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Aboriginal Student Empowerment through the Oorala Aboriginal Centre at the University of New England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Johann le Roux  and
Myra J. Dunn
Johann le Roux
Affiliation:
University of Pretoria, South Africa
Myra J. Dunn
Affiliation:
University of New England, Armidale
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Extract

Our position still seems to me to be a somewhat uncertain one. There is a national ambivalence towards us. Numerically we are not very strong — just 1.6 per cent of the population; 265,000 people as counted at the 1991 Census. It could be said, however, that we get more than our share of this nation's attention. There are good and bad aspects to this. In the popular imagination, there are two basic images of Indigenous Australians: one I would term a ‘cultural’ image, that accepts us for our uniqueness, our ‘Australianness’; the other image is the ramshackle world of poverty, deprivation and hopelessness. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the most disadvantaged group in the country. Whatever social indicator you use — health status, education, employment, contact with the law — we are at the bottom of the heap. This is such a commonplace statement of fact that it is in danger of becoming a piece of empty rhetoric.

These are the views on the current position of Aboriginal disempowerment in Australian society, expressed by Lois O'Donoghue (1995: 5).

Type
Section A: Discussion Papers
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , October 1997 , pp. 7 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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