Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Australian Indigenous community'
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1
Mudhan, Parmesh. "Participation of Indigenous students in education: an exploration of the significance of place in an Indigenous community school." Thesis, Mudhan, Parmesh (2008) Participation of Indigenous students in education: an exploration of the significance of place in an Indigenous community school. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2008. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/693/.
Full textAbstract:
This study explores the pedagogical significance of life experiences of Indigenous students from an Australian community school and its relation to school participation. In particular the study focuses on the implications of students’ associations with ‘place’ on school curriculum. With the rate of participation of Indigenous students in education currently lower compared with non-Indigenous students, this study further informs our understanding of this phenomenon.
The study is interpretive, based on the perspectives of students, staff and parents of an Indigenous community school successful in improving participation of Indigenous students to Year 10, and informed by the researcher’s own lived experiences teaching Indigenous students in three different countries. During this time, it was observed that Indigenous students’ association with place was a significant factor in their participation in education.
Gruenewald’s multidimensional framework for place-conscious education is employed to guide the analysis and interpretation of data as it provides a means of addressing two important issues revealed in the review of literature on participation. First, participation is examined and interpreted in different ways, and second, a common thread in the differing interpretations is the concept of place. Analyses of the data reveal two overarching dimensions: Place and Aboriginality. Further analysis, informed by notions of place-conscious education reveal five identifiable elements for enhancing participation of Indigenous students in education: Curriculum Method, Curriculum Content, Careers, Partners and Identity. Educational programs that recognise how these elements are related to place and action them are likely to be more effective in enhancing participation of Indigenous students in education.
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Mudhan, Parmesh. "Participation of Indigenous students in education: an exploration of the significance of place in an Indigenous community school." Mudhan, Parmesh (2008) Participation of Indigenous students in education: an exploration of the significance of place in an Indigenous community school. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2008. http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/693/.
Full textAbstract:
This study explores the pedagogical significance of life experiences of Indigenous students from an Australian community school and its relation to school participation. In particular the study focuses on the implications of students’ associations with ‘place’ on school curriculum. With the rate of participation of Indigenous students in education currently lower compared with non-Indigenous students, this study further informs our understanding of this phenomenon.
The study is interpretive, based on the perspectives of students, staff and parents of an Indigenous community school successful in improving participation of Indigenous students to Year 10, and informed by the researcher’s own lived experiences teaching Indigenous students in three different countries. During this time, it was observed that Indigenous students’ association with place was a significant factor in their participation in education.
Gruenewald’s multidimensional framework for place-conscious education is employed to guide the analysis and interpretation of data as it provides a means of addressing two important issues revealed in the review of literature on participation. First, participation is examined and interpreted in different ways, and second, a common thread in the differing interpretations is the concept of place. Analyses of the data reveal two overarching dimensions: Place and Aboriginality. Further analysis, informed by notions of place-conscious education reveal five identifiable elements for enhancing participation of Indigenous students in education: Curriculum Method, Curriculum Content, Careers, Partners and Identity. Educational programs that recognise how these elements are related to place and action them are likely to be more effective in enhancing participation of Indigenous students in education.
3
Bambrick, Hilary Jane, and Hilary Bambrick@anu edu au. "Child growth and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in a Queensland Aboriginal Community." The Australian National University. Faculty of Arts, 2003. http://thesis.anu.edu.au./public/adt-ANU20050905.121211.
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Globally, the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes is rising. The most affected populations are those that have undergone recent and rapid transition towards a Western lifestyle, characterised by energy-dense diets and physical inactivity.¶
Two major hypotheses have attempted to explain the variation in diabetes prevalence, both between and within populations, beyond the contributions made by adult lifestyle. The thrifty genotype hypothesis proposes that some populations are genetically well adapted to surviving in a subsistence environment, and are predisposed to develop diabetes when the dietary environment changes to one that is fat and carbohydrate rich. The programming hypothesis focuses on the developmental environment, particularly on prenatal and early postnatal conditions: nutritional deprivation in utero and early postnatal life, measured by low birthweight and disrupted child growth, is proposed to alter metabolism permanently so that risk of diabetes is increased with subsequent exposure to an energy-dense diet. Both hypotheses emphasise discord between adaptation (genetic or developmental) and current environment, and both now put forward insulin resistance as a likely mechanism for predisposition.¶
Diabetes contributes significantly to morbidity and mortality among Australia’s Indigenous population. Indigenous babies are more likely to be low birthweight, and typical patterns of child growth include periods of faltering and rapid catch-up. Although there have been numerous studies in other populations, the programming hypothesis has not previously been tested in an Australian Indigenous community. The framework of the programming hypothesis is thus expanded to consider exposure of whole populations to adverse prenatal and postnatal environments, and the influence this may have on diabetes prevalence.¶
The present study took place in Cherbourg, a large Aboriginal community in southeast Queensland with a high prevalence of diabetes. Study participants were adults with diagnosed diabetes and a random sample of adults who had never been diagnosed with diabetes. Data were collected on five current risk factors for diabetes (general and central obesity, blood pressure, age and family history), in addition to fasting blood glucose levels. A lifestyle survey was also conducted. Participants’ medical records detailing weight growth from birth to five years were analysed with regard to adult diabetes risk to determine whether childhood weight and rate of weight gain were associated with subsequent diabetes. Adult lifestyle factors were
xiialso explored to determine whether variation in nutrition and physical activity was related to level of diabetes risk.¶
Approximately 20% of adults in Cherbourg have diagnosed diabetes. Prevalence may be as high as 38.5% in females and 42% in males if those who are high-risk (abnormal fasting glucose and three additional factors) are included. Among those over 40 years, total prevalence is estimated to be 51% for females and 59% for males.¶
Patterns of early childhood growth may contribute to risk of diabetes among adults. In particular, relatively rapid weight growth to five years is associated with both general and central obesity among adult women. This lends some qualified support to the programming hypothesis as catch-up growth has previously been incorporated into the model; however, although the most consistent association was found among those who gained weight more rapidly, it was also found that risk is increased among children who are heavier at any age.¶
No consistent associations were found between intrauterine growth retardation (as determined by lower than median birthweight and higher than median weight growth velocity to one and three months) and diabetes risk among women or men. A larger study sample with greater statistical power may have yielded less ambiguous results.¶
Among adults, levels of physical activity may be more important than nutritional intake in moderating diabetes risk, although features of diet, such as high intake of simple carbohydrates, may contribute to risk in the community overall, especially in the context of physical inactivity. A genetic component is not ruled out. Two additional areas which require further investigation include stress and high rates of infection, both of which are highly relevant to the study community, and may contribute to the insulin resistance syndrome.¶
Some accepted thresholds indicating increased diabetes risk may not be appropriate in this population. Given the relationship between waist circumference and other diabetes risk factors and the propensity for central fat deposition among women even with low body mass index (BMI), it is recommended that the threshold where BMI is considered a risk be lowered by 5kg/m2 for women, while no such recommendation is made for men.¶
There are a number of social barriers to better community health, including attitudes to exercise and obesity, patterns of alcohol and tobacco use and consumption of fresh foods. Some of these barriers are exacerbated by gender roles and expectations.¶
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Simone, Nicole R. "Teachers perspectives of embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' histories and cultures in mathematics." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2022. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/227459/1/Nicole_Simone_Thesis.pdf.
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This thesis explored how six teachers of mathematics embedded Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ Histories and Cultures into the core mathematics curriculum. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, then written transcripts were analysed through the use of Bernstein’s Theory of Pedagogic Discourse. Teachers shared their perspectives on how they have developed their cultural capabilities, and how this has informed culturally responsive teaching of mathematics. Recommendations are made for how to support in-service teachers with their personal cultural capabilities to authentically embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ Histories and Cultures in mathematics curriculum.
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Belicic, Michael Joseph. "Alcohol and violence in Aboriginal communities : issues, programs and healing initiatives." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 1999.
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Alcohol misuse is considered the most significant cause of violence in
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. All members of the Aboriginal
community feel the impact of heavy alcohol consumption and related violence.
Initiatives that attempt to reduce alcohol consumption as a strategy to decrease crisis
levels of violence have had limited success. This thesis examines the extent and
patterns of Aboriginal alcohol consumption and explores the relationship between
alcohol misuse and violence, using secondary statistical and exploratory literature. It
will be contended that: the link between alcohol misuse and violence is not a simple
cause and effect relationship; and Aboriginal family and community violence are
symptoms of underlying social and psychological trauma.
This thesis presents qualitative researched case studies of Aboriginal alcohol treatment organisations, and Aboriginal initiatives that address the issues underlying violence. It is argued that interventions focusing on alcohol alone will not reduce family violence and community dysfunction. A "grassroots," Aboriginal community based response is presented as an alternative to reactive and short-term interventions.
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Hill, Barbara Ann, and mikewood@deakin edu au. "The identity and autonomy of the indigenous community within Christianity." Deakin University. School of History, Heritage and Society, 2004. http://tux.lib.deakin.edu.au./adt-VDU/public/adt-VDU20060817.094156.
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Walker, Roz, University of Western Sydney, of Arts Education and Social Sciences College, and School of Humanities. "Transformative strategies in indigenous education : a study of decolonisation and positive social change : the Indigenous Community Management Program, Curtin University." THESIS_CAESS_HUM_Walker_R.xml, 2004. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/678.
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This thesis is located within the social and political context of Indigenous education within Australia. Indigenous people continue to experience unacceptable levels of disadvantage and social marginalisation. The struggle for indigenous students individually and collectively lies in being able to determine a direction which is productive and non-assimilationist – which offers possibilities of social and economic transformation, equal opportunities and cultural integrity and self-determination. The challenge for teachers within the constraints of the academy is to develop strategies that are genuinely transformative, empowering and contribute to decolonisation and positive social change. This thesis explores how the construction of two theoretical propositions – the Indigenous Community Management and Development (ICMD) practitioner and the Indigenous/non-Indigenous Interface – are decolonising and transformative strategies. It investigates how these theoretical constructs and associated discourses are incorporated into the Centre’s policy processes, curriculum and pedagogy to influence and interact with the everyday lives of students in their work and communities and the wider social institutions. It charts how a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff interact with these propositions and different ideas and discourses interrupting, re-visioning, reformulating and integrating these to form the basis for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous futures in Australia.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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Owen, Julie. "Development of a culturally sensitive program delivering cardiovascular health education to indigenous Australians, in South-West towns of Western Australia with lay educators as community role models." University of Western Australia. School of Population Health, 2006. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2006.0061.
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[Truncated abstract] Indigenous Australians suffer cardiovascular disease (CVD) at a rate six times greater than the general population in Australia and while the incidence of CVD has been reduced dramatically amongst the majority of non-indigenous Australians and amongst Indigenous populations in other countries in the last 30 years, there has been little change in the figures for Aboriginal Australians, showing that heart health campaigns have little impact, for this group of people. Aims : The principal aims of this study were firstly, to determine and record the barriers to the development and delivery of CVD prevention programs amongst Indigenous Australians and secondly, to develop an alternative, effective and culturally sensitive method of delivering heart health messages. Methods and results : The study was qualitative research undertaken in three South-West towns of Western Australia where the incidence of CVD was high amongst the Aboriginal community members. The use of semi-formal interviews, informal individual consultation, observation, and focus groups were methods implemented to obtain information. The first phase of the research was to identify the barriers which affected the Aboriginal Health Workers’ ability to deliver specialist educational programs. Questionnaires and interviews with the Aboriginal Health Workers and other health professionals in the towns, and community focus groups were undertaken in this phase of the study. The second phase of the research was aimed at developing an alternative strategy for delivering heart health messages. The focus changed to adopt more traditional ways of passing on information in Indigenous communities. The idea of small gatherings of friends or family with a trusted community member presenting the health message was developed. The third phase of the research was to implement this new approach. Lay educators who had been identified within focus groups and by Aboriginal Health Workers were trained in each of the towns and a protocol involving discussions of health issues, viewing a video on CVD, produced by the National Heart Foundation, sharing in a ‘heart healthy’ lunch and partaking in a ‘heart health’ knowledge game which was developed specifically for the gatherings. Several of these gatherings were held in each of the towns and they became known as ‘HeartAware parties’.
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Davis, Kierrynn, University of Western Sydney, Faculty of Social Inquiry, and School of Social Ecology. "Cartographies of rural community nursing and primary health care: mapping the in-between spaces." THESIS_FSI_SEL_Davis_K.xml, 1998. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/470.
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This postmodern feminist ethnographies research aimed to explore the everyday meanings of primary health care (PHC) held by rural community nurses. Secondly, the research aimed to explore the everyday meanings of care held by the clients of the rural community nurses who participated in the study. The representation of this research is written in four voices which converse with each other to varying degrees in each chapter. This writing strategy is a deliberate one aimed at destabilising the usual approach to representation of research. It is also a strategy which seeks methodological coherence. The third aim therefore is to deliberately trouble the acceptable grounds concerning how nursing research is represented. The research utilised dialogical (conversational)and participant observation methods concerning the everyday meanings of nurses and their clients.The meanings I made of the information were created from a deconstruction of the texts. These texts included fieldnotes of participant observations and transcripts of conversations with nurses and their clients. The form of deconstruction utilised was informed from multiple sources and involved three levels of analysis. A realist interpretation was followed by an oppositional interpretation and then a reconstructive movement. The results revealed that rural community nurses practice is both spatio-temporally contextualised and metaphorically situated in an in-between space. This in-between space is situated between margin and the centre. Rural community nurses working on the margins traverse this space in order to overcome further marginalisation whilst working with Indigenous Australians and the aged. Moreover, the in-between space encompasses and creates opportunities to mutually exchange the gift of desire that being - empowering and compassionate relationships with clients and colleagues. Futhermore, whilst rural community nurses are strongly committed to the philosophy of PHC, their evryday working life is discursively constructed by powerful discourses which result in oppositional tensions. The tensions and the 'in-between' space allow the rhetoric of PHC to be resisted and reframed. Consequently, the oppositional constructs of their practice were displaced. Moreover, this necessitated the negotiation of space and place, and required the reconstruction of subjectivity, intersubjectivity and becomingDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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Reinke, Leanne 1964. "Community, communication and contradiction : the political implications of changing modes of communication in indigenous communities of Australia and Mexico." Monash University, School of Political and Social Inquiry, 2001. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/8812.
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O'Donnell, Rosemary Susan. "The value of autonomy : Christianity, organisation and performance in an Aboriginal community." University of Sydney, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/6025.
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Doctor of Philosophy(PhD)This study traces a particular instance in the evolution of Indigenous organisation at Ngukurr, as it developed from mission to town. It is framed in terms of a contrast between centralised and laterally extended forms of organisation, as characteristic modes associated with Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. It is also framed in terms of a contrast between orders of value indicative of centralised hierarchies and laterally extended forms of organisation. Central to this account is the way in which evolving social orders provide different foci for the realisation of authority and autonomy in people’s lives at Ngukurr. I trace the ways in which missionaries and government agents have repeatedly presented autonomy to Aboriginal people at Ngukurr as a form of self-sufficiency, both in the course of colonial and post-colonial regimes in Australia. I also trace a failure in Aboriginal affairs policies to recognise forms of sociality and organisation that do not operate to locate the autonomous subject in a hierarchy of relations, premised on the capacity of individuals for economic independence. I also address Aboriginal responses to non-Indigenous interventions at Ngukurr, which have largely differed from missionary and policy aims. I show how Aboriginal evangelism emerged as a response to assimilation initiatives, which affirmed an evolving Indigenous system of differentiation and prestige. I also show how this system has been transformed through dynamics of factionalism associated with the control of resource niches, which has been playing out since the 1970s at Ngukurr. By illustrating how centralised and laterally extended forms of organisation engage each other over time, this study reveals the highly ambiguous values now attending varied realisations of autonomy and expressions of authority in the contemporary situation. There is then a pervasive tension in social relations at Ngukurr, as the dynamism of laterally extended and labile groups continually circumvents the linear pull of centralised hierarchies.
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Best, Odette Michel, and n/a. "Community Control Theory and Practice: a Case Study of the Brisbane Aboriginal and Islander Community Health Service." Griffith University. School of Arts, Media and Culture, 2004. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20060529.144246.
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It is accepted protocol among Indigenous communities to identify one's link to land. I was born and raised in Brisbane. My birth grandmother is a Goreng Goreng woman, my birth grandfather is a Punthamara man. However, I was adopted by a Koombumberri man and an anglo-celtic mother after being removed at birth under the Queensland government policy of the day. The action of my removal and placement has had profound effects upon my growing and my place within my community today. For the last 15 years I have worked in the health sector. My current position is as a Lecturer within the Department of Nursing, Faculty of Science, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba. My areas of expertise are Indigenous Health and Primary Health Care. I have been employed in this capacity since January 2000. Prior to my full time employment as a nursing academic I have primarily been located within three areas of health which have directly impacted upon my current research. I was first positioned within health by undertaking my General Nurse Certificate through hospital-based training commenced in the late 1980s. For me this training meant being immersed within whiteness and specifically the white medical model. This meant learning a set of skills in a large institutionalised health care service with the provision of doctors, nurses, and allied medical staff through a hospital. Within this training there was no Indigenous health curriculum. The lectures provided on 'differing cultures' and health were on Muslim and Hindu beliefs about death. At that point I was painfully aware of the glaring omission of any representation of Indigenous health and of acknowledgment of the current outstanding health differentials between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. I knew that the colonisation process inflicted upon Indigenous Australians was one of devastation. The decline in our health status at the time of colonisation had been felt immediately. Since this time our health has been in decline. While in the 1980s it was now no longer acceptable to shoot us, poison our waterholes, and incarcerate us on missions, we were still experiencing the influence of the colonisation process, which had strong repercussions for our current health status. Our communities were and remain rife with substance abuse, violence, unemployment, and much more. For Indigenous Australians these factors cannot be separated from our initial experience of the colonisation process but are seen as the continuation of it. However, there was no representation of this and I received my first health qualification.
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Gower, Graeme. "Ethical research in indigenous contexts and the practical implementation of it." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2015. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1594.
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Research in Indigenous Australia has historically been controlled and dominated by non-Indigenous researchers. However, recent national research guidelines which have been developed by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and together with a number of other research guidelines that have been developed by other institutions, including the Australian Institute for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), have signalled a shift towards Indigenous ownership and control over research. However, despite these revised guidelines, researching in Indigenous contexts can still result in cultural insensitivities, neglect or disregard by researchers and mistrust by Indigenous participants. Similar issues have also been expressed by Indigenous academics such as Moreton-Robinson, Rigney and Nakata who advocate for further reforms in Indigenous research.
This thesis presents a documentary study on the application of the NHMRC’s ethical research guidelines of research involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. A unique case study has been chosen to examine the adequacy of the 1991 and 2003 guidelines in conducting ethical research and best practice in Indigenous contexts. The case study evaluation reveals that good ethics practice can be compromised by third parties who are involved in the research process but are not subject to ethical conduct and secondly, by the absence of cultural competence training in research. To minimise risks and to develop effective relationships between researchers and participants, cultural competence training is advocated in this thesis.
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Walker, Roz. "Transformative strategies in Indigenous education a study of decolonisation and positive social change." Click here for electronic access, 2004. http://adt.caul.edu.au/homesearch/get/?mode=advanced&format=summary&nratt=2&combiner0=and&op0=ss&att1=DC.Identifier&combiner1=and&op1=-sw&prevquery=OR%28REL%28SS%3BDC.Identifier%3Buws.edu.au%29%2CREL%28WD%3BDC.Relation%3BNUWS%29%29&att0=DC.Title&val0=Transformative+strategies+in+indigenous+education+&val1=NBD%3A.
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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2004.Title from electronic document (viewed 15/6/10) Presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of Western Sydney, 2004. Includes bibliography.
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McPhail-Bell, Karen. ""We don't tell people what to do": An ethnography of health promotion with Indigenous Australians in South East Queensland." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2016. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/91587/1/Karen%20McPhail-Bell%20Thesis.pdf.
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This thesis contributes to the decolonisation of health promotion by examining Indigenous-led health promotion practice in an urban setting. Using critical ethnography, the study revealed dialogical, identity-based approaches that centred relationship, community control and choice. Based on the findings, the thesis proposes four interrelated principles for decolonising health promotion and argues that Indigenous-led health promotion presents a way to bridge the rhetoric and practice of empowerment in Australian mainstream health promotion practice.
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Butten, Kaley Verlaine. "Oral health in an urban, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in Queensland, Australia and the development of a culturally specific health-related quality of life measurement tool." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2020. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/204193/1/Kaley_Butten_Thesis.pdf.
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Within Australia, data on the oral health and health-related quality of life experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children living in urban areas are lacking. This project utilised a mixed-methods approach to contribute new epidemiological and life experience data to the field of oral health and create a culturally specific, parent-proxy tool to measure the health-related quality of life of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. These findings provide contemporary oral health data to inform policy and a foundation for the development of other culturally specific health-related quality of life measures for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
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May, Sally. "Karrikadjurren : creating community with an art centre in Indigenous Australia." Phd thesis, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/151351.
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Njume, Collise. "Bioactive Components of Australian Native Plant species and their Potential Antidiabetic Application within the Indigenous Community." Thesis, 2020. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/41825/.
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Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), driven by overweight and obesity linked to unhealthy diets, is the fastest-growing non-communicable disease in Australia. Considering that food is an important parameter in the regulation of blood glucose response, replacing ‘junk food’ with products that are good regulators of postprandial blood glucose (PPG) may go a long way to reduce the rate of T2DM in Australia. This study was designed to develop new food products that have the potential for use as nutritional preventatives against escalating levels of T2DM within the Australian Indigenous community. Edible portions of eight Australian native plant species namely; Leucopogon parviflorus, Arthropodium strictum, Carpobrotus rossii, Rhagodia candolleana, Typha orientalis, Correa alba, Dianella revoluta and Acacia longifolia were collected from the coast of Warrnambool, Victoria Australia. The plant species were analysed for proximate, minerals, fatty acids and phenolic composition following the methods of the Association of Official Analytical Chemistry (AOAC), Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectometry (ICP), High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography/Mass spectrometry analysis (GCMS). Plant species that exhibited significantly high amounts of nutrients, antioxidants and antidiabetic polyphenols were selected for development of potential antidiabetic food preventatives. The developed food products (Acabungi flakes and crackers) were evaluated for acceptability and the cracker was further studied for stability and microbiological load. Its Glycaemic index (GI) was estimated by in-vitro enzymatic starch hydrolysis.
All eight plant species were found to be sources of carbohydrates (39.7 - 65.5%), proteins (2.6 - 15.1%), fats (1 - 14.3%), total dietary fibre (1.5 - 17.2%) and contained Ca, Mg, Na and K. The species exhibited consistent antioxidant activity with phyto-components of gallic acid (GA), epigallocatechin (EPC), catechin (CH), epigallocatechingallate (EPG), dihydroquinidine (DHQ), ρ-coumaric acid (PCA) and luteolin (LT). The betacyanin, betanidin 5-O-β-glucoside (BT) was detected in R. candolleana (700 mg/kg) and C. rossi (244 mg/kg) while the alkaloid, Dihydroquinidine (DHQ) was detected in D. revoluta (101 ± 5.7 mg/kg) and T. orientalis (17 ± 7.1 mg/kg). However, not all the compounds were isolated from a single plant species and except for BT, higher quantities of components were extractable in methanol than water (P<0.05). Palmitic, oleic and linoleic acids were the dominant of 10 fatty acids detected in the native species with record quantities of 4.2 - 39%, 12.3 - 39% and <0.5 - 44% respectively. No single species had all 10 fatty acids. The cracker, with a record overall consumer acceptability of 70.5% remained stable and unchanged with no microbial growth after 35-days storage at room temperature under light and in the dark. The cracker contained significant amounts of total dietary fiber, proteins, complex carbohydrates and exhibited a low GI of 47.7. R. candolleana and A. longifolia were found to have high contents of betanin and linoleic acid respectively, two components with potentially wide industrial application. Further studies to determine the antidiabetic mechanism of action of the cracker would shed more light on its potential application.
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Graham, Veronica Elizabeth Lorraine. "Realist evaluation for programs designed to reduce demand and harms of substance misuse at the community level in Australian remote Indigenous community settings." Thesis, 2022. https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/76271/1/JCU_76271_Graham_2022_thesis.pdf.
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This thesis reviewed NHMRC-funded, community-level substance misuse interventions, documenting: outcomes; study designs; implicit program theory; and assumptions. Data from one intervention project, targeting cannabis misuse in Cape York, exemplified common evaluation constraints, and informed hypothetical context-mechanism-outcome clusters for a plausible program theory and proposed theory-driven evaluation.
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Doyle, Kerrie. "Psychological distress and community exclusion in Indigenous communities: a convergent parallel (mixed methods) study." Phd thesis, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/144180.
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Indigenous people make up approximately 3% of the Australian
population, but carry a heavy burden of mental ill-health. Almost
75% of Indigenous people have moderate to severe scores on the
Kessler 10 measure of psychological distress. Robust research
recognises racism as a risk factor for depression and social
exclusion. However, there are significant within-community
factors that add to the level of psychological distress. Using
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological social capital model, Tajfel’s
social identity theory and a created model of indigenist research
(the Yerin Dilly Bag model) a 52-item questionnaire was created
for a mixed method, parallel convergent study to answer the
research questions: 1) What are the risks and protective factors
that contribute to psychological distress in Indigenous
populations?; 2) What is the self-perceived level of community
inclusion / exclusion of Indigenous Australians?; 3) Is being
manifestly Indigenous a protective factor for the psychological
distress of Indigenous Australians?; and 4) What interactions of
Indigenous participants with their communities add to the
prediction of psychological distress?
Using a purposive snowball sampling technique, 172 participants
from 3 Indigenous communities completed either a hard or
electronic questionnaire that assessed the perceived level of
their community inclusion, their skin colour scores, their level
of psychological distress and using a modified Measure of
Indigenous Racism Experiences (Paradies, 2006), their experience
of lateral violence, or community exclusion. Of these
participants, 32 were interviewed using eco-map genograms to
prompt narrative style questions about their life experiences,
ending in 45.5 hours of recorded interviews.
Quantitative data was scored using SPSS V23, with descriptive and
interpretive results obtained. Qualitative findings were coded
using thematic analysis. Both data sets were then triangulated
looking for silence, dissonance, and agreements, using
Bronfenbrenner’s four systems of ecological social capital
model.
Results demonstrated that the most reliable predictor of
psychological distress in Indigenous people was community
exclusion. The risk factors for community exclusion are living
off country, having a different skin colour to the majority of
the community (either darker or fairer), and not being involved
with the Indigenous people in one’s family.
Interventions to improve mental well-being are best placed in the
mesosystem of Bronfenbrenner’s model, and might include
increasing access to family support services, and alternative
ways of being formally recognised as ‘Indigenous’. The Yerin
Dilly Bag model is a useful method for working in Indigenous
communities as it keeps the focus of the research on the best
outcomes for Indigenous communities, where the focus should
always be.
Policy makers need to consider vehicles of community and social
inclusion to decrease psychological distress and its concomitent
risk of depression in Indigenous people and communities.
Indigenous communities are often violent places, and all
interventions need to have community inclusion as a core
component. Unless this root cause of psychological distress is
addressed, Indigenous Australians will continue to live with a
high risk of inter and intra generational depression.
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Bambrick, Hilary. "Child growth and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in a Queensland Aboriginal Community." Phd thesis, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/46071.
Full textAbstract:
Globally, the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes is rising. The most affected populations are those that have undergone recent and rapid transition towards a Western lifestyle, characterised by energy-dense diets and physical inactivity. Two major hypotheses have attempted to explain the variation in diabetes prevalence, both between and within populations, beyond the contributions made by adult lifestyle. The thrifty genotype hypothesis proposes that some populations are genetically well adapted to surviving in a subsistence environment, and are predisposed to develop diabetes when the dietary environment changes to one that is fat and carbohydrate rich. The programming hypothesis focuses on the developmental environment, particularly on prenatal and early postnatal conditions: nutritional deprivation in utero and early postnatal life, measured by low birthweight and disrupted child growth, is proposed to alter metabolism permanently so that risk of diabetes is increased with subsequent exposure to an energy-dense diet. Both hypotheses emphasise discord between adaptation (genetic or developmental) and current environment, and both now put forward insulin resistance as a likely mechanism for predisposition.¶ Diabetes contributes significantly to morbidity and mortality among Australia’s Indigenous population. Indigenous babies are more likely to be low birthweight, and typical patterns of child growth include periods of faltering and rapid catch-up. Although there have been numerous studies in other populations, the programming hypothesis has not previously been tested in an Australian Indigenous community. The framework of the programming hypothesis is thus expanded to consider exposure of whole populations to adverse prenatal and postnatal environments, and the influence this may have on diabetes prevalence.¶ The present study took place in Cherbourg, a large Aboriginal community in southeast Queensland with a high prevalence of diabetes. Study participants were adults with diagnosed diabetes and a random sample of adults who had never been diagnosed with diabetes. Data were collected on five current risk factors for diabetes (general and central obesity, blood pressure, age and family history), in addition to fasting blood glucose levels. A lifestyle survey was also conducted. Participants’ medical records detailing weight growth from birth to five years were analysed with regard to adult diabetes risk to determine whether childhood weight and rate of weight gain were associated with subsequent diabetes. Adult lifestyle factors were also explored to determine whether variation in nutrition and physical activity was related to level of diabetes risk. ...
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Massola, Catherine Anna. "Living the heritage, not curating the past: a study of lirrgarn, agency & art in the Warmun Community." Phd thesis, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/101039.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis is an historical and contemporary examination of the
creative, social and cultural world of the Warmun community in
Western Australia. It focuses on how the community as a whole,
and as individuals, exert agency and maintain their values and
priorities when situated within larger, sometimes more powerful,
structures and frameworks that differ from their own.
Through the prism of art, the research examines the community's
engagement with and value of the Warmun Community Collection,
their history of adjustment, the unofficial roles of the Warmun
Art Centre and how the Warmun Art Centre supports and enables
informal learning. The thesis connects these four themes through
a socio-historical analysis of the experiences of Warrmarn
people, ethnographic and visual descriptions of their actions and
a visual examination of the manifestations of their
actions—objects of creative practice or, artworks.
In doing so, the thesis reveals several overlapping matters: it
tracks the development of a museum in an Aboriginal community; it
brings to light the hidden roles of the Warmun Art Centre; it
contributes to the developing field of informal learning; it
reveals how people express agency in daily life; it unveils the
proprietorial relationship people have with objects; and finally,
it lays bare the purpose, use and interpretations of objects,
which has at times made Warmun residents, and their sites of
cultural production, tangential to the objects they make. The
research finds that Warrmarn people live their heritage rather
than curate their past.
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Goreng, Goreng Tjanara. "Tjukurpa Pulka The Road to Eldership How Aboriginal Culture Creates Sacred and Visionary Leaders." Phd thesis, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/149431.
Full textAbstract:
Robert Kegan says that sacred leadership is a particular order of consciousness that applies to people who have navigated their emotional stages of development to become individuals who go beyond the ego to become ‘sacred’ in their thinking and being. They are leaders who motivate and inspire others to follow them. In Aboriginal communities in Australia, Elders have always been considered leaders because of similar qualities to those espoused by Kegan and other western sacred and visionary leadership theorists. Indigenous researchers and writers in the field express the wisdom of our Elders as leaders in our language that espouses similar theories of sacredness. This thesis examines Elders as sacred leaders through the process of their development in Aboriginal culture, education and experiences and analyses that through the western and Indigenous leadership theoretical lens. The research was undertaken utilising Robert Kegan’s theories of western leadership, in particular, his work on higher levels of thinking in transformational leadership from an educational psychology perspective and Erik Erickson’s Stages of Human Development in addition examining the research of Indigenous leadership researchers and writers internationally and nationally. In addition, to explain the transformative processes of achieving higher levels of thinking when one’s development is arrested through colonisation, violence, abuse, dependency and acculturation, the thesis seeks to find what practices or events in cultural development supported an individuals’ movement through the levels of thinking to sacred leadership based in these theories. The thesis examines whether these western theories have any application, correlation or parallels in Aboriginal culture. Utilising an Indigenous research methodology, four Aboriginal storytellers on their Roads to Eldership describe their life’s journeys which are then analysed to ascertain their development stages, levels of thinking, and their values and motivations as leaders and Elders. The aim is to ascertain whether these storytellers have achieved higher levels of thinking on their road to Eldership, through navigating their stages of development, and overcoming any arrested development experiences, challenges, adversities and their transformational actions. Furthermore, the thesis shows how Tjukurpa Pulka - following the Law in action, and the inclusion of cultural and ceremonial life - contributes to healing arrested development and enables development to Eldership and the choice to move onto become visionary and sacred leaders. On the basis of my findings, the stories told, point to a contemporary practice of an ancient form of leadership development that mirrors the qualities and traits of higher levels of thinking. It shows how sacred leadership levels can be achieved through participation in cultural life, living in the Tjukurpa – the Law and spiritual business – and engaging in ceremonies, service to community, visioning and healing recovery processes. This study is important to show that Aboriginal culture has had a generational process of educating children and young adults with the vision of creating Elders as leaders who can serve their communities and it crosses clan groups because of the impacts of separation through colonisation. The research has a contribution to make to the maintenance of Aboriginal cultural knowledge specifically and to understanding the oral teachings and learnings of an ancient culture, as well as showing how this information can be applied to leadership development and theory in the present modern world.
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Barcham, Richard. "Theorising empowerment practice from the Pacific and Indigenous Australia." Phd thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/10317.
Full textAbstract:
Since the 1970s, the concept of empowerment has been widely adopted in a range of
fields from international development to education, and management to public health.
This diversity has enriched the literature on empowerment, but has also contributed to
a lack of precision in the way empowerment is defined and employed. In the field of
community psychology, empowerment is taken as the matter of central interest,
assuming individual, organisational and social dimensions, as it is oriented towards
people taking collective action to improve their circumstances by rectifying disparities
in power and control. Accepting the view that empowerment necessarily incorporates
these three dimensions of persons, groups and their interaction with society, this thesis asks whether there are universally applicable ways that organisations can intervene to support people to assume greater autonomy and control over their circumstances. This thesis is empirically grounded in four organisations and their social intervention practices. Three of these organisations are in the Pacific (Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Fiji) and one is in Aboriginal Australia. Across this variety of historical, social
and cultural settings, these groups show conceptual similarities in their operations and outreach methodologies. The case-study organisations share a philosophy that is
framed positively in terms of control by people of their social development, and
negatively as constrained by the effect of structures of colonising power relations.
They have in common the aim of producing personal, group and social change that is
transformative. Interrogating these similarities, the thesis explores the diverse literature on empowerment to develop a three-dimensional model of the empowering group called ‘the field of community control’. As a foundation for this model, the thesis advances a universalist view of human need based on the classes of security, identity and autonomy. It then employs Habermas’s concepts of dramaturgical, normative and teleological action to incorporate into the model a dynamic view of the group as the locus of control for personal and social change. Finally, the thesis draws on social action studies from the United States to develop the concept of social empowerment as agency. The model shows these individual, group and social dimensions in dynamic relation, and provides a framework for interpreting the change processes, indicators and outcomes of
empowerment in each dimension. The thesis reveals that empowerment occurs in the
transformative domains of risk and trust, critical consciousness and structural
innovation, these being the public goods that groups must produce to mobilise personal
and collective power.
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McGinnis, Gabrielle. ""We speak for country": Indigenous tourism development options for community engagement in Australia." Thesis, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1402923.
Full textAbstract:
Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)Indigenous communities around the world are becoming involved in tourism development to gain the social, economic, cultural and environmental benefits that the sector can offer. However, limitations in accessing resources, funding, support and skill-training may reduce many of the possible benefits of tourism development. These limitations may lead Indigenous communities to either not engage in tourism development or engage in options that may not best suit Indigenous people. The lack of suitable engagement options with Indigenous communities can lead to issues such as: commodification of culture; inauthenticity of cultural representation; loss of Indigenous knowledge, heritage and values; as well as the continuous deficit of social benefits, such as education and skill-training. This study aims to examine how alternative, digital options for engagement in, and control over, tourism development may mitigate these limitations and issues for Indigenous peoples and communities, while increasing the benefits of tourism development. The research for this study was conducted with the Wagiman community of Pine Creek in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia, who possess distinct representations of culture, identity and knowledge of country, as well as a broad range of data resources, including: collections of placenames; geographic data; ethnobiology data; interviews; and access to already established tourism infrastructures. These data resources support the evaluation of digital mapping and marketing of Wagiman knowledge through Google maps, websites and mobile apps as well as the feasibility of Indigenous tourism development, the conservation of local heritage, and potentially positive social benefits and political influence for the long term. The objective of this research is to determine: 1.) The options for engaging with the Wagiman participants in ways that benefit and empower the wider Wagiman and Pine Creek communities. 2.) Whether the Wagiman people of Pine Creek wish to engage in tourism development, and if so, what the options for engagement might be. 3.) Whether digital options for engagement in tourism development are viable for the authentic sharing, conservation and promotion of Wagiman heritage to tourists, younger generations of Wagiman people as well as the wider Pine Creek community. 4.) If tourists visiting Pine Creek are interested in local and Aboriginal tourism attractions and/or would access Wagiman knowledge on digital platforms while travelling. 5.) How should digital tourism and heritage products be managed to advance longer-term sustainability. This study finds that adopting Wagiman methodologies of research, such as oral knowledge-sharing on-site in Wagiman country, as well as through digital interpretation off-site, may help promote and conserve Wagiman, and wider community, heritage in Pine Creek. Digital options of Wagiman engagement in tourism may: 1.) foster local pride and empowerment by providing access to tourism and heritage resources, education and skill-training in research and development 2.) create stronger bonds of trust and friendship with outside researchers while conducting Wagiman-led research on-site and on-line 3.) promote awareness and authentic Wagiman heritage to tourists and locals 4.) diversify local tourism developments and 5.) create an integrated Wagiman and non-Indigenous co-management system for maintaining digital tourism products and heritage promotion for the long-term. The findings of this study suggest that adopting Indigenous methodologies may help engage Indigenous people and communities in leading research and development through culturally appropriate options thus decolonising tourism research and development while promoting trust between researchers and communities for long-term heritage conservation and social empowerment. This research is partly funded by an Australian Research Council (ARC) grant that focuses more broadly on providing practical, digital outputs for archiving spatial, biocultural knowledge of Aboriginal communities in Australia.
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Gibson, Padraic John. "‘Stop the war on Aborigines’: the Communist Party of Australia and the fight for Aboriginal rights 1920-1934." Thesis, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1429759.
Full textAbstract:
Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)This thesis provides a detailed historical reconstruction of the thought and practice of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) regarding Aboriginal rights from 1920-1934. Based primarily upon archives of the CPA press and internal CPA records, it charts a development from a perspective that failed to challenge the racism of the Australian mainstream, and even embraced some of these racist ideas, towards one of solidarity with Aboriginal resistance to colonisation. Running through this study is a critical engagement with early Marxist thought about Indigenous peoples and settler-colonialism. The classical Marxist tradition insisted on the importance of anti-racist and anti-colonial struggles for the revolutionary working-class movement. However, influential texts in this tradition also contained racist ideas about supposedly “primitive” Indigenous people in Australia and this contributed to the delayed emergence of a pro-Aboriginal communist perspective. As the CPA expanded to become a mass party during the Depression, the experiences of the Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association in NSW (forced underground in 1929) and continuing armed Aboriginal resistance in the Northern Territory, inspired theoretical innovation by Australian communists. In 1931, a CPA manifesto for Aboriginal rights drew on Marxist theory to profoundly articulate the ways that Australian capitalism was predicated on continuing Indigenous genocide, along with the importance of the Aboriginal struggle for the liberation of the entire working class. These new insights provided the basis for the first campaigns for Aboriginal rights by working-class organisations in Australian history. This campaigning stopped a police-planned massacre of Yolngu people in Arnhem Land 1933, challenged the imprisonment of Aboriginal warriors in Darwin in 1934 and laid the basis for a tradition of trade union solidarity that would play a crucial role in many campaigns for Aboriginal rights across Australia in the following decades.
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Fowkes, Lisa. "Settler-state ambitions and bureaucratic ritual at the frontiers of the labour market: Indigenous Australians and remote employment services 2011–2017." Phd thesis, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/160842.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis explores how policy is enacted – in this case, the
Australian Government’s labour market program for remote
unemployed people, initially known as the Remote Jobs and
Communities Program (RJCP) and then the Community Development
Programme (CDP). It outlines the development and delivery of the
program from 2011, when the then Labor Government identified the
need for a specific remote employment program, placing the
employment participation of remote Indigenous people (who made up
over 80% of the remote unemployed) at centre stage. It examines
the changes that occurred to the program following the 2013
election of a Coalition Government, including the introduction of
‘continuous’ Work for the Dole.
The focus of the thesis is on how patterns of practice have
emerged in these programs, in particular: how providers have
responded; how frontline workers navigate their roles; and how
‘Work for the Dole’ actually operates. What emerges is a gulf
between bureaucratic and political ambitions for these programs
and the ways in which participants and frontline workers view and
enact them. This is more than a problem of poor implementation or
the subversions of street-level bureaucrats and clients. There is
evidence of a more fundamental failure of technologies of
settler-state government as they are applied to remote Indigenous
peoples. On the remote, intercultural frontiers of the labour
market, the limits of centralised attempts at ‘reform’ become
clear. Practices intended to tutor Indigenous people in the ways
of the labour market are emptied of meaning. The Indigenous
people who are the targets of governing efforts fail to conform
with desired behaviours of ‘self-governing’ citizens, even in
the face of escalating penalties. As a result, government
ambitions to transform the behaviours and subjectivities of
Indigenous people are reduced to bureaucratic rituals,
represented in numbers and graphs on computer screens in
Canberra.
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Mitchell, Myles Bevan. "The Esperance Nyungars, at the Frontier: An archaeological investigation of mobility, aggregation and identity in late- Holocene Aboriginal society, Western Australia." Phd thesis, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/117827.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis documents the results of an Aboriginal
community-based archaeological research project in the Esperance
region, southern Western Australia. It is based on analysis of
rock art, stone arrangements and flaked stone artefacts. The aim
is to understand the role of the study sites – Belinup and
Marbaleerup – within patterns of movement that underpinned
society and economy in this region during the late-Holocene. The
research explores concepts of identity (Jones 1997; Meskell and
Preucel 2004) relating to the local Esperance Nyungar people, and
the broader Noongar and Western Desert cultural blocs. It has
been suggested that negotiations over territory, law and identity
during the recent past were directly related to the expansion of
the Western Desert cultural bloc (Gibbs and Veth 2002), which
situates the study area at a dynamic frontier of cultural change.
Exploration of these questions leads to a discussion about the
historical construction of Esperance Nyungar identity.
The study sites are hypothesised to have functioned in the past
as aggregation locales (Conkey 1980). Investigation of this
hypothesis is illuminative; firstly, for understanding more about
the study sites; and secondly about the application of the
aggregation concept, and its limitations for archaeology. The
results inform a discussion of how mobility (Binford 1980; Kelly
1992) and aggregation can be usefully applied together to
investigate the intersections of social and economic elements in
hunter-gatherer settlement.
As a conceptual tool for archaeology, identity is challenging
because it cannot be directly interpreted from material culture
in a simple way. Despite the challenges, identity is an important
tool for understanding past societies. Identity is investigated
here by mapping the occurrence of symbols across landscapes and
considering how these may, or may not, relate to notions of
identity and connections to place. The approach begins with what
is known (contemporary identity and connection), and works
backwards through time and outwards through space towards the
unknown. Identity is a powerful way to link the archaeological
past with the contemporary descendent community.
The process of undertaking a community-based research partnership
is discussed, with critical reflection on the challenges and
successes. An argument is presented for how and why community
input and ownership is critical to the success of archaeological
research into Aboriginal pasts in Australia and abroad.
The results demonstrate the inherent dynamism in Aboriginal
society in southern Western Australia and highlight a historical
legacy to the processes of cultural change underpinning Esperance
Nyungar identity today. Those processes predate the colonial
interruption, and continue into the post-Native Title era. This
leads to a discussion and critique of the Native Title system,
which often neglects to acknowledge the nuanced realities of
Aboriginal societies and the inherent mutability of identity and
connections across time and space. It is argued that the internal
social dynamics of Aboriginal society are an important part of
identity, as people continually negotiate who they are and how
they relate to people and places. This constant process of
identity-making is a fundamental part of Aboriginal culture and
society now and into the distant past.
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Elton, Judith. "Comrades or competition? : union relations with Aboriginal workers in the South Australian and Northern Territory pastoral industries, 1878-1957." 2007. http://arrow.unisa.edu.au:8081/1959.8/45143.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines internal union and external factors affecting union relations with Aboriginal workers in the wool and cattle sectors of the South Australian and Northern Territory pastoral industries, from union formation in the nineteenth century to the cold war period in the 1950s.PhD Doctorate