CHCDIV002: Report on Promoting Aboriginal and/or TSI Cultural Safety

This report, focusing on CHCDIV002, delves into the promotion of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) cultural safety. It begins with an introduction to the ATSI people and the significance of cultural safety, followed by a discussion of the Rainbow Serpent dreamtime story. The report then explores the historical impact of colonization and racism on ATSI people, highlighting issues such as denial of human rights and health disparities. Further, the report examines ATSI culture, including family, law, land, ceremony, and language, drawing on the insights of an ATSI elder. The report also addresses challenges faced by ATSI people in areas such as education, healthcare, and service delivery, and offers suggestions for improvement. Finally, the report concludes by emphasizing the importance of respecting ATSI culture and acknowledging their contributions.

CHCDIV002 Promote
Aboriginal and/or
Torres Strait Islander
cultural safety-
Assessment 2

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
RESEARCH 1..................................................................................................................................3
Aboriginal dream time story.......................................................................................................3
RESEARCH 2..................................................................................................................................4
Impact of history on ATSI people...............................................................................................4
RESEARCH 3..................................................................................................................................5
ATSI culture...............................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The 'Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people' are also the first people of Australia or
the first Australians. They are the part of the indegineous Australians who lived in Australia
before the British colonisation. The ATSI people have their own customs and law which
determine their membership in the group (Williams, 2018). Their cultural safety is as important
as it means that there must be no assault, denial or the challenge in their identity and the
experience. Cultural safety is all about creating a safe environment for the ATSI. This report
shall cover an aboriginal dreamtime story, impact of history on ATSI people and the culture of
ATSI.
RESEARCH 1
Aboriginal dream time story
This story is titled as the Rainbow Serpent which begins when the earth was dry, empty
and flat. On day, Goorialla, the rainbow serpent woke and set off to find its tribe. He crossed
every part of Australia but could not found anything. He got tired and went to sleep on a land. He
laid on the land till he created more lives in the world. He says frogs, come out and they rose out
of a ground with bellies full of water. He tickled them until water busted and they made streams
and river from it. As water flowed on the ground it filled with colours. When there was grass and
water, Goorialla woke up the animals and Rainbow serpent made rules that if animals obey the
laws they will be rewarded as humans, otherwise they would be punished. One day it started
raining like never before and two young men Rainbow Lorikeet brothers had no shelter so they
went to Rainbow serpent. He was hungry so decided to trick them and asked them to hide in its
mouth (Kilcullen, Swinbourne and Cadet‐James, 2016). The men climbed in its mouth and when
the two men were noticed as missing Rainbow serpent decided to hide in the sky. He noticed that
people were sad on losing two men. So he decided to make them happy and turned its body into
a big arc of colours. So every time it rains, you can see the rainbow serpent sharing the colours
with people on ground as its way of saying sorry for taking the two men.
From this story it is depicted that how a guilt turned into a wrong and then into the right.
It shows how something wrong can turn into an opportunity to create something better for the
world. This story is passed on from generation to generation in order to show the spiritual
experience of rainbow serpent. He used his power to create life in spiritual way.

This shows how aboriginals were born and how they live with their values and ethics.
This story shows the creation of the earth and addressed evil and good and its consequence when
something good or bad is done by us. These dreamtime stories are important as they teaches
good and evil to the children and this tradition helps the children to learn their ethics and good
values. These story telling traditions help the ATSI people to inculcate the good values in their
children from early time in order to make them a good human being.
While narrating this story to children in the care setting, I felt that they are learning the
difference between good and bad and these stories help them to know the goodness of the world.
It had bring positivity in their thinking and they are learning to respect their culture. By using
cross culture technique of slow speaking and keeping it simple, this dreamtime story telling
helped me in developing a strong relationship with the children and made me realise that they are
being familiar with cultures as well (Smith and et. al., 2020).
RESEARCH 2
Impact of history on ATSI people.
By the arrival of white men in Australia, the ATSI people suffered the most. They were
forced to change their traditions and lifestyles because the British lifestyle differs from that of
the ATSI people. The major problem which ATSI faced was racism. This was driven by the
impact of colonisation where they were denied their human rights and also opportunity to
participate in the Australian society as equal citizens. For instance they faced direct racism in
many occasions like they were refused to rent a house, they were not invited for interviews even
if they were having identical experience and qualification, hostels refuse to accommodate ATSI
people and many other instances. Indirect racism was also experienced by the ATSI people, like
for instance the work policies discriminated ATSI from taking leave in case of attending funeral,
etc. These racism turned into hatred when they started experiencing abusive comments in any
sporting event or when any racist picture got published on newspaper or magazine.
This racism impacted the mental and physical health of the ATSI people and this
indicated adverse health conditions like binge drinking, smoking, higher level of psychological
distress and etc. they even suffered depression and suicide risk (Turner and et. al., 2019).
By the medium of verbal communication used by the educator and depicting virtual
image on the projector, the educator can depict the story to the children in order to connect them

with the history of how white men impacted the ATSI people from their arrival. Children has
been selected to depict this story in order to inculcate the effect of racism in them and how they
can overcome this issue. By listening to this story, the children will get prepared to face this
world and become mentally strong to face this issue. An educator must bring public opinion
regarding this and spread awareness for anti racism in order to eliminate the racist from this
country. This issue is still prevailing in Australia and the country is still moving forward
towards anti racism strategy.
This issue has influenced me and taught me that racism could affect the mental health of
any person. As an educator, I have to bring anti racism strategy and make the children and
people prepared for this issue so that they can become mentally strong.
RESEARCH 3
ATSI culture
In order to complete this report, I would assess the ATSI descent who is an elder in the
Aboriginal communities who have closely experienced the culture of ATSI people. The role of
the elder is to provide support to the ATSI people and get involved in the community in order to
teach and pass on the knowledge to the ATSI people through its experience.
By using communication skills, I face to face interacted with the ATSI elder to know
their cultural information. I learned that there are five interconnected elements of their culture
which includes family, law, land, ceremony and the language. I also learned that through the
kinship system, families are connected to the land and there are certain roles and responsibilities
which comes with land which are enshrined in law and customs.
The traditional land of the local area is farmer's land where crops are grown for making a
living. The owner of this land is the traditional custodians and owners who are called the gadigal
people. The history of the ATSI people in a region is that they have migrated from Africa . They
have a genetic link to the Melanesian population and is the the result of the intermarriage.
Adams Goodes is the famous player of football and is a member of Indigenous team of
the century. He was involved in several aboriginal sports programs and also established a Go
Foundation to provide scholarships to the next generation of ATSI people. He is a great role
model to fight against racism both off and in the field (Leeson, Smith and Rynne, 2016).

The population of ATSI is about half the people of Non ATSI people. These people face
issues in relation to service need or delivery which includes ineffective communication, barriers
in gaining living standards as they live separate with their families, lack of trust of institution and
many other. They even face identity issue due to separation from their culture which becomes
roadblock in their effective service need or delivery. There is even no local transport facility
which is also an issue faced by ATSI people.
In relation to early education, the children face the issue of no education centre in the
remote areas for the children of 4 years who need education from very beginning. This must be
improved by opening schools in the remote areas so that children can access education within
five years of age. In case any education centre is opened, there is a problem of attendance which
needs to be improved. For improving it, the primary school must focus on this issue and become
strict towards attendance of the child. In relation to care setting, the ATSI people face problem of
accessing the health care service as they are not easily accessible by them. They face the problem
of racism and discrimination (Townsend and et. al., 2018). This can be improved by bring proper
transportation facility to access primary health centre and in case of any discrimination, strict
laws must be made to tackle it.
The ATSI people celebrate the festival of Yabun on 26th January, apology ceremony on
13th February, National Harmony day on 13th March and on many other occasions.
I would like to acknowledge the people of ATSI, traditional owners of the land and pay
respect the the past and present elders for their incredible contribution in the country. You are the
first nations people who have taken this country forward by your hard work and patience. I
would like to extend my respect to the ATSI people also.

CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that ATSI people are the indigenous population of
the country who have suffered after the colonisation period when the white men came. They
have majorly suffered with the issue of racism which is still prevailing in the country. As an
educator, the dream time story shall be communicated to the children in order to show the
importance of their culture and the the difference between good and bad. Further it is concluded
that for knowing the cultural information of the ATSI people, communication was established by
the descent of ATSI where detailed information was gathered in relation to their education, land,
care service, etc.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Kilcullen, M., Swinbourne, A. and Cadet‐James, Y., 2016. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
health and well‐being: Implications for a cognitive behavioural therapy
framework. Australian Psychologist, 51(6), pp.453-462.
Leeson, S., Smith, C. and Rynne, J., 2016. Yarning and appreciative inquiry: The use of
culturally appropriate and respectful research methods when working with Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander women in Australian prisons. Methodological innovations, 9,
p.2059799116630660.
Smith, J. A., and et. al., 2020. ‘Dudes Are Meant to be Tough as Nails’: The Complex Nexus
Between Masculinities, Culture and Health Literacy From the Perspective of Young
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Males–Implications for Policy and
Practice. American journal of men's health, 14(3), p.1557988320936121.
Townsend, C. and et. al., 2018. Making every Australian count: challenges for the National
Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and the equal inclusion of homeless Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Peoples with neurocognitive disability. Australian Health
Review, 42(2), pp.227-229.
Turner, N. N. and et. al., 2019. Conceptualizing the association between community participation
and CQI in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PHC services. Qualitative health
research, 29(13), pp.1904-1915.
Williams, M., 2018. Ngaa-bi-nya Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander program evaluation
framework. Evaluation Journal of Australasia, 18(1), pp.6-20.