Journal Entry: Cultural Competence and Indigenous Australian History

This journal entry reflects on the author's understanding of Australian culture, history, and the experiences of Indigenous Australian peoples, including the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders. It begins by acknowledging the diversity of cultures present in Australia, highlighting the importance of cultural competence. The author places themselves on the positive side of the cultural competence continuum, emphasizing respect and interaction between cultures. The entry explores the author's knowledge of Indigenous cultures, gained from books, journals, videos, and tourism guides, while also identifying limitations in their understanding, particularly regarding the formation of these cultures. The author discusses the diverse indigenous cultures within Australia and the balance between tribal and modern cultures. The entry concludes with a reference list of sources used to inform the journal entry.

Running head: AUSTRALIAN CULTURE AND HISTORY OF INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN
Australian Culture and History of Indigenous Australian
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1AUSTRALIAN CULTURE AND HISTORY OF INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN
Australia has a wide variety of cultures all around. Ranging from the Aboriginals to
the modern individuals, one can find different types of cultures present in Australia. It is the
presence of various types of cultures in Australia that makes it one of the most diverse
countries in the world.
The purpose of this essay is to make a journal entry of different kinds of
indigenous cultures that one might come across in Australia.
Cultural Competence Continuum is considered to be a set of behaviours, attitudes and
beliefs that are present in a particular system. Attitudes in cultural competencies can include
both positive and negative attitudes. While the positive attitudes always contribute to the
improvement of a particular culture, the negative attitudes lead to the destruction of that
particular culture. In this case, I find myself to be in the positive attitude of the continuum of
cultural competencies. I feel that cultures of different countries must be respected as respect
and interaction between one or more cultures leads to the general improvement of the
cultures. Both the cultures can learn something from each other which would contribute to
their well-being.
Australia indeed has a large number of indigenous cultures and people in the country.
These indigenous cultures include the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Island people with
their diverse cultures. Apart from these people and their cultures, there are many other
indigenous places in Australia that people can visit to know about the types of cultures that
are present in the country in itself. I know that indigenous people like the Aboriginals or the
Torres Island Strait people have their own living styles and culture that are different to
civilized places in Australia.
The above-mentioned knowledge that I acquired came from different books, journals
and other forms of articles that helped me to know about Australia and its various indigenous

2AUSTRALIAN CULTURE AND HISTORY OF INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN
cultures. Apart from that, I also got to know about the indigenous cultures of Australia from
videos and tourism guides that are available on the internet for the tourists to follow.
From the above-mentioned sources, I got to know that Australia has a diverse
indigenous culture within itself that consists of various tribes as well as civilized and other
people. It is a mixture of the tribal as well as the modern forms of culture that is present in
Australia.
There are still many things that I am eager to know about Australia and its cultures in
the sense that how did these indigenous cultures formed and how they have been living their
life in the modern times.
There are still some limitations to my knowledge that I feel I have. This includes
finding out exactly how the indigenous cultures of Australia were formed.
Thus, from the above information, it can be concluded that Australia is indeed one of
the culturally diverse countries of the world. With the vast culture the country has, the
diversity maintains a balance between the civilized and the uncivilized world.

3AUSTRALIAN CULTURE AND HISTORY OF INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN
Reference List
Bullen, J., & Flavell, H. (2017). Measuring the ‘gift’: epistemological and ontological
differences between the academy and Indigenous Australia. Higher Education
Research & Development, 36(3), 583-596.
Freire, M. R., & Pammer, K. (2019). Reading Between the Lines: Neurocognition and
Reading Acquisition in Remote Indigenous Australia. Journal of Cross-Cultural
Psychology, 0022022119827380.
Marques, B., Grabasch, G., & McIntosh, J. (2018). Fostering landscape identity through
participatory design with indigenous cultures of Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Space and culture, 1206331218783939.
Rowe, D., Noble, G., Bennett, T., & Kelly, M. (2016). Transforming cultures? From Creative
Nation to Creative Australia. Media International Australia, 158(1), 6-16.