Critical Issues in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Relationships

Explore critical issues in relationships and communication with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders. Evaluate your child care service's cultural safety. Discover positive and negative stereotypes and strategies to address biases. Find resources to develop positive relationships and effective communication. Understand the impact of racism and discrimination. Learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, language, and diversity. Encourage participation and promote self-determination. Rectify cultural strategy issues. Support cultural safety by creating a poster and gathering feedback.

Assessment

a. Research and provide three (3) critical issues which could influence relationships and
communication with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders?
 Thinking difference- The Aboriginal Islanders think differently to the other
Australians. There learning style and teaching is different and communicate in a
story or art which is not comfortable to Torres Strait Islanders.
 The expectations for the community service is different and often not solves the
problem of the people.
 There is a lack of cultural education Torres Strait Islanders which is creating a
communication gap.
b. Evaluate your own Child care service, what aspects of cultural safety are supported
and intergrated into the operation of the service and which areas need to be improved?
The children living in Australia have the right to get access to the service which will
improve their lifestyle and providing them safety. Home based care is provided by the
friends of the family and gives them a home environment. Centre based care is when
many children are taken care and given nutrition and food. There are many children and
the quality of the service should be maintained.
c. That are some of the other cultures of the educators and families at your centre? How
are these reflected at the centre?
The reliability of the centre is the most important thing they should consider in the child
service centre. The routine they have for children and how they are treating them, what
are the benefit of playing and learning given to the children, are they flexible to the
growth of a child, these factors are important for the selection.
d. What are some of the Positive and Negative stereotypes based on Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander culture?
Negative Stereotypes Positive Stereotype
The stereotype is reducing and the
impact on the people of Australia is less
as the people are educated and they are
not believing on racism.
The racism against Torres Strait Islander
is based on socio economic factors and
the class of people. The stereotypes for
the people are reflecting in the culture.
e. If you or any of your colleagues had a bias towards any culture/s how could the centre
address this as a part of their ongoing reflective practice?

The biasses towards a culture will made the decision for the culture which is favoured.
The centre for child care should not be taking the children on the basis of the religion or
culture they have. The practice should be transparent and have equality so that the child
gets care without the barriers and it will help them to grow and can have a good
environment of learning. It is important that people understand that these are wrong
practices.
f. Research and Identify 2 people or service you could use to assist in developing
positive and effective relationships between staff and Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait
Islander people?
In order to develop a positive and effective relationship between the staff and Aboriginal
and/or Torres Strait Islander people, there are various services that can be used (Wotherspoon
and Williams, 2019). These can include effective communication as well as involving them in
the decision making process. The staff should understand the culture of the two types of
communities. As a result, the overall relationship between the two of them will be positive.
g. Using your text book (page 247) as a reference complete some of Aboriginal and/or
Torres Strait terminology or communication techniques important to remember?
- Why is making indirect eye contact important?
Some of the communication techniques that are important while communicating with the
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait people is to use a clear language. It should be kept in
mind that there is a minimum use of jargons or any technical terms. Maintaining an
indirect eye contact will help the person in remaining engaged and listening attentively to
what the other person is saying.
h. What culturally safe program ideas could you implement at a centre to encourage
participation?
Some culturally safe programs that can be implemented at a centre in order to encourage
participation can include involving the Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander people in
the evaluation process. Besides this, the people should be encouraged to share their ideas
and thoughts. This will make them feel involved and they would want to participate.

i. What are some of the strategies you could implement to encourage Aboriginal and/or
Torres Strait Islander representatives to participate and promote self determination at
your service?
A partnership can be develop with the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
representatives. This will lead to encouraging them to participate as well as promote self
determination. Also, by involving them in the decision making process as well as problem
solving activities can also lead to increased participation and promotion of self
determination.
j. If the cultural strategy has been found that it does not meet the desired outcomes.
What are some questions that could be asked to help rectify this?
If the cultural strategy has found to be not meeting the desired outcomes, questions like
“What according to you are some of the cultural differences that need to be addressed?”
can be included. Besides this, “What according to you are some gaps in the cultural
strategy and how can it be improved?” can also be asked. This will help in rectifying the
problem and obtaining a better solution for the same.
k. Give a brief description of Aborigines and/or Torres Strait Islanders people. Origins,
Beliefs, language
(What is their beliefs provide example)/ (Provide an example of the name of
traditional language)
Aborigines Torres Strait Islanders
Aborigines Islanders people are the people
who belong to the Torres Strait Islands and
are a part of Queensland, a state in
Australia. Some of the beliefs of these
people include oral tradition or dreaming
(Rogers, A. and et. al., 2018). For example,
the dreaming can be both the ancient time
and they are thought to migrate from Asia to
Northern Australia. Thus, their origin is said
to be South Africa. Also, they speak
Aboriginal English as their first language.
Most Torres Strait Islanders speak Torres
Strait Creole as their first language. They
strongly believe in Christianity and creating
the arrival of a missionary is one of the
rituals that is performed by them.
l. What aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture are diverse?(Please give
examples of the divers culture?)
Aboriginal Culture Torres Strait Islander
There is a great diversity in the culture as This group also differs and is diverse. These

well as the language that is spoken by the
Aboriginal people. For example, they are
classified into 250 language groups broadly.
people prefer the name of their own island
and also, live on the coast.
j. Research what racism and discrimination that is faced by Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander communities and how past and present power relationships impacts on
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander today.
Racism relating to the culture and language spoken are some of the factors based on
which the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities face discrimination. These
have impacted the overall relationships between the two communities in the past and it is
still being affected at a significant manner.
k. How does your Childcare centre promote cultural awareness and cultural competence
to support cultural safety? / What improvements could be made to support this?
(provide examples of doing these) (What improvements can be made to the service?)
In order to promote cultural awareness, there are various campaigns that are conducted by the
childcare centre. This has helped in generating awareness among the people. There are some
improvements that can still be made to the same (Taylor and Gaminiratne, 2018). For example,
the people should be encouraged and the campaigns can be improved through promoting
participation.
l. What are the issues in the following areas that have an impact on Aboriginals and
Torres Strait Islanders engagement with community services?
Social Some of the factors include grief and loss, self-determination, strong
community governance etc. these have affected the engagement of the
two communities with the community service.
Political The leaders have discriminated among the communities due to which
they are not able to participate effectively.
m. What impact might your own culture have with supporting Aboriginal and/or Torres
Strait Islanders engagement with your service? (Please explain how your own life
and culture might change how you support aboriginal and Torres strait islander
people?)
The modern culture is very different from that of the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait
Islanders. Therefore, they would require time in order to promote engagement (Weuffen, Cahir
and Pickford, 2017). This is also because their culture and beliefs are completely different from
that of our own culture.

n. Research task. Identify the following based on the geographical location of your
centre :(
(for Queensland)
Local Aboriginal
Community name, The
traditional owners of the
land and custodians.
Amga, Australia
Language. English
Aboriginal and Torres strait
community controlled
organisations.
AbSec
Library, art galleries or
cultural centres.
Local cultural centres
Natural areas of significant
importance.
The places where the community resides.
o. . Using your research and knowledge gained from completing assessment 2 (Task 3a).
You are to support cultural safety in your centre by creating a poster about the local
traditional owners (nation). You will be expected to gather feedback from children,
educators and the local Aboriginal owners where needed.
The poster should identify information about the Nation/ country and language groups
in the area surrounding your centre. This will then need to be displayed with
permission from your supervisor in your centre. There will also need to be on your
poster or on a separate sheet a place that allows for feedback from other educators and
families.
photograph of your poster attached
Document two examples of feedback from educator’s comments about your display
and how they might use the information to make links and/or communicate with the
local ATSI communities.
- The diversity of cultures should be recognized and incorporated into the childcares
program. If the child care successfully treats families with respect and do not make
stereotypical assumptions, families will be happy to acknowledge their identity and
share important information about their child and their culture with the educators
and other families.
- Think about the language used when communicating with Aboriginal people.
Respect the use of silence and don’t mistake it for misunderstanding

Comment on the effectiveness of your display in raising awareness or extending
knowledge of the ATSI country/ nation where your service in located.
It is important to build relationships within the local community and learn suitable and
generally accepted words. The local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff may be able to
assist with cultural knowledge and interpretation information.
{For “o”, I made answer just do for me poster with people and land and so on}

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Rogers, A. and et. al., 2018. Demonstrating the value of community development: An
inclusive evaluation capacity building approach in a non-profit Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander organisation. Evaluation Journal of Australasia, 18(4), pp.234-255.
Taylor, J. and Gaminiratne, K. H. W., 2018. A comparison of the socioeconomic
characteristics of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Canberra, ACT:
Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR), The Australian National
University.
Weuffen, S. L., Cahir, F. and Pickford, A. M., 2017. The centrality of Aboriginal cultural
workshops and experiential learning in a pre-service teacher education course: a
regional Victorian University case study. Higher Education Research &
Development, 36(4), pp.838-851.
Wotherspoon, C. and Williams, C. M., 2019. Exploring the experiences of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander patients admitted to a metropolitan health service. Australian
Health Review, 43(2), pp.217-223.