The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students

This report analyzes the education and health problems faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in Australia. It highlights the multilingual and health barriers they encounter and emphasizes the need for awareness and support from parents and authorities. The report concludes with recommendations for improving the situation.

Running head: THE ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER STUDENTS
THE ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER STUDENTS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1THE ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER STUDENTS
Executive Summary
The purpose of the report is to understand how Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students
of Australia, considered to be indigenous to the country, face several education and health
problems due to the process of modernization all over the country. The main focus of the report
is to develop the integrity of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students who face several
multilingual and health barriers right from their school level. This report attempts to raise
awareness among the citizens of Australia, and also among teachers and other authorities, in
order to make them aware of the present conditions of the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait
Islander students. Therefore, this report concludes on a note that, how the parents of these
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students can be made aware of the health and education
difficulties of their wards and how they can help them to overcome the difficult scenario.

2THE ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER STUDENTS
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Part A - CHCEDS024..................................................................................................................3
Respond to Question Number 1...............................................................................................3
Respond to Question Number 2...............................................................................................5
Part B - CHCDIV002...................................................................................................................5
Task 1.......................................................................................................................................5
Task 2.......................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Reference.......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The Aboriginal and/ Torres Strait Island people are considered to be the indigenous
population Australia and they have been inhabiting the country for a very long time. In the
present scenario aboriginal tribes inhabit almost every part of Australia and many tribes have
also taken to settle in different countries. However, Aboriginal Australian are not the same as
compared to the tribes of the Torres Strait Island in Queensland. These two tribes are
significantly different from each other considering their cultural and lingual background. The
report analyses how the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students confront several
difficulties in coping with the evolving educational patterns and how their health conditions have
deteriorated over the past few years considering their indigenous life style patterns (Spiers &
Harris, 2015). It has also been highlighted that non-aboriginal tribes are healthier than the
indigenous tribes of Australia. Thus, this report emphasizes on the importance of the recreating
awareness across all educational institutions in curbing the barriers of multilingual difficulties of
indigenous students while pursuing their school level education. This report will create a sense of
awareness among the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander parents to raise the health
condition of their wards by accepting structural changes in their normal lifestyle.
Discussion
Part A - CHCEDS024
Respond to Question Number 1.
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students face significant amount of lingual
difficulties in pursuing a proper education considering their multilingual barriers in
communicating with their peers as well as the faculty (Edmonds- Wathen, 2015). Indigenous

4THE ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER STUDENTS
students are always taught how to read, write and speak in their native language since their
childhood, which as a result makes it difficult for them to communicate with their class-mates
and other faculty when there is a difficulty in understanding any study material during class
hours (Ministry of Education Guyana, 2019). For example there are some situation that an
individual from an indigenous background can be expected to face in a school setting:
1. The student might not be able to decipher what the teacher intends to teach the entire class
because many aboriginal students who come from rural set-ups do not have English as their
first language in their primary level education.
2. The incidents and texts being taught as a part of the course curriculum have no relevance
with the lives of the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students, and as a result they are
unable to connect to the materials being taught by the teacher.
3. Students possessing indigenous background can face difficulties in trying to explain their
queries to their peers or faculty, due to the language barrier among them.
4. Aboriginal Australian and/or Torres Strait Island students can face difficulty in connecting to
the visual representation of the racial differences, where characters in textbooks and
educational films are usually represented from the ‘white’ community. This phenomenon can
severely distract the young minds to divert away from their urge to study.
5. Racism is the last and almost the worst experience that an indigenous student can go through
from a larger section of non-indigenous students. This makes the learning phenomenon bitter
for the indigenous students, due to which many indigenous individuals have quit their
education at the primary stage itself.

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Respond to Question Number 2.
The term multilingual or multilingualism can be referred to the ability of an individual to
speak more than two languages (Clyne, 2017). It has also been studied that the number of
multilingual people in world are comparatively higher than monolingual people (Vince, 2016).
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students tend to have a multilingual nature, in which
they either speak their mother-tongue or they speak the Aboriginal form of English, commonly
known as Aboriginal English.
Though, there are inevitable difficulties in trying to comprehend the Aboriginal English
for an individual who does not have enough experience of comprehending the language (Eades,
2013), therefore, the only solution is to provide support to the Aboriginal students, where the
indigenous individuals can successfully retain their mother tongue and improve in their fluency
in the Australian form of English, that is regarded as a lingua franca in the day to day
communication of Australia.
Part B - CHCDIV002
Task 1
Respond to Question Number 1 (a).
The name of the community under the following research is the original native tribe of
Sydney named Gadigal.
Respond to Question Number 1 (b).
The Gadigal clan is a part of the larger community of Sydney and the native community
language of these people is Eora. However, the indigenous language of the Gadigal tribe is

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known as Dharug. It is an extinct language, though few individuals are trying to recover the
language back in among the community people (Daily Telegraph, 2016).
Respond to Question Number 1 (c).
The Gadigal people were traditionally dependent of hunting and fishing for their survival.
The most unique feature of the Gadigal tribe was that, the women-folk were more skilled when it
came to fishing. Females were also extensively skilled in swimming and diving techniques (The
Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, 2018). The Gadigal people were deeply connected to their lands
and water bodies due to the resources it provided. Another unique feature of this tribe was that,
they respected food and their main priority was minimal waste of food.
Respond to Question Number 1 (d).
The Gadigal clan was one of the most prominent indigenous tribes of Australia. They
were significantly spread all over the area which is now known as Sydney. The Gadigal clan has
gradually lost the rich essence it possessed due to the process of modernization and the
population of the Gadigal tribe are still trying their best to hold on to their culture. Therefore,
schools should be aware of the crisis faced by the Gadigal tribe and they should make the
indigenous students aware of their rich ancient culture and should also support individuals in
reviving their lost traditions and language.
Respond to Question Number 1 (e).
The fact that the ancient Gadigal population made tools and weapons out of natural
resources was not known to me before this research. The Gadigal people were extremely
connected to the nature around them and all their traditional tools and weapons were either made
from native plants and fishing rods were made of silk threads made from spider web and
kangaroo sinew (The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, 2018).

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Respond to Question Number 2.
I can see how the wider community and media have influenced the shaping of attitudes to
Aboriginal and Torres Strait people by constantly portraying them as a problem or threat to the
rest of the society consisting the non-aboriginal population. Media stereotyping and negative
academic remarks have become a main hindrance to the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
people because their raised voices have always been drowned by the main-stream media and
whenever they tried to take an attempt towards their own welfare, it spread a communal conflict
propagating the feelings of ‘us’ and ‘them’ among the non- aboriginal population of Australia.
Task 2
Respond to Question Number 1 (a)
The poem by Stephen Reys portrays a deep feeling of lament which a couple possess for
their forcibly removed child. The poem coveys a feeling of extreme grief that the parents have
for their daughter who was taken away from them because she was of a mixed-race. The long
wait has already been thirty years but there no signs of the daughter returning back to the parents.
The post sits in his house and watched the paint he parents are going through and considers
himself to be incapable of helping the parents get back their daughter.
Respond to Question Number 1 (b)
The poem refers back to the system where the colonial rulers has initiated a process of
forcibly taking away the mixed-race children from the biological parents in order to provide
them better safety and education. This poem relates back to the Victorian era of the 1860s where
the Aboriginal and/or the Torres Strait Islanders had to accept the law that was forcefully passed
on them.

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Respond to Question Number 1 (c)
The forcible removal of the child who was merely three years old has deeply affected the
mother and this can be understood from the lines where it is being conveyed that the mother
regularly sits outside her house and stares the old dirt track in the hope that her one and only
child would come back to her. The poet mentions that it has already been thirty long years and
that girl child was taken away from the mother, but she is still in a baseless hope for her daughter
to return. The mother is also blamed for the giving birth to a racially different child compared to
the non-aboriginal population, which apparently became the reason for the girl child to be taken
away.
Respond to Question Number 1 (d)
This poem makes me feel that, how the colonial rule has forced these poor Aboriginal
and/or Torres Strait Islander people to live under a baseless pressure due to which the biological
connection of the parents and their offspring are deprived on the basis of providing the child a
better life. It fills a deep sense of sadness in me, considering the amount exploitation the
indigenous people had to go through living in their native land.
Respond to Question Number 2
The Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people have been major victims of the
process of colonisation and this phenomenon has deeply affected the health and well-being of the
indigenous people. Studies have provided instances that life span of the indigenous Australians is
comparatively shorter than the non-indigenous and the main reason behind this is neglect.
Indigenous Australians, since the time of the British rule, have been neglected which as a result
added to their lack of education, sense of sanitation and hygiene which resulted in their poor
health condition. Racism, is such phenomenon that has also been responsible of destroying their

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psychological structure of well-being that is still proven in the lack of determination and
confidence level of the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students.
Respond to Question Number 3 (a)
The Aboriginal and/ Torres Strait Islander students have been a victim of a number of
health related issues which become a major hindrance for them when considered from an
educational point of view. Due to the lack of proper health awareness campaigns designed for the
indigenous people, these students tend to develop severe health issues from an early age due to
genetic transfers. Health problems like diabetes and heart related issues are common among
Australian Aboriginals.
Respond to Question Number 3 (b)
To promote the health of the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students, the
arrangement of special classes related to physical activities and sports can be introduced. A small
inter-class football tournament can be introduced where students are made of play the sport to
enhance their level of stamina and also engage them in a physical activity that would help them
to curb their inheritable health problems. Non-indigenous students will also be allowed to take
part in this sport activity, in order to avoid partiality, but the main attention will be given on the
indigenous section of students.
Respond to Question Number 3 (c)
The school authorities would need to provide permissions for carrying out such special
activities for creating health awareness among the indigenous students. The tournament would
include exciting prizes for the winners that will be helpful in attracting the students to participate
in the activity. Students will be asked to pick chits and members having same number would
form a team. This will be done in order to maintain a fair participation of every student of the

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class. Schools funds and other NGO help would be necessary for purchasing proper sports gear
for the students.
This activity would raise an awareness of how daily exercise and physical activity is
necessary for every individual in order to avoid any cardio-vascular diseases among all the
indigenous students. They will be also be made aware of what should be consumed and in how
much quantity in order to improve body fitness. This phenomenon would result in an indirect
awareness campaign that would help the parents of the indigenous students to be concerned of
their personal well-being. Parents can be invited on the final day of the tournament, in which
make them aware of how their wards are engaged in proper learning about mental as well as
physical growth.
Respond to Question Number 3 (d)
The health and social conditions of the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students
has already been discussed in the report and based on the information gathered, this activity
would help me to take an initiative to make the newer generation of the indigenous population
receive their due attention and care which they have been deprived of for generations.
Conclusion
Therefore, this report concludes on the note that bases of the information discussed in this
report, the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander population of Australia have been a victim of
great exploitation and severe neglect. The report also discussed how the modern generation
indigenous youth have been a victim of racism.

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Reference
Clyne, M. (2017). Multilingualism. The handbook of sociolinguistics, 301-314.
Daily Telegraph (2016). Wetland names will honour our heritage. [online]
Dailytelegraph.com.au. Available at: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/city-
east/gadigal-words-to-recognise-aboriginal-language-and-return-it-to-the-local-
environment/news-story/5b55c964f1b15f54278c987fa67569f3 [Accessed 28 Feb. 2019].
Eades, D. (2013). Aboriginal english. Aboriginal ways of using English, 76.
Edmonds-Wathen, C. (2015). Indigenous language speaking students learning mathematics in
English: Expectations of and for teachers. The Australian Journal of Indigenous
Education, 44(1), 48-58.
Ministry Of Education, Guyana. (2019). Barriers to Communication in the Classroom. Retrieved
from https://education.gov.gy/web/index.php/teachers/tips-for-teaching/item/1704-
barriers-to-communication-in-the-classroom
Spiers, M. C., & Harris, M. (2015). Challenges to student transition in allied health
undergraduate education in the Australian rural and remote context: a synthesis of
barriers and enablers. Rural and remote health, 15(2), 1-17.
The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney (2018). You are in Cadi: Uncovering the story of the Gadigal
- The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. [online] Rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au. Available at:
https://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/stories/2018/you-are-in-cadi-uncovering-the-story-of-
the-gadig [Accessed 28 Feb. 2019].

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Vince, G. (2016). The amazing benefits of being bilingual. Retrieved from
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160811-the-amazing-benefits-of-being-bilingual