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The focus of this paper is to centre the lived experiences and perceptions of western education held by Aboriginal people who lived at Moola Bulla Native Cattle Station (Moola Bulla) in Western Australia, between 1910 and 1955. Of interest is an investigation into how government legislations and policies influenced these experiences and perceptions. The purpose of this paper is to promote the powerful narrative that simultaneously acknowledges injustice and honours Aboriginal agency.

The research from which this paper is drawn moves away from colonial, paternalistic and racist interpretations of history; it is designed to decolonise the narrative of Aboriginal education in remote Western Australia. The research uses the wide and deep angle lens of qualitative historical research, filtered by decolonising methodologies and standpoint theory. Simultaneously, the paper valorises the contributions Indigenous academics are making to the decolonisation of historical research.

Preliminary findings suggest the narrative told by the residents who were educated at Moola Bulla support a reframing of previous deficit misrepresentations of indigeneity into strength-based narratives. These narratives, or “counter stories”, articulate resistance to colonial master narratives.

This paper argues that listening to Aboriginal lived experiences and perceptions of western education from the past will better inform our engagement with the delivery of equitable educational opportunities for Aboriginal students in remote contexts in the future.

This paper will contribute to the wider academic community by addressing accountability in Aboriginal education. Most important to the study is the honouring of the participants and families of those who once lived on Moola Bulla, many who are speaking back through the telling of their story.

This article explores the childhood, professional life and social activism of Alice Rigney (1942–2017) who became Australia's first Aboriginal woman principal in 1986.

The article draws on interviews with Alice Rigney along with newspapers, education department correspondence and reports of relevant organisations which are read against the grain to elevate Aboriginal people's self-determination and agency.

The article illuminates Alice/Alitya Rigney's engagement with education and culture from her childhood to her work as an Aboriginal teacher aide, teacher, inaugural principal of Kaurna Plains Aboriginal school in Adelaide, South Australia; and her activism as a Narungga and Kaurna Elder. Furthermore, the article highlights her challenges to racial and gender discrimination in the state school system.

While there is an expanding body of historical research on Aboriginal students, this article focuses on the experiences of an Aboriginal educator which are also essential to deconstructing histories of Australian education.

There is a long history of school failure for Aboriginals¹ in the U.S. educational system. Culturally relevant/responsive pedagogy affords opportunities for Aboriginal students to achieve academic success through building upon their cultural heritages and Native ways of knowing. School systems adopting this pedagogy empower Indigenous students to connect with essential knowledge for academic success in today’s world. This enhanced pedagogy creates classrooms of involvement that promote Aboriginal students’ achievement. Preservice teachers employing this pedagogy will experience success with their Indigenous students and learn about Aboriginal communities, lifeways, and values. Mutual respect is engendered as long-perpetuated negative stereotypes of Native Americans are undone. Culturally relevant/responsive pedagogy can be tailored to specific populations by incorporating their own Aboriginal knowledge, languages, and practices into teaching praxis.

This systematic review will attempt to begin the fusion of Aboriginal health and Aboriginal education to show the need for strategic research and policy development that brings these two important fields together for the benefit of improving the lives of Aboriginal people regardless of residency or socioeconomic conditions.

A search of published and gray literature that examined Aboriginal health and Aboriginal education was conducted. Through computerized database (PubMed, PsycInfo, ERIC, Google Scholar, and Google) searches were performed in November 2014 to find abstracts, articles, gray literature, and reports pertaining to Aboriginal health and Aboriginal education in Canada.

Inadequate datasets impede the ability to look at Aboriginal health and education in Canada as there are no national datasets that adequately provide data to do more than cross-sectional analysis. By conducting research in a pan-Aboriginal manner negates that there is traditional worldviews that individuals, families, and communities embrace and embody in their daily lives. It is necessary for the Canadian government and society to work with Aboriginal people to change the fundamental ways in which the macro-level systems work together in order for true social change to occur which will lead to increased self-determination specifically in Aboriginal health and education.

The chapter reveals that Aboriginal health and education are key determinants to the health and well-being of Aboriginal people. Identity, self-determination, and Aboriginal worldviews need to be a part of research studies in order to have “two-eyed seeing” of the intertwined and interconnectedness of health and education.

Emerging discourses focusing on the social, emotional, educational, and economic disadvantages identified for Australia’s First Peoples (when compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts) are becoming increasingly dissociated with an understanding of the interplay between historical and current trends in racism. In addition, it may be argued that the very construction of Western perspectives of Indigenous identity (as opposed to identities) may be deeply entwined within the undertones of the interplay between epistemological racism, and the emergence of new racism today.

This chapter shall review a substantial portion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educational research, with a particular emphasis on the acknowledgment of the impact of racism on the educational outcomes (and other life outcomes) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with a focus on higher education.

This review has found that while there is evidence emerging toward the engagement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in all forms of education, there is also considerable resistance to targeted efforts to reduce the inequities between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and all Australians (especially within the university sector). It is argued this resistance, both at the student and curriculum level, is clear evidence of preexisting epistemological mentalities and racism.

The implications of this review suggest that greater effort needs to be placed in recognizing unique Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experiences and perspectives, not only at the student level, but such perspectives need to be imbedded throughout the whole university environment.

The aim of this chapter is to critically analyse multiple stakeholders’ self-perceptions of the value, nature, success and impact of core Aboriginal Studies subjects in primary teacher education university courses.

Participants were drawn from two universities in New South Wales which taught a core Aboriginal Studies subject as part of their primary teacher education degree. The methodology was informed by Yin’s (2003) multiple-case study replication design. This replication presents a picture of the perceptions and events which have impacted on the participants in the study.

The findings have important implications for theory, research and practice. The results of this study demonstrate that core Aboriginal Studies subjects in primary teacher education courses can make a positive difference in changing the perceptions of many pre-service teachers about Aboriginal people.

The purpose of this study was to assemble an evidence-based rationale, which includes the voices of multiple stakeholders, to test the extent to which core Aboriginal Studies subjects in primary teacher education courses are vital to improving educational outcomes for Aboriginal children, advancing reconciliation and creating a more socially just Australian society.

Undertaking professional training through a core Aboriginal Studies subject builds pre-service teachers’ self-concepts, attitudes, commitment, knowledge and skills, and ability and understandings to teach Aboriginal Studies, incorporate Aboriginal perspectives and to be committed to effectively teaching Aboriginal students.

The study supports the need for the inclusion of core Aboriginal Studies subjects in all universities with teacher education courses.

Research on Indigenous students has mostly adopted a deficiency model. In contrast, this study takes an explicitly positive perspective on Indigenous student success by focusing on the active psychological ingredients that facilitate successful learning.

This research project was an inquiry into the experiences of Aboriginal women who have undertaken higher education degrees as mature-age students. The main focus of this research was to gain an insight as to why mature-age Aboriginal women enrolled in a higher education degrees and why they did not undertake this study straight from school or at a younger age.

This chapter is based around the method of narrative inquiry of auto-ethnographical and autobiographical methods.

This research has found that although there were many differences in the lives of these women. They had different educations, family lives and financial situations. There was, however, one key component and that was their communities and families as well as their responsibilities to those communities and future generations.

The implications of this review suggest that the future benefits of this research will be that the participants will be able to assist their communities to ensure that all women who wish to attend higher education have the support they need. The participants are now in a position due to their education to develop a further network of mature-age Aboriginal women who they can call on for assistance in their communities by way of information sessions and contacts within the university setting.

The more we, as Aboriginal women, are involved in education, the better our families and communities will be in regards to health. It is my belief that, if we as Aboriginal women can gain a good education we can provide a much better environment for our families and communities. In providing educational opportunities we then provide better employment prospects leading to the advancement of health and wellbeing for our families and communities.

This chapter outlines an audit process that led to a group of non-Aboriginal academics, and professional staff embarking on a journey to explore insights into Aboriginal knowledge and culture. It presents a compelling account of the benefits of a project devised by a creative Aboriginal teacher and community arts practitioner, The Embedding Diversity: Towards a Culturally Inclusive Pedagogy.

The Embedding Diversity project allowed a reflective and process-based deep learning to occur which enabled practical and meaningful Reconciliation to transpire between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal staff at an Australian University. Within the Faculty of Education and Social Work, staff collaborated with, listened to, and were taught by Aboriginal people in a range of contexts. Through this partnership, training, engagement, and conversations were had that shifted perspectives and changed thinking.

The outcome of this project was a commitment to change and advocacy for cultural competence to embedding stronger and more informed Aboriginal education, Aboriginal Studies Units of Study (subjects), and perspectives in teacher education curriculum. We present this project as it is reflective of the meaningful Reconciliation and educational reform which may be possible in other learning communities.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, drawing on a unique data set, the authors estimate the returns to education for Canadian Aboriginal people. Second, the authors explore the relationship between occupation and the economic well-being, measured as income, of Aboriginal people in an effort to provide a better understanding of the causes of income gaps for Aboriginal people.

The data used in this study is the Public Use Microdata File of Aboriginal People’s Survey, 2012. An ordered logit model is used to estimate the key determinants for income groups. Then the marginal effects of each variable, for the probability of being in each category of the outcomes, are derived.

All the explanatory variables, including demographic, educational and occupational variables, appeared statistically significant with predicted signs. These results confirmed relationships between income level and education and occupations.

The data limitation of income, as a categorical variable prevents the precise estimation of the contributions of the dependent variables in dollar amount.

In order to substantially improve the Aboriginal people’s market performance, it is important to emphasise the quality of their education and whether their areas of study could lead them to high-skilled occupations.

Attention is paid to the types of human capital rather than the general term of education.

This paper analyses broad patterns in Australian Aboriginal affairs and indigenous education since colonisation. The influence of these patterns on educational initiatives over the last 20 years is explored in some detail. Discussion highlights the level of systemic bias and structural violence which continue to influence Aboriginal life chances and, by extension, educational achievement among indigenous Australians despite state and federal policies designed to enhance educational access and equity. Of particular concern is that such policies are not closely integrated with community development and appear to continue to press for assimilation rather than self‐determination. As such, indigenous education appears to intensify levels of systemic frustration in Aboriginal communities. These issues are illustrated by an analysis of educational attainments among Aboriginal students in relation to those of other Australians and government expenditure.