Significant Dates

It has been well documented that the health status of many Aboriginal people remains the poorest in Australia despite many years of research, policies and interventions. The third edition of Binan Goonj: Bridging Cultures in Aboriginal Health 3e explores the processes and practices which have created this situation and looks to provide practical strategies to work towards redressing it. Extensively adopted as a teaching text across Australia, Binan Goonj provides coverage of essential Aboriginal health topics in an accessible manner. This edition challenges the reader to examine their own values, the relativity of values and the use of power in society with a writing style that will engage readers from a range of backgrounds.

Tracing the emergence of a series of powerful narratives about the Australian constitution and the status of Aborigines, this book reveals how and why the referendum campaign acquired so much significance and has since become the subject of highly charged myth in contemporary Australia.

Detailing how the Australian Constitution was drafted, this book shows how Aboriginal peoples came to be excluded from the new political settlement, and provides what Australians need to know about the proposal to recognize Aboriginal peoples in the Constitution. It explains what the 1967 referendum--in which more than 90 percent of Australians voted to delete discriminatory references to Aboriginal people from the Constitution--achieved and why discriminatory racial references remain. Close to 15 million people will cast their vote in the upcoming referendum (the date is to be announced) and need expert information that is clear and informed--as found in this book--allowing them to participate in the debate and make an informed decision. Written by two of the best-known experts in the country on matters legal, indigenous, and constitutional, the book shows the symbolic and legal power of such a change and how to get there.

What is it like to grow up Aboriginal in Australia? This anthology, compiled by award-winning author Anita Heiss, showcases many diverse voices, experiences and stories in order to answer that question. Accounts from well-known authors and high-profile identities sit alongside those from newly discovered writers of all ages. All of the contributors speak from the heart - sometimes calling for empathy, oftentimes challenging stereotypes, always demanding respect.This groundbreaking collection will enlighten, inspire and educate about the lives of Aboriginal people in Australia today.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have historically been marginalised in the Australian education system in multiple ways. A literature review of the field has shown that training of more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers has been a key effort proposed to redress marginalisation, alongside other efforts at making schooling contexts more proactive and inclusive. However, Australian universities studies have shown Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education students have higher rates of withdrawal from their teaching programs and there is little information on why or how this can be overcome in a practical sense. Applying a critical approach, this book is distinctive in that it reports on a study investigating why Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students succeed and withdraw from education units/degrees. This is based on the university responsible for the producing the most teachers in Australia, and under the advice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander reference groups. It draws on data from a survey, discussion-board blogs and focus groups developed with the aid of local communities. Its findings offer important insights to university administrators and lecturers in education, schools, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and current/returning students of education on such themes as the diversity of this student group, elements that lead to success and elements impacting withdrawal from education programs for the group. The study approached its participants experiences holistically, considering contextual elements such as university curricula, support features, advice conduits, and also experiences of racism and cultural sensitivity on teaching practicums, for example. The study allowed opportunities for students to talk about their diverse cultural groups and to narrate their own stories of success and withdrawal directly, so that they contribute to their co-construction in the book. The result is a book that is informative to its stakeholders, but also genuinely affirming of all contributing participants, which concentrates the focus of future actions on institutions rather than problematizing individuals. The final chapter contains a set of clear research-based recommendations that can be enacted.

Learning and Teaching in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education 3rd edition helps pre-service teachers prepare themselves for the challenges and joys of teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in urban, remote and rural primary and secondary schools. It also prepares teachers to include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in their programming. The overall aim of this text is to make Indigenous Australia a reference point for all students. This book balances educational theory with practical teaching strategies. It is full of case studies, examples and a range of voices and personal stories from students, pre-service teachers, indigenous community members to convey the richness and diversity of Australian classrooms.

This volume addresses the contentious and topical issue of aboriginal self-government over child welfare. Using case studies from Australia and Canada, it discusses aboriginal child welfare in historical and comparative perspectives and critically examines recent legal reforms and changes in the design, management and delivery of child welfare services aimed at securing the 'decolonization' of aboriginal children and families. Within this context, the author identifies the limitations of reconciling the conflicting demands of self-determination and sovereignty and suggests that international law can provide more nuanced and culturally sensitive solutions. Referring to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, it is argued that the effective decolonization of aboriginal child welfare requires a journey well beyond the single issue of child welfare to the heart of the debate over self-government, self-determination and sovereignty in both national and international law.

This edited collection by leading Australian Aboriginal scholars uses data from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC) to explore how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are growing up in contemporary Australia. The authors provide an overview of the study, including the Indigenous methodological and ethical framework which guides the analysis. They also address the resulting policy ramifications, alongside the cultural, social, educational and family dynamics of Indigenous children's lives. Indigenous Children Growing Up Strong will be of interest to students and scholars in the areas of sociology, social work, anthropology and childhood and youth studies.

Introduction -- 1. The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples -- 2. Reconciliation, trust and liberal inclusion -- 3. The declaration and the postsettler liberal state: perspectives from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States -- 4. Plurality, human rights and what's wrong with liberal inclusion? -- 5. Self-determination-the power and the practice -- 6. The declaration in comparative context -- 7. Sovereignty -- 8. Difference, deliberation and reason -- 9. Differentiated citizenship: a liberal politics of potential -- Conclusion.

This handbook is a comprehensive interdisciplinary overview of indigenous peoples' rights. Chapters by experts in the field examine legal, philosophical, sociological and political issues, addressing a wide range of themes at the centre of debates on the rights of indigenous peoples. The book addresses not only the major questions, such as 'Who are indigenous peoples? What is distinctive about their rights? How are their rights constructed and protected? What is the relationship between national indigenous rights regimes and international norms?' but also themes such as culture, identity, genocide, globalization and development, and the environment.

Today human rights represent a primary concern of the international legal system. The international community's commitment to the protection and promotion of human rights, however, does not always produce the results hoped for by the advocates of a more justice-oriented system of international law. Indeed international law is often criticised for, inter alia, its enduring imperial character, incapacity to minimize inequalities and failure to take human suffering seriously. Against this background, the central question that this book aims to answer is whether the adoption of the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples points to the existence of an international law that promises to provide valid responses to the demands for justice of disempowered and vulnerable groups.

The rights of indigenous peoples under international law have seen significant change in recent years, as various international bodies have attempted to address the question of how best to protect and enforce their rights. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples isthe strongest statement thus far by the international community on this issue. The Declaration was adopted by the United Nations on 13 September 2007, and sets out the individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples, as well as their rights to culture, identity, language, employment, health,education, and other issues. While it is not a legally binding instrument under international law, it represents the development of international legal norms designed to eliminate human rights violations against indigenous peoples, and to help them in combating discrimination and marginalisation.This comprehensive commentary on the Declaration analyses in detail both the substantive content of the Declaration and the position of the Declaration within existing international law.