The impetus for developing this course came from a consultancy agreement with the Northern Territory Department of Education in 1998 to develop a program to address the special needs of teachers in Aboriginal community schools.

In 1989, a Professional Education Program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (PEPA) was established at Murdoch University in Western Australia, to encourage the participation, retention and success of Indigenous Australians in studying for and qualifying as Veterinarians.

The collective aim of many of this Journal's readers is to provide Indigenous Australians with a sound education to allow us (Indigenous Australia) to take a more active role in Australian society. My personal research interest is in business studies, training Indigenous Australians in management and business principles. I continually face the question of am I training my kin in a Western science that is often at the opposite end of the spectrum to Indigenous thought and practice?

The day my class of 10 to 12 year-olds transformed a classroom into a café complete with red gingham tablecloths, travel posters and cooking equipment was the beginning of an exciting, engrossing and most rewarding learning experience.

Whites see us as crows, sitting in the nest with mouths open, waiting for the mother and father crow to come along. Those government fellas pretend to ask, but really tell us. They've had their minds made up all the time (Yanni Lester, cited by H. Penny, 1982).