Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Competence Course

Welcome to the CCCA Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Competence Course.

Component One explores what cultural competence is and why it is important. It helps participants understand why they are doing the course and specifically what capabilities they will develop at the end.

This first component explores how cultural competence benefits a number of key stakeholders and examines some of the barriers to achieving a culturally competent workforce or organisation. The effects of racism , institutional racism and discrimination towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples are explored through personal stories and shared videos.

Component Two introduces the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It provides an overview of population demographics and gives a basic understanding of appropriate terminology, language groups and identity.

Through shared stories this component explores the key issues relating to identity and acknowledges the different perspectives of what identity means to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and how it differs within different communities.

Component Three introduces Aboriginal philosophy, exploring the Dreaming. Specifically it examines the differences between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Western worldviews, and the connection to land.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kinship systems are described, together with examples of the practical implications of kinship systems. Brief overviews are also provided of a variety of aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

Component Four identifies evidence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander occupation of Australia from as early as 60,000 years ago, and details the European ‘discovery’ of Australia and colonisation.

This component provides an insight into the predominant Western (non-Indigenous) worldview at the time of European colonisation of Australia, and how this influenced terra nullius and the initial approaches to dealing with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Specifically it highlights their harsh treatment including dispossession and extermination.

Some case examples of massacres and Aboriginal resistance fighters are included and help illustrate the frontier violence of the period.

Component Five covers the first legislative policies relating to Australia’s First Peoples including the Aborigines Protection Act and provides a background to the protection and segregation period from early colonisation to the 1920’s and how this laid the foundations for the assimilation era and the philosophy of absorption that followed.

Specific examples of restrictions imposed on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples during this era are detailed including the forced removal of Aboriginal peoples from their traditional lands into reserves and missions and the exemption certificate.

This component also examines events that occurred after 1930 during the assimilation era that was characterised by the forcible removal of Aboriginal children from their families, now commonly known as the Stolen Generation.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples resisted these imposed restrictions and sanctions through active resistance and collective action in different states throughout Australia. Component Six highlights examples of resistance during the period of 1938 – 1975.

These include the Day of Mourning and Protest, the Aboriginal Stockmens Strike in Western Australia, the Gurindji Land Rights Strike, the Freedom Rides and the Constitutional Referendum on Aboriginal Rights held in 1967.

Component Seven includes an overview of policy and legislation affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the impacts of those policies from 1973 to 2008. It covers the policies of Self Determination, Self Management and Reconciliation and details how they relate to past and present government policies and why they are important.

Key events are explored including, The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, Land Rights and Native Title, Northern Territory Emergency Response and the Apology.

Component Eight addresses the key developments in Aboriginal Affairs post the Apology and looks at significant events under the respective Gillard, Rudd and Abbott Governments. It examines what has changed for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today and gives an overview of the current situation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in terms of health and wellbeing.

This component provides an overview of Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures, including how these groups were specifically affected by the events of colonisation and subsequent policies targeting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Component Ten explores a number of practical aspects of Aboriginal Cultural Education and provides a useful guide for working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities. It explores common myths and misconceptions and addresses issues such as personal presentation and conduct, communication, roles, responsibilities, obligations, working within the kinship network, and respect for cultural protocols.

This final stage of the course allows you to build on the knowledge you have learned to develop an action plan which you can use and refer to once you have completed the course. This action plan will allow you to create a framework for continual learning and development and to establish positive relationships both inside and outside the workplace.

This action plan will be sent to you as part of the Learners Resource Pack you receive on completion of the course. You will also be required to complete a progress update on the actions you identify in this action plan 2 weeks after you have completed the course.

This activity may be completed by the individual on their own, or in situations where a number of participants completing the course work are in the same region, this activity may be workshopped as a group.