Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Culture on Education

Running head: ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER CULTURE ON
EDUCATION
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Culture on Education
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1ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER CULTURE ON EDUCATION
As per the report provided by Henry, Dana and Murphy (2018), it has been found that
there are more than 350 million indigenous people over 70 different nations all around the
word, each one of them practising an unique traditions, culture and retaining political, social
and economic characteristics which are different from the ones of the dominant communities
in which they survive. The communities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander of Australia
are one among them. They are very strong, rich and diverse. Their identity is key to this
priority and with the same, is intrinsically related to the learning the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander communities, their traditions and the comprehensive view of the world. This
paper is going to elaborate on the same. It is going to assess and analyse the diversity in the
culture of these communities along with the impact of this on the Australian education (Topp,
Edelman & Tayloe, 2018). With the same, it will also present a brief overview of the
importance of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, their practice and beliefs on
education and learning as well. Furthermore, this paper shall also shed light on the impacts
that colonisation has, especially on the education and learning in present date.
The indigenous people of Australia are the two different cultural groups that is made
of the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander people (Coffin & Green, 2016). But it is to
note that there is significant diversity within these two groups that is exemplified by more
than 250 different language groups spread all over the country. An indigenous Australian
refers to the person belonging from the Aboriginal or from the descent of the Torres Strait
Islander who is been regarded as the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and is considered as
such by the entire community in which he is living (Carey et al., 2017). They enjoy living and
diverse cultures. The communities there differ according to the environment, the geographic
location as well as the resources- each one having their very own unique cultural practices,
knowledge, languages, beliefs, material cultures and knowledge. The Torres Strait Islanders,
no matter where they live, call the Torres Strait islands as their home. In contrary to the

2ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER CULTURE ON EDUCATION
Aboriginal cultures and people, the islanders also are benefitted from the diversity with their
very own languages, cultural beliefs, and knowledge (Harrison & Sellwood, 2016). Although
the Aboriginal people and the Torres Strait Islanders have different cultures and societies,
their experience of oppression, disadvantage and dispossession as an outcome of the
colonisation and invasion has provided a political bond and a shared identity for various
indigenous people (Ward, 2017). They now live, work, travel and study in several parts of the
country. Before the colonisation, the Aboriginal families had a system of social identification
that is recognised as a family’s connection to the land, people and the water. The elements of
such systems survive for varying the degrees among every families. The social structures of
theirs are further guided by the several different laws of the environmental conditions. All
these conditions together depicts the mutual relationship in between the natural resources as
well as the aboriginal peoples.
As per the findings of the report of Australian Reconciliation Barometer of 2016, the
racism faced by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is very high and the trust in
between them and the other Australian people is very low (Paradies, 2016). With the same,
the goodwill for the reconciliation is very strong and powerful. Most of the Australian
continue to believe the fact that the relationship is very important and that all the Australians
must learn regarding the cultures and the histories of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander. According to the recent data of 2016, it has been identified that about 95% of the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders believe that it is vital to have knowledge about their
histories and cultures and 85% of the other Australians belonging from the general
community also believes the same (Mooney et al., 2016). Furthermore, 58% of the Australian
believe that they have very low or absolutely zero knowledge about the histories of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and 67% of them have low or absolutely zero
knowledge about the culture of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Pascoe, 2012).