Working with ATSI people and communities



Entry page For your use Committee Coordinators Workers Growing in understanding History Key Ideas Today Structures Reports FAQ Readings Glossary Practice implications History The Dreaming The Land The Law & The Lore Family and kinship Image and identity Self-determination Practice tips Policy Upper Hunter Acknowledgements Test your knowledge Copyright \| Feedback		For your use: Introduction

		This site is for board and committee members, managers, coordinators, team leaders and workers in human service organisations. People in human services organisations will provide more appropriate services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people if they understand Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's history, cultural and social reality. There are three steps to improving services: improving understanding seeing the implications for service delivery and community development improving your service delivery and community development through changes to practice. This web site can help you with the first two steps: improving understanding and seeing the implications. We wish you well for the third step of changing practice. Your feedback on this site is especially important to us. Improving understanding Important areas to understand are History: do you understand the following phases in Australian history? And the effects on Aboriginal people? The 60,000+ years before the arrival of Europeans Initial invasion and colonisation (1788 to 1890) Protection and segregation (1890s to the 1950s) Assimilation (1940s to the 1960s) Integration, self-determination and self-management (1967 to mid 1990s) Reconciliation (1991 to the end of 2000) Key ideas: Do you understand these key ideas and their implications for Aboriginal people? what is meant by The Dreaming the importance of the Land and the basis for it the legal history - two laws, one land - The Law and The Lore family and kinship structures and expectations how we have made our images of the history and identify of indigenous people what self-determination means. Today's social issues: In your area of work are you aware of today's social reality for ATSI people? Population. Health Housing Education Employment Legal issues and criminal justice system Background information you will find useful includes: Structures Reports Readings FAQ Glossary Practice implications History, cultural and social reality impacts on people. Once we see the history, culture and social reality of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the impacts on them become clear. These impacts in turn have implications for service delivery. This section of the web site makes the implications explicit and provides tips and suggestions for good practice. It also provides suggestions for policy. Changing practice If the web site is useful it will help you change practice to improve service delivery to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Upper Hunter Throughout the website the Upper Hunter region, residents, organisations and Muswellbrook Shire Council have been used to provide examples and personal connections to assist users to see the relevance of the information in a local setting. Every area will have their own version of these stories and discovering them will better place you to provide services to your own community.