Dave Palmer

The methods used to track the history of mapping coastal areas has been highly reliant upon the journals, diaries, ships logs, maps and other accounts of European mariners that are presently available in the archival record. At times these records give some details of the part played by local Indigenous knowledge, skills, work and language. However, using these texts to arrive at authoritative conclusions about Indigenous influence in coastal exploration is far from reliable. This addresses re-visits some of the archival material concerned with coastal exploration along the southern areas of Western Australia, drawing out instances where Nyungar took ‘centre stage’ and where mariners where shaped by their desire for and reliance on Nyungar and Nyungar knowledge. In addition, to check and buttress these sources the paper draws upon Nyungar methods for ‘reading’ the history of contact along the southern coast. This includes seeking out Nyungar oral accounts, using knowledge of Nyungar language and place names, ‘reading’ old songs, visiting and listening to country and landscape, and using knowledge of Nyungar cultural forms as transmitted through the generations to ‘talk back’ to the old texts. It draws on the cultural experience and knowledge gained from koorling yirra Nyungar (growing up Nyungar), katajin Nyungar wangkiny (learning to speak the language) and katajin Nyungar (interpreting the ‘evidence’ using Nyungar ways of thinking). It takes the form of a dialogue between three friends and colleagues, two Nyungar and one Wedjela (non-Aboriginal), who have been koorliny katajin wangkiny Nyungar (going about thinking, talking and working this out) for many years. This dialogical structure will allow them to quiz each other and quiz the various historical sources.

This paper will describe a 3 year research project with marginalised and disenfranchised young people based in rural and regional Tasmania. In this project arts skills and processes where used to develop various forms of performance texts. These texts became the basis of a series of radio plays and performance projects with the objective of developing intergenerational relationships, promoting social inclusion and building identity. The research revealed how performative means can: • unleash creativity • expand horizons • build social bonds • create a sense of common experience • re-engage people experiencing dislocation and isolation with communities around them • provide pathways back to education and into employment • provide vitality to communities and quality of life. It is these artistic processes that allow young people to CELEBRATE (the present), HONOUR (the past), and ENVISION (the future).

In this chapter we show how a relational ontology can underpin education for sustainability, by locating the learning process within children’s own place and community. We show how an open, inquiry-based, relational approach can lead the children into a deeper understanding of the place and community that sustains them, and ultimately into a deeper sense of stewardship for that place. We show that sustainability education and values education can support each other.

With the proliferation of formal mentoring programs in schools it is important to understand the nature of mentoring and the outcomes that can be expected. This paper examines the findings of a national pilot project of mentoring programs for indigenous students, and interprets them in terms of motivation and the socio-cultural contexts which supported the mentoring relationship. The pilot projects were implemented in 53 school sites around Australia. The evaluation used multiple methods, including document analysis, checklists and semi-structured interviews with participants. The findings showed that students who were supported by a mentor (usually one-to-one) for as little as one hour per week displayed and reported increased self-confidence, enhanced valuing of school and increased participation in classroom tasks. Students also improved relationships with peers, teachers and family members. The paper discusses the socially supported nature of the mentoring relationship and its role in community building.

This paper elaborates on points made by post-colonial writers about ambivalence and how non-Aboriginal people draw on and use Aboriginality. Using evidence from an ethnographic study of loopies (alternatively known as Grey Nomads) the paper will explore how at one and the same time many non-Aboriginal people spurn and yearn for Aboriginality. The discussion includes an exploration of how loopies reproduce what they consider to be the Aboriginal tendency to go on walkabout; ‘get a bit of colour’; lament their own lack culture; desire timelessness; and be obsessed with reclaiming land. What becomes clear is that many of loopie’s stories about Aborigines are more likely projections of their own unconscious desires. What is more, often these desires are expressed by loopies living out the very kind of life they affix to Aborigines. Given half the chance, loopies, particularly male loopies, are the first to “go walkabout”, “go bush”, and “become a blackfella”.