted protocol among Indigenous communities to identify one's link to land. I was born and raised in Brisbane. My birth grandmother is a Goreng Goreng woman, my birth grandfather is a Punthamara man. However, I was adopted by a Koombumberri man and an anglo-celtic mother after being removed at birth under the Queensland government policy of the day. The action of my removal and placement has had profound effects upon my growing and my place within my community today. For the last 15 years I have worked in the health sector. My current position is as a Lecturer within the Department of Nursing, Faculty of Science, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba. My areas of expertise are Indigenous Health and Primary Health Care. I have been employed in this capacity since January 2000. Prior to my full time employment as a nursing academic I have primarily been located within three areas of health which have directly impacted upon my current research. I was first positioned within health by undertaking my General Nurse Certificate through hospital-based training commenced in the late 1980s. For me this training meant being immersed within whiteness and specifically the white medical model. This meant learning a set of skills in a large institutionalised health care service with the provision of doctors, nurses, and allied medical staff through a hospital. Within this training there was no Indigenous health curriculum. The lectures provided on 'differing cultures' and health were on Muslim and Hindu beliefs about death. At that point I was painfully aware of the glaring omission of any representation of Indigenous health and of acknowledgment of the current outstanding health differentials between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. I knew that the colonisation process inflicted upon Indigenous Australians was one of devastation. The decline in our health status at the time of colonisation had been felt immediately. Since this time our health has been in decline. While in the 1980s it was now no longer acceptable to shoot us, poison our waterholes, and incarcerate us on missions, we were still experiencing the influence of the colonisation process, which had strong repercussions for our current health status. Our communities were and remain rife with substance abuse, violence, unemployment, and much more. For Indigenous Australians these factors cannot be separated from our initial experience of the colonisation process but are seen as the continuation of it. However, there was no representation of this and I received my first health qualification.

The study is concerned with the history of black and white women in Australia during the colonial period. Particular emphasis is on the variety of cross-cultural relationships which developed between women during that time. As a starting point, male frontier violence is discussed and compared with the more moderate approach taken by women faced with threatening situations. Among Europeans, women are revealed as being generally less racist than men. This was a significant factor in their ability to forge bonds with black women and occasionally with black men. The way in which contacts with Aborigines were made is explored and the impact of them on the women concerned is assessed, as far as possible from both points of view. Until now, these experiences have been omitted from colonial history, yet I believe they were an important element in racial relations. It will be seen that some of these associations were warm, friendly and satisfying to both sides, and often included a good deal of mutual assistance. Others involved degrees of exploitation. Both are examined in detail, using a variety of sources which include the works of modern Aboriginal writers. This study presents a new aspect of the female experiences which was neglected until the emergence of the feminist historians in the 1960’s. It properly places women, both black and white, within Australian colonial history.

The thesis is a culmination of my research which drew on tyangi wedi tjan Rak Mak Mak Marranunggu and Marrithiel knowledge systems. These awa mirr spiritual knowledge systems have guided our Pilu for millennium and have powerful spiritual affiliation to the land and our continued presences. The understandings of the spiritual connectedness and our practices of relatedness have drawn on Pulitj, our deep awa mirr spiritual philosophy that nourishes us on our country. This philosophy gave us our voice and our presence to act in our own ways of knowing and being on the landscapes created by the Western bureaucratic systems of higher education in Australia to bring forth our Tyikim knowledge systems to serve our own educational interests. From this spiritual ‘Puliyana kunun’ philosophical position the thesis examines colonising constructions of Tyikim peoples, Tyikim knowledge systems in education, Tyikim research and access to higher education for Tyikim students. From the research, it is argued that the paradigm, within which the enclave-derived approach to Indigenous higher education is located, is compatible with the normalising imperialistic ideology of higher education. The analysis of the Mirrwana/Wurrkama participatory action research project, central to the research, supported an argument for the Mirrwana/Wurrkama model of Indigenous higher education. Further analysis identified five key pedagogical principles embedded within this new model as metaphorically equivalent to wilan~bu of the pelangu. The thesis identifies the elements of the spirituality of the narrative exposed in the research-in-action through the “Marri kubin mi thit wa!”. This is a new paradigm for Tyikim participation in higher education within which the Mirrwana/Wurrkama model is located. Finally, the thesis identifies the scope for Tyikim knowledge use in the construction of contemporary ‘bureaucratic and institutionalised’ higher education ngun nimbil thit thit teaching and learning experiences of Tyikim for the advancement of Tyikim interests. Here the tyangi yigin tjan spiritual concepts of narrative and landscape are drawn upon both awa mirr metaphorically and in marri kubin mi thit wa Tyikim pedagogical practice.